ARLINGTON, Texas

The Green Bay Packers might have lost more than two-dozen players during a season in which they always were expected to be super.

They might have lost two more, and two of their most senior playmakers at that, Sunday night on the biggest stage of all.

But what they never lost was their resilience, their poise and their remarkable adaptability to make a National Football League championship team out of bailing wire, duct tape, a whole lot of talent and even more character.

And now the Vince Lombardi Trophy is coming home, back where it belongs.

For the fourth time in their distinguished history, the Packers are Super Bowl champions. They won the 45th edition by doing to the Steelers exactly what they had done in 13 other games, including the first three in the playoffs, on the way to becoming the first sixth-seeded NFC team to win everything that the great Lombardi symbolizes.

They persevered and they overcame on the way to a 31-25 victory against the Steelers in a Super Bowl classic between two classic franchises.

They got through game-ending injuries to Charles Woodson, one of two Packers with Super Bowl experience, and Donald Driver. Between them, Woodson and Driver had 25 years of NFL service time, one season for every guy on the Steelers roster who had gone through all the physical and mental necessities to win football's ultimate championship.

"It's been an unbelievable journey for this team all season long," said Woodson, who was lost to injury in the first half. "Driver goes down. I go down. Just like all season, and somebody stepped up.

"That's what this Green Bay Packers team is all about. For all of us who get to walk the halls every day at Lambeau, we're on the wall with the greats."

It was the Packers who stood up Sunday under the brightest, most revealing spotlight available in the football universe. They forced the Steelers, who had won two Super Bowl titles in the past five years, into three turnovers and extracted 21 points from an opponent that had far more familiarity with these garish and distracting surroundings. By intercepting Ben Roethlisberger twice and denying the comeback master on his final possession, they brought down the Steelers quarterback where his character flaws could not.

Instead, it was Aaron Rodgers taking the Packers 70 yards on their final drive to secure the franchise's 13th world title and first Super Bowl championship in 14 years.

It was Rodgers assuming the kneel-down position just before the confetti flew. And it was Rodgers accepting a genuine championship belt from teammate Clay Matthews after pantomiming the strap-on move in Chicago after the NFC championship was won.

And it was Rodgers accepting the keys to a 426-horsepower red convertible and the most valuable player award for Super Bowl XLV. It was only fitting that Bart Starr, MVP of Super Bowl I and II, stood and applauded his successor from a private box in Cowboys Stadium.

Rodgers' 31-yard strike to Greg Jennings on third-and-10 with less than six minutes left earned a permanent niche in the Packers hall of distinction.

"This is a great group of men with unbelievable character," Rodgers said. "It's great to share it with them."

It might not have been the greatest of all the Packers championships, but it will certainly stand the test of history as one of the most satisfying in nearly a century of professional football in the NFL's smallest city.

And it was not the ideal Super Bowl performance. The Packers had to overcome all manner of dropped passes and untimely penalties to avoid becoming the equivalent of Christina Aguilera, who mishandled the national anthem. No Super Bowl team had blown more than a 10-point lead, and the Packers came perilously close to wasting a 21-3 advantage.

But there is something endearing about the way the Packers mastered their flaws this season in spite of it all, especially in the moment that mattered most.

You could see it in the tearing eyes of Packers coach Mike McCarthy, a kid from Greenfield who held it all together on top of beating his second-favorite football team.

"Awesome," McCarthy said. "We just kept battling. We put everything on Aaron's shoulders. He did a lot at the line of scrimmage for us against a great defense. He did a hell of a job."

You could also see it in the emotional reaction of general manager Ted Thompson, who put together such a resilient team and had the foresight and courage to put all of his chips on Rodgers three years ago when Brett Favre was still serviceable.

"We knew it was going to be this way," said defensive end Ryan Pickett, who, along with Woodson, was one of the primary free agents signed by Thompson for this championship ride. "We knew it was going to be a dogfight the whole time. We just had to weather the storm.

"We're bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay, baby. That's what it means. That's World Champs."

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.