TEMPE, Ariz. " It's been a long season for Tim Hightower, and it's not over.
Hightower started out as a fifth-round draft pick trying to crack the Arizona Cardinals' roster as a fifth-round pick out of Richmond.
Then he replaced Edgerrin James as the starting running back before fading down the stretch.
After losing his job to James in the playoffs, Hightower came up with three of the biggest plays in Arizona's NFC championship victory over Philadelphia, which put the once-woeful Cardinals in the Super Bowl for the first time.
"It has been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of twists and turns and a lot of things unexpected," Hightower said after practice this week. "We've been through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows this year, personally and as a team."
Hightower has been too absorbed preparing to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl to reflect on the season. But he said he appreciates the journey to this point.
"Who would have imagined a year ago I'd be in this situation, having a chance to play in such big games, and then making plays in these big games?" he said. "I never predicted it. I never knew that's how it would turn out, but I'm fortunate for it, and when the season's over I'll have time to sit down and reflect and appreciate all of it."
Coach Ken Whisenhunt, himself a 12th-round draft pick, was impressed with Hightower's work ethic from the moment the 6-foot, 224-pound running back showed up in Flagstaff for training camp. So Whisenhunt didn't hesitate to put the rookie into the starting lineup when James faltered.
"He had to earn it," Whisenhunt said. "That was the reason we were so excited about Tim. That's the reason why the change to Tim happened later in the season. He had to come in and show us that he could do that, and he did a nice job of that."
But Hightower slipped into the background down the stretch. He rushed for a total of 40 yards on 18 carries in the last three weeks, and by the time the playoffs began James had reclaimed his starting spot.
In a reserve role, Hightower ran for a score in the playoff opener against Atlanta, then rushed for 76 yards and caught a touchdown pass in the second-round victory over Carolina.
Then came the NFC championship, when Hightower etched his name in Cardinals history.
He made three of the biggest plays in the 14-play, 72-yard march that produced the decisive score in Arizona's 32-25 victory over the Eagles last Sunday.
Hightower had picked up only a yard on third-and-2 near midfield, but the Cardinals gave him another shot on fourth-and-1.
Hightower said the play was designed for him to follow fullback Terrelle Smith into the line, but Hightower decided at the last second to pop outside, and he picked up six yards.
Had Hightower been stopped short of the first down, the Eagles would have had the ball and the lead with about 8 minutes to play. Instead, the chains kept moving.
"It's a thing where you kind of make a read and you kind of take a chance," he said. "Any time it's third- or fourth-and-1, you really don't want to run laterally along the line of scrimmage. You want to get north and south as fast as you can, but sometimes you have to take a risk, and that's what I did, and fortunately it worked out for the good."
Hightower came through again on third-and-1 at the Eagles' 14, gaining five yards.
Three plays later, on third-and-goal at the Philadelphia 8, Hightower caught a short pass from Kurt Warner, turned and dashed into the end zone.
Many expected the Cardinals to throw the ball to star receiver Larry Fitzgerald. But he turned out to be a decoy on that play.
"I don't think anyone expected it," Hightower said. "It was another of those plays that when they called, I knew it was going to work.
"I knew if they put the ball in my hands, I was going to find a way," Hightower said. "I don't care what I had to do. It was one of those things, if they put the ball in your hands, find a way to get in. The whole team's counting on you, the whole city's counting on you."
In some ways, the final drive symbolized Hightower's rookie year.
"Coming from my situation " a smaller school, Richmond, all the odds against me " you dream for a moment like that when you're training in the offseason, when you're running those sprints and you're doing all those things, you almost dream for a moment like that," Hightower said. "When he called my number on those last couple plays, it was almost a dream come true. I knew that, someway, somehow, I was going to make it work."