General Motors has very quietly awarded Santonio Holmes of the Pittsburgh Steelers a new Cadillac for being named Super Bowl MVP.
Cadillac has for eight years given the game's most valuable player the car of his choice, and Holmes went all out, picking a 2009 Escalade Platinum Hybrid with a sticker price of $85,200.
The Steelers wide receiver is the sixth MVP to pick an Escalade, but in a stark contrast with past years, it went unmentioned during the post-game festivities and news conference. According to the New York Daily News, Cadillac didn't want the attention.
This is the first year Cadillac has offered the Platinum version of the Escalade hybrid, and production is slated to begin at GM's plant in Arlington, TX, within weeks, Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell told Edmund's.com.
In the past, Cadillac would drive a car onto the field after the game or park one in the hotel ballroom for the next day's MVP news conference. This year Cadillac "put fans in the driver seat" and had them vote for an MVP, but the General elected not to be seen giving away one of its most expensive vehicles after begging the government for $10 million billion in loans to keep it afloat.
"We made the decision not to actively participate in the Super Bowl," Cadillac spokeswoman Joanne Krell told the Daily News. "We congratulate the MVP; it is a great achievement. [But] we are very sensitive to the federal assistance loan we have received, and we want to carry on our fiduciary responsibility. The Super Bowl was not a place for us this year."
POST UPDATED 5 a.m. PDT
Photo: General Motors.
