Reporters have repeatedly been asking about his shouting match with Haley, which occurred after he was removed during the team's game-winning drive in the NFC championship game. Boldin, who had been nursing a hamstring injury, then stormed off the field at the end of the game when the rest of his teammates celebrated a trip to the Super Bowl.
"I am a competitor," Boldin said. "It was truly about being in that game and that drive of that magnitude."
A reporter asked Boldin yesterday how he would handle being on the sideline in the Super Bowl if the Cardinals faced third down in the red zone and trailed by six points.
"In this game?" Boldin said with a high-pitched voice. "I don't think that's going to happen."
Rod Woodson, an NFL Network commentator and former Ravens defensive back, said the matter has been blown out of proportion.
"He's a competitor and wants to play," Woodson said. "That doesn't make it right, wrong or indifferent. But on a yearly basis, coaches and players get into some heated conversations on the sideline. Unfortunately for Q, he got it caught on tape."
Boldin has overcome tougher confrontations.
Earlier this season, he was sidelined only three weeks after a crunching collision that caused multiple facial fractures, a concussion and a displaced jaw. It occurred when Boldin leaped for an end-zone pass in a blowout loss.
Having seven titanium plates and more than 40 screws inserted in his surgically reconstructed face, Boldin caught nine passes for 63 yards and two touchdowns in his first game back.
"He's a kind of guy that I'm proud is in our locker room," Graves said. "It would be my belief that he would like to continue here in Arizona."
But Boldin said his only focus is going against the NFL's top-ranked defense and winning the Super Bowl.
"If you worry about too much of the future, you miss the moment right now," Boldin said. "That is something that I don't want to do."
STEELERS (14-4) VS. CARDINALS (12-7)
Sunday, 6:30 p.m.
TV: Chs. 11, 4
Radio: 1090 AM
Line: Steelers by 7
