Tampa, Fla. ? Santonio Holmes had just won the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player award, but he wasn’t much into celebrating the moment. At least not in the conventional sense.

Once he got back to his hotel room after the Steelers’ breathtaking 27-23 comeback victory over the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, he hung out with his three kids.

“I just stayed in and relaxed a lot,” he said. “The kids were very excited about watching Madagascar II.”

Make a spectacular catch and keep both feet — or should we say, toes — in bounds and win the Super Bowl one minute, chillax with the kids the next. Cool stuff.

Especially for the 24-year-old Holmes, who has done a lot of growing up in the last few months. Or so we hope.

It was back in late October when Holmes was arrested for marijuana possession in downtown Pittsburgh. He was called into coach Mike Tomlin’s office and told in no uncertain terms that his behavior was unacceptable. Holmes was told he would not play in the following Sunday’s game against the Giants.

“He told me how he’d handle the situation, and at first, I didn’t want to hear that,” Holmes said Monday morning after being presented with the MVP trophy.

Tomlin knew he had to act decisively, and the best way he knew how was to take away what Holmes enjoyed most: playing football.

“I see that he put me in a better situation,” Holmes said, “by getting the distractions away from the team and allowing me to come back the following week and letting it go.”

The Steelers lost the game, but they may have gotten something better out of the deal: a better man.

Tomlin was beaming on Monday when I asked him how important it was to him as a coach that Holmes seemed to straighten himself out.

“That’s the business of coaching,” he said. “When you work the way we work with these players, you’re a life coach in a lot of ways. You care about them. You wear many hats in this business, and I embrace that as much as the X’s and O’s. I probably get more enjoyment out of watching people grow than preparing and winning football games. I believe that’s what we’re all prepared to do.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also was gratified by Holmes’ turnaround. Goodell was in touch with the Steelers in the wake of Holmes’ arrest, and could have interceded had he chosen. But he encourages teams to mete out discipline on their own before matters get to his desk, and he was satisfied with Tomlin’s decision.

Goodell gave Holmes a warm embrace Monday, and confided that Holmes approached him shortly after the commissioner made the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation.

“He grabbed me and hugged me and said, ‘Thanks for believing in me,”‘ Goodell said. “It was a good moment. I’m really proud of him.”

We only hope now that Holmes remains focused on football and doesn’t make more bad decisions. We need only be reminded of another receiver who made the winning catch in last year’s Super Bowl. Plaxico Burress went from Super Bowl hero to Exhibit A of all that can go wrong. Burress now wonders whether he’ll ever play football again because of his actions in an accidental self-shooting in a nightclub incident just a month after Holmes was arrested.

Holmes now gets to enjoy the afterglow that Burress enjoyed last year, complete with a parade down the streets of his team’s city. Burress’ 2008 season ended because of something else that happened in the same city.

Your choice, Santonio.

Don’t blow it.