Sean D. Hamill of The New York Times writes a fascinating feature on Steelers assistant coach John Mitchell, who was the first African-American to play football at the University of Alabama... "John Mitchell, the Steelers’ defensive line coach, will say again and again that he is no hero, no great man and certainly not worthy of mention as a figure of the civil rights era." ...Sean D. Hamill
This is a must read for any football fan...Holly Brubach does an outstanding feature story of the Steelers' Dan Rooney...
Holly Brubach
The Pittsburgh Steelers were involved in Super Bowl XIII which took place 30 years ago at the Orange Bowl in Miami...it marked the first ever rematch of a previous Super Bowl as the Steelers took on the Dallas Cowboys...the two teams met three years earlier in Super Bowl X...and just like the first time, the Steelers won again, but it was a game in which the Cowboys probably should have taken if not for three plays...
The first incident took place late in the third quarter with the Steelers leading 21-14...Dallas drove to the Pittsburgh 10-yard line...on 3rd and 3, Staubach hit a wide open Jackie Smith who droppe
d a sure game tying touchdown (photo)...Dallas had to settle for a Rafael Septien field goal to make it 21-17...
With the score still the same, the second unfortunate incident for Dallas occurred early in the fourth quarter when Terry Bradshaw's pass sailed incomplete to a stumbling Lynn Swann...however, Dallas cornerback Benny Barnes was flagged for pass interference...Barnes argued vehemently that it was incidental contact...replays later confirmed Barnes claim...four plays later, Franco Harris burst straight up the middle for a 22-yard TD to make it 28-17 in favor of Pittsburgh...
The third incident happened on the ensuing kick-off when Steelers kicker Roy Gerela slipped on the kick and shanked the ball straight at Dallas' Randy White...however, White was unable to h
andle the ball because of a cast on his arm...Pittsburgh's Tony Dungy separated the ball from White and Dennis "Dirt" Winston recovered on the Dallas 18-yard line...on the very next play, Bradshaw hit Swann in the back of the endzone to make it 35-17...
Dallas did make a valiant comeback attempt, but fell short 35-31...
Every play matters...and as the Cowboys found out, three very big plays went against them and basically cost them a chance to win Super Bowl XIII...
This week Stiles Points is going to look back at the anniversaries of some of the past Super Bowls...today's spotlight occurred 40 years ago in Super Bowl III when Joe Namath (photo - right) guaranteed his New York Jets would beat the mighty Baltimore Colts even though they were an 18-point underdog...
Super Bowl III took place on January 13, 1969 in front of 75,389 people at the Orange 
Bowl in Miami...this was a game in which the AFL needed to win because the NFL may have pulled out of the merger...in the previous two championship games, the Green Bay Packers smashed their AFL competition...a third straight win by the NFL would have been disastrous for the AFL...the Colts entered the game with a 13-1 mark and a thrashing of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL title game by the score of 34-0....
As we all know, the Jets won the game 16-7, but there was always a hint of controversy about the game...while I was in college, I took a class called The History of Sports...my professor seriously believed the game was fixed because of questionable decision-making by the Colts...
Personally, I don't believe the game was fixed, but the Jets were just a very fortunate team as the ball bounced their way that day...the biggest and most controversial play of the game occurred right before half with the Jets leading 7-0...on the last play of the half, the Colts had the ball and quarterback Earl Morrall threw an interception down the middle of the field instead of throwing to a wide-open Jimmy Orr (photo, top of page) ...there was not a defender within 20 yards of Orr...but somehow, Morrall missed the certain touchdown...what builds the case for the conspiracy theory is that in fact, the pass was intended to be thrown to Orr in the first place...
Conspiracy?...Fix?...or just plain knucklehead playing?...in the end, the Jets won and the history of the NFL was forever changed - 40 years ago...
Rush Limbaugh had people turning off his radio program after the comment that he hopes the new President Barack Obama fails along with his policies to help America.
“I want to see him fail,” said Limbaugh, a former drug addict who would rather see hard working Americans lose their jobs, their homes and stand in soup lines than see a biracial Democratic President succeed in helping the country recover.
This is why there should not be any political parties in this country. Too often, Republicans want to see Democrats fail in order to get into power and the Democrats want to see Republicans fail in order to get into power.
Just as when former president George W. Bush started the surge in Iraq, there is no doubt that some Democrats wanted to see it fail this way it was another hit on the Republican president.
Rush Limbaugh is an asshole. And so is anyone else who wants to see any American President fail just because he (or she one day) is not from the party you support.
Twenty years ago Joe Montana made history in Super Bowl XXIII at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami...Montana and teammate Jerry Rice put together one of the greatest Super Bowl final drives in history as San Francisco beat Cincinnati 20-16 in what was Bill Walsh's last game as head coach of 49ers...
ke the tension by pointing out the late comedian John Candy in the stands to his teammates...
The Pittsburgh Steelers were involved in Super Bowl XIII which took place 30 years ago at the Orange Bowl in Miami...it marked the first ever rematch of a previous Super Bowl as the Steelers took on the Dallas Cowboys...the two teams met three years earlier in Super Bowl X...and just like the first time, the Steelers won again, but it was a game in which the Cowboys probably should have taken if not for three plays...
d a sure game tying touchdown (photo)...Dallas had to settle for a Rafael Septien field goal to make it 21-17...
andle the ball because of a cast on his arm...Pittsburgh's Tony Dungy separated the ball from White and Dennis "Dirt" Winston recovered on the Dallas 18-yard line...on the very next play, Bradshaw hit Swann in the back of the endzone to make it 35-17...
This week Stiles Points is going to look back at the anniversaries of some of the past Super Bowls...today's spotlight occurred 40 years ago in Super Bowl III when Joe Namath (photo - right) guaranteed his New York Jets would beat the mighty Baltimore Colts even though they were an 18-point underdog...
Bowl in Miami...this was a game in which the AFL needed to win because the NFL may have pulled out of the merger...in the previous two championship games, the Green Bay Packers smashed their AFL competition...a third straight win by the NFL would have been disastrous for the AFL...the Colts entered the game with a 13-1 mark and a thrashing of the Cleveland Browns in the NFL title game by the score of 34-0....
