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August 12, 2020 41 mins

This may have been the best AFC Championship game of the past 30 years. In 1996, the solid-but-unspectacular Colts nearly upset the Steelers in a game that had it all: Controversial officiating, unlikely heroes (Willie Williams? Ernie Mills?), and a last-gasp play that stopped hearts across the NFL. We spotlight players like budding superstar Kordell Stewart and Captain Comeback Jim Harbaugh. Oh, and the drama for the Colts was just beginning after the loss.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio

(00:20):
Greetings and Welcome Inside Special Teams with Jason Smith and
Mike Harmon, a weekly podcast where we look back at
some special teams in sports history and specific years where
they really stood out. And we've had a big run
the past few weeks of looking back at some very
big games in both NFL and Major League Baseball history,
and we got a big NFL one to get to today,

(00:41):
one of the best conference championship games of all time,
the n a f C title game for the season
between the Steelers and the Colts. The Colts were the
upstart nine and seven team that well nobody really thought
was gonna go into Pittsburgh win this football game. But
Jim Harbaugh back then Captain Comeback, not the Super Bowl

(01:04):
coach of the fort and underachieving Michigan football coach. No,
he was captain in the mid nineties, and the Colts
almost pulled it off. It was a dropped hail Mary
away from the Colts going to the Super Bowl. Well,
the fact that he was still upright to be able
to have that last second heath, it's pretty amazing because
they didn't hit him eleven times before the end of

(01:26):
the first year. It was. It was a game. I
think hardball is still feeling some of these hits from
Yeah No, I mean by halftime it's like you're walking
gingerly hands getting shagged, all of those kind of things.
But he just kept coming back for more. I mean
that was one of the things as a player and
part of the reputation as a coach, right of a

(01:46):
guy that all right, we've got to figure out another way.
We've got to come up with another plan. Let's just
keep you know, evolving, and just you know, keep moving forward,
like Rocky said so brilliantly all those years ago, and
that the story of you know, Jim Harbaw's NFL career
never dominant, couple of big years for the Bears, you know,

(02:07):
in the early nineties, teaming up with Neil Anderson. I
got Neil Anderson, Yeah, because you get Let's skip over
that Monday night game against the Jets. I still can't
talk about it, Cat Bozzo game. I can't. I can't,
I can't. I can't think about it. I can't. It's
not your fault. But look, this Colts team, and like

(02:27):
I said, they were nine and seven and this was
what a nine and seven football team looks like. A right,
They don't have a lot of stars, they're not great,
but they're solid enough on both sides of the football
where they made enough plays. And this was the Indianapolis Cults.
They were coming off an eight and eight season, which
at this point for the Colts was their best record
in a decade. Because the Colts had stunk all right

(02:49):
before they got Peyton Manning. They had stunk. They had
a couple of years with Eric Dickerson and then it
was a vast waste land until you get to the
season they go nine and seven. How do they go
nine and seven? Well? Jim Harbaugh Captain Comeback. He was
the NFL Comeback Player of the Year, which didn't really
come into his nickname. He was nicknamed Captain Comeback because
Indianapolis pulled out a lot of games at the end

(03:12):
to qualify for the playoffs. And I remember going in
thinking how fraudulent the Colts were. You know, Jim Harball
was never great. He was a smart and solid quarterback.
Look was his best season as a quarterback. He threw
seventeen touchdowns, he only threw five picks. His quarterback rating
led the NFL had a hundred points seven. But this
is what he wasn't explosive, he was someone. He was

(03:34):
a game manager, and he made just enough plays and
the Colts were able to go nine and seven. Now,
the one big star on the team was Marshall Falk,
who was on his way to becoming a star, but
he missed the a f C Championship game with a
toe injury, and this game one would have ended differently
if he was healthy because of how the game ended,

(03:55):
which we'll get to coming up in a bit. This
was a Colts team that had overcome the odds. No
matter who was her, they found a way to win games.
They had three fourth quarter comebacks, hardball at four game
winning drives, you know. For the little engine that could,
that was the Colts. They were about as fun as
they could be. But still I never really took them seriously. Now,
one three game winning streak in this season, I mean,

(04:17):
that's that's it, and you find yourself playing in in
a title game very rare. I guess the Giants would
be the only team I think we'd be looking at
for things of that nature. I mean, that's Week five,
six and seven. Coming out of the by they beat
the Rams, the Dolphins, and the Forts. Otherwise it was
lost win loss, loss, win, loss, and all the way through,

(04:39):
never really finding any semblance of continuity. But it's funny
you referenced Eric Dickerson your reference, Marshall Falk two guys
nobody would ever associate with this team at first blush No,
but you forget that he had a couple of years
and he was gonna be a superstar, and then he
goes to the Rams and he becomes an absolute super duperstar.
But Colts had a chance. I this turned out to

(05:01):
be the year for them, you know, before they wind
up getting Peyton Manning. But you know, they they had
really built a pretty decent team, but things happened look
ted Marcia Broda, who was the head coach. You thought
he was gonna be there for a long time. He
finally built them into a winner. He was gone not
too long after that. Again, I don't want to get
ahead of ourselves on this podcast. Of course, there was
just where we played the Eric Dickerson rant on behalf

(05:24):
of the Rams that got Jeff Fisher fires when he
talked to us on Fox Sports Rainy. Let's just say
there was a lot of stuff going on with the
Colts that you're going to find out over the course
of this podcast, but you know, for the intense and
purposes of the game, here they are coming in and
still the Steelers, they were the overwhelming favorite. Look, they're
coming off losing the a f C championship game at

(05:46):
home the year before to the Chargers who went to
the Super Bowl. Was the Alpapoono game, Uh the Charges
tight end to his uncovered he scored a big touchdown
to win the game. And it was, oh my god,
Alpapoona was wide open. I still remember the Bob Trump
he call on it when Stan hum Priests faded back
to pass and you hear Bob Trump he say, al
Papooda was wide open. And there he is down the sideline.
Nobody's near him. It's like he came off the sideline

(06:09):
like he wasn't really out there. It's like, how do
the Steelers leading, like he was walking back to the
sidelines made it or something like he scores the touchdown,
they have a fourth down stop to stop Neil O'donnald
and the Steelers and it was here's another home game
the Steelers have for the a f C Championship game
and they couldn't win. So they're coming off this loss

(06:30):
and they start slow in But they won the a
f C Central by four games back when it was
a f C Central over Cincinnati in Houston. This is
when Pittsburgh was pretty much top notch in the regular
season every year, but they still wind up under achieving.
Like I mentioned the a f C championship games, they
had the a f C Title game at home five
times between two thousand and four, right, so a ten

(06:53):
year run. They had the a f C Title game
at home five times. They won one of those games
that was this year. They won one, usually by accident.
At home playing the AMC title game, you win at
least two. If you win three. If you go three
and two, it's still a little bit disappointing, but at least, okay,
you won three times. You have that game at home
five times and you won one, and and that's that's

(07:16):
shocking to see a team of the Steelers that were
so good during the season find a way to give
games away and lose at home when it's one game
from the Super Bowl. I haven't read any memoirs by
Bill Kauer, but I'm guessing those are not looked at
very fondly. I think he started I think he starts
his biography with the year they beat the Seahawks to
win the Super Bowl. I think that's what he starts with.
We're gonna start with that. So Neil O'Donnell still the quarterback.

(07:39):
They struggle a little bit at running back. This is
Bam Morris and Eric P. Grimm. And you know, this
is a Steelers team that does just enough offensively, but
defense is what carried them. And you look at their
linebacking corps and it's just superstar after superstar. This is
Chad Brown, Jason Gilden, Kevin Green, Levon Kirkland, Greg Lloyd.

(07:59):
I mean, this is one of the most loaded linebacking
corps you've ever seen. And the Steelers defense was, of
course that good, but you look at these lots. I mean,
you could you could take guys that could have a
tough time getting on the field and they would be
superstars for other teams. It was just they were just
that loaded on defense. But especially a linebacker. Yeah, top
ranked all the way through. You know, you've got Hall

(08:20):
of famers and guys that have had some consideration mixed
they're in. Uh some big sack totals talked about the
pressures on a horball in this game. I mean, that
was the calling card. Let's just beat you up. I mean,
there was a street fight watching these guys just obliterate quarterbacks.
I mean, and and just like a little bit of
a different era. I was looking and watching some of

(08:41):
the offensive reps. They all look like they were linebackers
running off the tight ends right there. And then it's
not the lean, lanky past receiving tight ends anymore. So
you've got that mixed therein on your on your offensive side,
you've gotta be able to block. But you know, just
go through the who's who on defense and and stars throughout.
I mean, that black and Blue division of the the

(09:05):
a f C was well what it was. Still remains
that to this day in a lot of ways. So well,
the defense was that good, How did the offense find
a way to put points on the board? Well with
the pedestrian running game they had with Ben Morris and
Eric Pegram. This was the year they drafted Cordell Stewart
in the second round quarterback out of Colorado, who turned

(09:25):
out to be the Steelers quarterback of the future went
out to be an All Pro player. He was fantastic.
Turnovers really limited him as far as becoming a superstar
in the NFL, and I thought maybe with a little
more sophisticated tutelage and spending more time on the offensive
side of the ball and developing him, he would have
been an absolute stud for a decade. But it didn't

(09:47):
work out. But still, he was so exciting. He made
so many plays. But before that, he would came into
the league as a wide receiver. The Stealers decided, we're
going to turn him into a weapon and see how
things go. And right away, not many players can say
I was a quarterback in college, I'm gonna go be
a great wide receiver. And Juan Boldin is the guy
that comes to mind as good as he was. But

(10:08):
Cordell Steward came in slash and he was the difference
in the Steeler's offense. He was excitement when they put
him in. He was somebody that when you saw him
in the game, the defense had to account for him
because he can make plays running the football, catching the pass.
He was fantastic. The Steelers found a great role for
him right away. And he was the difference in this
offense from this point on, always exciting to watch play

(10:30):
back when Colorado throw the ball a country mile uh.
And when we get to the pros right, obviously he
becomes offensive weapon, the first of two that the Steelers
would have because they eventually bring in Antoine Randall, l
college quarterback in Indiana, same kind of role. Let's do
some kick returns, let's get you the ball on the
end around, and let's throw you some passes and try

(10:52):
to convert your fully to wide receiver. With Stewart, it
was the all right, we want to get you on
the field. We've got O'Donnell, but we gotta get you
on field somehow. So here's some carries, here's some receptions,
throw some passes now and again, uh, and try to
work work into the system. But a guy that you know,
sadly I think ahead of his timeses are you know,

(11:16):
where offenses are now and the creativity you know when
he comes into the league back in that's not the
m O of a coach. It's like, all right, we'll
use what he can do, but within our system. And
if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. But they certainly
gave it a long time to try to figure it out.
Right now, Oh no, it's not like he didn't get
a chance. It was just it was would you have

(11:38):
been drafted earlier, and if you're drafted earlier, you're given
the job earlier, and they have more invested in you,
so they would put more resources around you. I mean,
this was he was kind of like found money for
the stealers that we got in the second round. We
thought it was gonna be a quarterback events or gonna
be a wide receiver. But eventually we saw good he was.
We turned him into a quarterback, and and it was

(11:59):
it wasn't where you would normally get a team saying
this is our guy, let's put everything around him to succeed.
And I just don't feel like the Steelers ever really
did that for him. Yeah, we go back to two
thousand one was where he really you know, from a
record perspective and you know, operational efficiencies. That's where he

(12:19):
found his mark completion rate thirteen and three and over
thirty yards. Right still the high on the turnover rate,
which which comes back to bite you, but it wasn't
enough to to take down, you know, winning football games
at least to that rate. But now you're already talking

(12:40):
at about eight years in the league to where Now
now you've got to get to the next decision point,
and you're just a couple of years away from Ben
Roethlisberger coming to town. Well, it took him a little
bit to make his Markers quarterback, but Cordell Steward made
his mark on the a f C Championship Game. In
so many ways we have read for freeing gaffs. We

(13:01):
have unlikely heroes saving the season for the Pittsburgh Steelers
and a Hail Mary that was this close to winning
the game. All that more as we get to the
a f C title game between the Steelers and the Colts.
Right here, Jason Smith and Mike Army as the a

(13:36):
f C Championship Game got underway, in the words of
Marv Albert, not exactly what the Steelers had in mind.
Neil O'donnald's first pass, the game is picked off, the
Colts turned into a field goal. Pittsburgh ties it up.
Norm Johnson kicks a field goal after Cordell Stewart drops
a touchdown pass. There was no pass interference called. He
got hit early on the play, so instead of a touchdown.

(13:58):
It's three three going to the second quarter. It was
it really is, how do you miss that? Like, how
do you miss this? It's insane that you would miss it.
But they did, and uh, had the game turned out differently,
oh boy, Steelers would have been talking about this play
for a long time. In the second quarter, Stewart turns
into a demon. He runs three straight times for a

(14:20):
first down on third downs, he catches a five yard
touchdown to give Pittsburgh a ten six halftime lead, even
though he stepped out of bounds before the catch. You
can watch this play. He's running along the back of
the end zone and he just steps out of bounds.
And the thing is, he goes right by the official,
the official standing right there Corteal. Stewart runs right by

(14:40):
an out of bounds, catches the ball, the officials not
even looking. This not one of those games that the
NFL would say, Oh, you want to see an example
of great officiating in the NFL, let me burn the
tape of this game and give you something else, because
you've already had and this is very early in the game.
Two big plays that the officials missed. In theory, you
could say l at zero sum. You took a touchdown away,

(15:02):
but you added one year. But still, these are plays
you gotta make the These are calls you have to
have Stewart stepped out of bounds, but it doesn't matter.
He catches the touchdown and they go to halftime with
the lead. There was no replay obviously, so they couldn't
go back and look at these calls. And if there was,
boy would NFL history be different. But to try to
put Cordell Stewart into perspective, because really, he was so

(15:24):
dominant in this second quarter. Your eye looks where is
he on the screen every single play? If he had
this role, now, forget about being a quarterback for a second,
but if Cordel Stewart was what he was now, he
would be a better Taysom Hill. Right. All the all
the credit that Taysom Hill gets for playing these different
roles with the New Orleans Saints, and the money he
got for being this offensive weapon scoring touchdowns, this is

(15:47):
nothing compared to the player Cordell Stewart was. That's where
Cordell would be right now if he was playing this
role and not being a quarterback. I've been grudged, No man,
his money. I don't get into wallets. When that contract
was signed with Taysom Hill, you and I were on
air and looked at each other went uh, based on
the number of passes thrown. I mean, and look, I'm
not in the practice bubble. I don't know you know

(16:09):
what they're seeing and expecting going forward. But we certainly
had seen the evolution of Cordell Stewart in college and
and saw what a playmaker he was here that it
was just a matter of time before he was going
to be the starter and have that role for some
time to come. So you know, just a question of
how often did you get him on the field and

(16:31):
keep the balance in the locker room right because and
then you don't want the squabble going on with Neil
O'Donnell because you still needed him to help guide the ship.
This game gets to halftime and as it settles in,
this had the feel of a knockdown, drag out brawl,
and he knew whoever was gonna win was gonna make

(16:52):
one more play than the other team. I mean that
that's how this was. The Colts are showing, Hey, we're
for real, We're here. Yes, we're losing at halftime, but
you're not up by two touchdowns. It was like a
rocky fight, you know. It was. It was every every
play was breathless, every every play was hard hitting. It
was you were fighting for every yard in this game.

(17:15):
It was the scrappy Cults and the physical Steelers and
and you do this wasn't gonna be a game where
one of the teams ran away and hit and the
Steelers were gonna do it. It was gonna come down
to one who was gonna make that one more play.
And in the third quarter there was more evidence of
it the team's trade field goals. So you go to
the fourth quarter feeling so tense and even watching this

(17:35):
game on replay like we do when when we go
back and do these podcasts, I had that feeling here
like oh this one play, Oh wow, oh what a hit?
Oh want to play there? And it was it was
every single down you know, gave you that. You could
feel it through the television. Yeah, and grind it out
type of game. And again it's it's old school NFL, right,

(17:57):
so you know you always have to remind yourself. I'm
going back in the way back machine some twenty five years,
which is really kind of frightening to say, but it's
just the idea of the NFL has changed so dramatically
in terms of how games are called and played and
the wide open offenses that we have here. And if

(18:17):
you want to watch this thing with full sound up,
you're treated to the vast array of grunts, groans, and
big hits that became so popular with all those video
series that you used to buy the DVDs of Uh.
For the NFL that was the Steelers. They might as
well just put up all right, we're just gonna roll
their defensive stuff together and sell it because because that's

(18:39):
that's really where it went to. But yeah, this is
UH what they referred to as a slobver knocker, right,
this is the the old gym Ross or or Keith Jackson,
UH terminology of you know, you're just gonna get your
three yards in a clouded dust and you're gonna fight.
You mean, you did the whole al Pacino thing, you

(19:00):
just didn't do it in al Pacino's voice fingernails. And
that's really what this came down to. I mean, it's
one of the classics. Because it's not high scoring, it
kind of gets pushed down the list, right, if it
was a thirty eight thirty five games and wow, look
at this, It's like no, no, it can be really
good and be defensively owned and operated. Oh, for my money,

(19:23):
I don't know that this isn't my favorite a f
C title game in the past thirty years. Like you said,
just because it's twenty to sixteen was the final score.
Sorry spoiler alert, it doesn't mean it wasn't a great game.
And the twists and turns were just coming because we're
getting to the fourth quarter with a thirteen nine Steelers lead,
and this is when there's so many individual plays where

(19:43):
you go, oh, if only this play hadn't happened, Oh
if only this play hadn't happened, And it builds to
the huge crescendo and the Hail Mary at the end.
I don't know. This may be my favorite a f
C title game in the past thirty years. Thank Oh,
that's that's a lofty tail. I mean we you haven't
had a lot of Jets appearances, and certainly on the
NFC side, not a lot from my beloved Chicago Bears.

(20:05):
We'll tell you this every time we're in the ANC
Championship game. We lost, So I can't have a I
can't have a very favorite ANFC title game with the
Jets because we don't want to. But you at least
got there. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So in the
fourth quarter, finally Jim Harbaugh strikes a forty seven yard
touchdown past the Floyd Turner gives the Colts a sixteen
thirteen lead. They tempt fate later on in the quarter

(20:29):
when an offensive lineman recovers Lamont Warren fumble in mid air.
You know, the ball pops out, it's oh my goodness,
and the Colts recover it in mid air. It was
right at that point, I thought, there's no way Neil
o'donnalll is gonna lead Pittsburgh to a touchdown to win
this game. There's just no way. It's not happening. I'm
gonna watch Pittsburgh los at home again. The Colts are
gonna be the underachieving team that I still don't believe in,

(20:50):
but they're going to the Super Bowl. That I thought.
There was no way the Steelers were gonna do it.
They hadn't had anything going on offensively. The Colts were
playing great defense of Lee and they got that big break,
and you thought that play that was what the Steelers needed.
Warren fumbles, the ball pops up in the air. This
is where a team recovers, It goes and scores and
goes to the super Bowl. When you miss a chance

(21:11):
like that, you think that was it, that was their chance.
But instead the Steelers had two more unlikely heroes save
their season. So with three minutes left, Pittsburgh is on
defense and the Colts have the ball, and it's third
and one. A first down pretty much salts the game
away for the Indianapolis Colts. Now, remember they don't have

(21:31):
Marshall Falk in this game, and they didn't really run
very well in this game overall. In fact, you look
at what they did on the ground. Lamont Warren ran
for fifty three yards. Harbor ran for twenty nine yards.
Dad was about it. That's it. I mean. So it's
not like they really ran the football. Well, Harbor had
a couple of scrambles, but it's not like they could
really control the line of scrimmage. But this was the

(21:53):
kind of game it was. The Steelers defense is great
as well, but when you put a talented guy like
Marshall Falk out there, is he running the football all
better than Lamont Warren. Sure does he get one yard
here on third and one? Yeah, but Willie Williams saves
Pittsburgh season. It's a third and one plane. It's kind
of a slow developing play out of the backfield. Warren

(22:13):
has a gaping hole through the left side, a gaping
all He's gonna run for at least fifteen yards. But
Williams comes all the way up to the line at
defensive back blitzes, goes in untouched and trips up Warren
at the line of scrimmage from behind. The hole was huge,
I mean it was. It's like, I gotta stop. It's
like a garage. There's no way this hole is this big.

(22:35):
But Williams trips up Warren from behind, and the Colts
have to punt when this would have been near midfield,
and you're you're saying, Okay, this might be it. This
place saved the Steelers season. I still can't believe he
got through and was able to get a hand on
Warren and trip him up in the backfield. So the
Colts have to punt, and this is the Steeler's last chance.
And this is where another unlikely hero steps up to

(22:57):
save the Steelers. Season and the ensuing drive, Quentin kore
At looks like he's got to pick six and he's
going the other way for a touchdown, but he drops
it and it's, oh my goodness, he drops it always
right in his hands. It was a horrible throw by
Nilo o'donald, because Nil o'donald really wasn't that great. But
it's a horrible throw by Niolo o'donald. But you can
see Ernie Mills, Pittsburgh wide receiver who caught three balls

(23:21):
for fifty two yards in this game, including one in
a couple of plays from now, gets his hand in
and swats at it to knock it down. The game
is over, I mean the game is over at this point.
But he gets a hand in to break up the
play and to swat it and knock it down. O'Donnell,
with a second life, goes on to convert a fourth
and three with a fifteen yard passed to Andre Hastings

(23:43):
and he throws it between three defenders. It's like, wow,
he throws it down. They need three yards. He's throwing
the ball fifteen yards down field. The next play is
a thirty seven yard completion to Ernie Mills who somehow
stays in bounds, but the ball comes out when he
hits the ground. Doesn't matter, It's ruled a completion. It
would be much different when oh, you fall to the ground,

(24:04):
the ball pops out, but back then no replay. He catches,
the ball, falls, hits the ground, still rule a completion.
The Steelers have all kinds of life bad. Morris goes
in for a touchdown run and that gives Pittsburgh the lead.
But it's two unheralded players. Of all the stars the
Steelers had defensively, it's Ernie Mills and Willie Williams who

(24:25):
saved the Stealers season. I'll tell you what, that Coreyotte
drop that's about as bad as he cats. And there
were a couple of them in this game, so don't
get me wrong, but like this one is what your
eyes just get wide thinking how you're gonna Cadillac to
the end zone and Mills just gets a hand there.
He just gets a hand there. You know, if if

(24:46):
he concentrates on catching the ball, he catches it. But
it's hard because players see it. I'm catching, I'm going
to the end zone. But if he concentrates on making
that play, I don't know Ernie Mills breaks up the
play because he comes in with he doesn't come in
and rip the ball out. He kind of comes in
with a soft hand and and just you know, gets
his hand in the way and knocks the ball up
and out. But if he if he uses his body

(25:07):
and and concentrates on catching the ball, it's a different outcome.
It is so much to me the perspective for at
least the old football video games, where it would change
the perspective as the guy made the interception, right, So
it's throwing and you go to catch it, and all
of a sudden, it's like the camera jibs swings around.

(25:28):
So now you've got the point of view of the
intercepting player and you can see the giant field of green.
That's kind of what I feel every time I watched
that play of Oh, I could see his and through
his mind's eye of how glory it was it was
gonna be, and what line he was gonna take to
get to the end zone just inside the pylon to

(25:49):
just kinda say I got you spiked the ball or
hand the ball to somebody or whatever the wave was,
and it it never it never happened. Man. But instead
of that, it's a bad Morris touchdown, and the Steelers
are thinking, we got this, but Captain Comeback had other ideas. Still,
with some time left, Indianapolis gets down to Pittsburgh yard

(26:11):
line and they have time for one final play and
it's a Hail Mary. And you've seen this play so
many times. Aaron Bailey actually has it on his stomach
as he's falling down, and as he hits the ground,
his hands come off the ball. The ball hits the
ground very briefly and bounces right back into his hands.

(26:31):
All right, Now, obviously it's an incomplete pass. All right,
obviously this is incomplete. But I am stunned that the
referees saw it. Be the referees who missed. How many
plays did they miss in this game? He missed two
plays early on, Ernie Mills doesn't come down with the
ball on a thirty seven yard pass on the sideline.
That might have been an incomplete pass. But they happen
to see this. They see the ball hit the ground

(26:53):
for a nanosecond because Bailey is catching it, he's falling down,
and really, I'm surprised you didn't just fall down on
his back with the ball around his arms, but it's
like he he hit the ground and tried to turn
and the ball hits him, and it hits the ground,
it bounces right back up into his arms. But the
official is right there and signals incomplete. The Steelers start
going crazy. But that's what I was most surprised, even

(27:14):
after seeing it the first time, going how did the
referee see that? I know he was right there, but boy,
they missed some calls. But it's it's right in front
of him, and and I would not have been surprised
to see touchdown. Colts win the football game. And it's
the most improbable final play in the NFL and NFL
history up until that point because you have a couple
of moments there where Bailey really does a good cell

(27:36):
job coming off the ground, but it's all for not.
This is a reminder of how much action you could
get in a football game. Ten plays in that final
minute thirty four. Yeah, this wasn't one of those. All
here's a couple of plays and work, no, no, no,
you had a lot going on at the end of
this game. And suddenly it was like the offenses knew,

(27:57):
this is our last chance, right The Steelers clearly knew
it was their last chance, and the Colts knew was
their last chance, and the defenses were unable to answer,
you know, as they had answered most of the game.
The defenses. Look, they made the plays for the most part.
This is a low scoring game. But you had the
final possessions from from both of these teams, and you
had the Steelers touchdown, and you had the Colts coming

(28:18):
within a hair's breadth of a touchdown on the final drive. Yeah,
and once again Harma running for his life upon he
got bounced around like a pinball a couple of times
during this final drive. You know, let's adjust the shoulder pad,
let's scrape you up off the ground. I don't know
if any of the alignment had brought smelling salts onto
the field to make sure he was okay. But you

(28:39):
know that that last pass right hang time and finds
finds the receiver. The Steelers dbs go up and try
to catch it instead of trying to knock it away.
I want to come down at the interception and be
the guy that caught the and caught the pick. It's
they both go up and they try to catch it.
One guy tries to tries to to uh have his
arm wave at of a the other guys trying to

(29:00):
catch it, and so that's really what what did it
made this catch almost possible? And there's the famous shot
of Harrorball not understanding the ball was in complete. He's
making the catch motion. No, he caught it. He caught it.
He caught it, but clearly it hit the ground. And
there was no controversy following the game. The Colts knew
they had seen the play. They knew, look, this is
an incomplete pass. We almost had it, but we knew

(29:20):
the referee made the right call on it. So what
was next? The fortunes of both of these teams changed
forever following this game, and not the way you might expect.
We have the rest of it, and the rest of
the story of the Colts and the Steelers and one
of the best an FC title games you'll ever see
coming up next right here on Special Teams. Pittsburgh's reward

(29:58):
after outlasting the Indianapolis Colts a date with the Cowboys
in the Super Bowl, a game in which the Steelers
played much better than I expected. But of course Neil
o'donald throws two interceptions that become legendary Larry Brown wins
the m v P because he stands there and catches
two balls that come his away from Neil o'donald. Hey, hey,
you gotta catch him, just like they're off the jugs
gun at practice. Baby, just stand there and deliver. But

(30:22):
still for O'Donnell, he had a chance now to become
a next level quarterback. Pittsburgh made him a big offer.
He was a free agent in the off season, but
the Jets offered him a then big year, a big
deal rather of five years and twenty five million dollars.
Pittsburgh decided, Okay, we're gonna go with Cordell Stewart as
our quarterback. And he became one of the best for

(30:42):
a few years. But as we talked about, not being
able to stay away from turnovers was his big bugaboo.
And Neil o'donnald goes to the New York Jets, and
I was excited. Here's a guy that went to the
Super Bowl. He's not great, but he doesn't make mistakes.
He makes clutch plays. And the thing about Niel o'donald
is he wasn't bad with the Jets, and he wasn't
bad afterwards. He just couldn't make enough big plays as

(31:06):
he left the Steelers, which had him in the position
to succeed because you have a really good defense, a
good enough offense, you you're starting to get weapons. But
he wasn't a raised the level of the team quarterback.
He was a good enough guy with good enough weapons.
His first year with the Jets. The following year they
started out oh and six, he heard his shoulder. He
tried to come back late in the season, but on

(31:27):
his return game he heard his calf dropping back in
warmups and he couldn't play. I remember watching that game, going, Okay,
Neil o'donald's coming back, and then you know they come
back from breaking, say, Neil o'donald's not playing today, and
they show him being carried off the field because he
heard his uh calf dropping back and doing drills. So
I'm like, Okay, this is typical Jets right here. This

(31:48):
is just how it works for the Jets. Uh. He
actually stays on the team even though Bill Parcels took over.
The following year. He plays and starts for Bill Parcels
and he was better, but he still wound up losing
his job to Glenn Foley. He moves on from the Jets,
and he was okay with Cincinnati, he was okay with Tennessee.
He was actually great with Tennessee in the middle of

(32:10):
Tennessee Super Bowl run in the Big Music City Miracle
year because Steve McNair gets hurt and he goes four
and one. While McNair was hurt, he actually came off
the bench to win in Week seventeen, and when they
gave him chances, he was surrounded by talent. He was
pretty good. You know, he was never awful or so embarrassing.

(32:30):
He was a limited quarterback. And had you known more
about him that that was who he was, okay, maybe
the Jets would have understood, all right, maybe you know,
he's not for us, or another team would have said, well,
we have good weapons and a good offensive line. We
can win with Neil O'Donnell. But when you're you sign
a guy to be the franchise quarterback and he hasn't
have franchise level talent, it's not gonna work. And so

(32:52):
you see him bounce around to different teams. But when
he got his chance with teams that had pretty good
weapons or pretty solid all around, hey, he did pretty well.
Ten games over five hundred for his career, fifty eight
percent completion rate, which given the time, wasn't out of place,
and twenty touchdowns against sixty eight interceptions. Most teams will

(33:13):
sign up for that ratio without question. He's someone who
ended his career. Think about this for Neil O'Donnell, the
lowest interception rate in NFL history two point one interceptions
for every hundred attempts. So it's not like the guy
didn't have talent. It's that it's that it's being in
the right place, being in the right system, and Neil

(33:34):
O'Donnell has a different NFL legacy. I mean that that's
really what it is. People think, oh, he threw the
picks in the Super Bowl. It was awful and embarrassing
with the Jets, and that was Neil o'donald And that
really wasn't who he was. Yeah, but that's what folks
are gonna remember. You know, Mark Sanchez of your Jets,
he's gonna be remembered from and and he wasn't. He
wasn't a terrible quarterback. Was he a world beat or no?

(33:56):
But he did what was asked of him on those
two a f C title teams. Now for the Colts.
First of all, if Marshall Folk is healthy, that game
goes differently because you know he would have been able
to run the ball better. He probably would have had
a chance to make that first down. But for the Colts, hey,
finally they look like they're on the rise. Look horrible.

(34:18):
I had a great year. Marshall Falk is going to
be the start running back. Things are gonna work, okay,
except Ted Marcia Broda, who is responsible the architect for this,
wanted a two year contract extension. And you would think
that Indianapolis, well, we just came off the a f
C championship game. Let's give him two years. No, no, no,
Indianapolis offers him a one year contract extension. So he leaves,

(34:40):
and six days later he's named the first ever head
coach of the Baltimore Ravens. He replaces Bill Belichick. Floyd
Turner went to Baltimore with him as well. And this
is suddenly what just happened to the Colts. They had
everything they needed. You got your veteran quarterback, he got
your future superstar running back. You have a good enough
to even no, no, no, we're gonna let the head

(35:01):
coach walk because we don't want to extend his contract
by another year. It doesn't matter how well or how
poorly you get along well with him. You gotta understand.
You just got to the the NFC Championship game. And can
you imagine that now, a team getting the a f
C title game, a coach wants a two year extension
and a team says, no, we're only gonna give you one.
So we're gonna let you go and and let you
go and go be the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
I mean that that would never happen. Now, Now, before

(35:23):
we move on, let's let's see you heard me mention
Bill Belichick there for a second. Belichick then was, of course,
still the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. But the
Browns announced they were gonna move to Baltimore, and Belichick
was told, yeah, you're gonna be the head coach we
got to Baltimore. Uh. No one said they fired him
on Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day, Bill Belichi, that's why he's
always looking so sad and sullen. Uh. And Draft night

(35:48):
it was just him and his dog. Bad Valentine's Day
for Bill Belichick. Uh, so he's fired, replaced by Ted
Marsha Broda. Floyd Turner leaves, but that opens up number
eighty eight to be worn by a new wide receiver,
and hey, later on, Marvin Harrison steps into that number
and turns into a Hall of Famer. But what happened
for the Colts here after this season? Well, offensive coordinator

(36:10):
Lindi and Fonte took over. Indianapolis got back to the
playoffs in six but they lost again to the Pittsburgh Stealers.
This wasn't closet two to fourteen. This was in the
midst of four straight losses in Pittsburgh for Indianapolis that
spanned the regular season and the playoffs. So for this
Colts team, hey, we got as far as we could,

(36:30):
We just couldn't beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. When meanwhile,
other teams in the playoffs when they played Steelers in Pittsburgh,
they would find a way to win. But after this,
the good times were over in Indianapolis, sent to the
bottom of the standings until they drafted Peyton Manning and
that started the rebirth of the Colts. Now, what about
for Jim Harbaugh At this point, hardball is thirty two

(36:51):
years old, and you're thinking, all right, he's finally figured
it out, you know, drafted to be the next great
quarterback of the Chicago Bears. He kind of stumbles through
that a bit, but he's final. He found it. The
right fit, the right team, the right everything. And he
said after the game a quote that will always stay
with me. He said, following the game, you think there's
gonna be other days, right, like I'm thirty two. You

(37:13):
think there's gonna be other days. And you realize that
was the only day. You know, he never got as
far with any other team during his playing days. That
was it, and it's hard to think about that. At
the time. You go, okay, well we just made it.
We'll make it back. Something else is gonna happen. That
was the only day he started. A few more years,
he went to Baltimore for a bit and started, He

(37:33):
went to San Diego and started. He was kind of
the same quarterback before finally retiring. And you look back
and go that day, that game, that was our moment.
That was the moment I had in my NFL career,
and we were that tiny bit of Hail Mary away
from going to the super Bowl. Well it just takes one. Right,
We always talk about the game of inches. We always

(37:54):
talk about one possession, one throw, one moment that that rates.
And even the guys that get to go there once
we debate their legacies. Right, Joe Flacco, for a minute,
we thought, let's talk about him as elite, and it's like,
well he had one good run, Eli Manning. As we
think about the Hall of Fame and where we go

(38:15):
with him, some will argue he had two playoff runs.
And that was it for Jim Harbaugh as a quarterback,
you know, taken over in Chicago, he went twenty one
and nine over a two year period and then things reversed,
ends up with the Colts and this play. But what
what's funny is I mean, think about what it might
have done in Pittsburgh all the way through had had

(38:39):
that been complete. Right, as patient as the Rooneys are,
but you think about for Jim Harbaugh, you know, it's
it's never the same, you know, the coaching versus a player.
As much as sweet as it is to get to
the Big Dance as a coach, come on as a
starting quarterback for Super Bowl Week. You become a legend.

(39:00):
So that was it for the Pittsburgh Stealers. They escape
and move on. They have unexpected heroes. Jim Harbaugh has
a lifetime of NFL lament for that one game. How
about somewhere are they now for some of the players
from this game? All right, we got Sean Harper, Central
Ohio Salvation Army Advisory Board. UH, and he does some
security systems work throughout their facilities as well. Bradford Banta Uh,

(39:26):
he's an analyst for the University of Michigan. Ten years
of coaching. Jason Belser, Senior Director for Player Services and
Development for the National Football League Players Association. Jason Gilden
Evolve Athletic Strength Training and Professional performance Enhancement. Myron Bell,

(39:47):
security guard for the West Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte,
North Carolina. I really wanted to get him in because
I could say Mecklenburg like I'm that summer on. You know,
we got we gotta do a podcast at some point
where you get to mention carl Mecklenburg. We okay, need
to do that. At some point we'll work well, we'll
find another Broncos reference here. Uh. And John Jackson off

(40:10):
the offensive line is in real estate with the Jackson
and Corey Group. They do uh some luxury homes, so
good times. But yes, Myron Bell is the is the
key here right security yard. He was a safety so
it's only appropriate and he continued that line. So that's
our look back at AFC Championship Game and absolute thriller.

(40:34):
Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. You can listen to our show
every night Monday through Friday on Fox Sports Radio ten pm,
two two am on the East coast, seven to eleven
on the West Coast. You have an idea for a
future Special Teams podcast, hit us up with it on
Twitter at how about a Fresca Mike at Swollen Dome.
We'll talk to you next week on Special Teams. Before

(41:03):
you go, rate and review the show. Whether you're listening
on I heart Radio, I Heart Radio apps, Apple, whatever
it is, give us a rate, tell us you like it.
We will love you forever and ever and ever. Special

(41:27):
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