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Are You Ready For Some Football? · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to a very Monday, day specific version of the Pittsburgh Sports Memories podcast.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I'm your co-host, Steve Wert, and I'm joined by uh I'm Tim Hannon, and we are releasing this on a Monday, uh on a Monday morning, though, and Steve, not a Monday night.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have a very specific question for you, Tim.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: And this is this a lot rides on this, whether we'll finish the rest of the podcast.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because we stop right now or we can keep going.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Tim, the question is, are you ready?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Are you ready for some football?
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_04: Give me a few minutes to think about that one.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Monday night party.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Al and Dan, and I can't add that's why do I remember the Al Michael's Dan Deerdorf booth out of everybody?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I I guess that's because that's when I was watching it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Mainly it was in the song, it was in the lyrics of the song.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Well, did he say like way back in the 70s?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, no, they had a different song back then.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they didn't have that song back then.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, anyway, if you haven't figured out what our topic is yet, um, we're gonna talk about the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they had a very long streak.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: We're not this this is not a comprehensive list.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna cover every little game like from the 70s to whenever, but we will cover some of the more memorable ones.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: And there's actually one game on here that's um not on Monday night, but it kind of involves Monday night football.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it's an interesting conversation.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so you know, during the 80s and 90s and even into 2000, um, you know, America was asking the question I just asked him.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Are we ready for some football?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: And um apparently, according to the ratings, the answer was yes.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, very much so.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, for the that that was like normally the top-rated program of the week uh when it aired most times, especially if like there are certain teams that did well on there, like Dallas, Washington, the Steelers do well.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm sure Green Bay does okay too, but they don't have as large a fan base as Dallas or Green Bay or Pittsburgh or Dallas or Pittsburgh or probably one of the New York teams, too.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, so on this episode, we're gonna look at this streak, we're gonna look how it started, they maybe just before it started, and how it technically ended, although it I I don't know, Tim.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure they're gonna like when they say things next year if they play a Monday night game, which they probably will because they made the playoffs, that I'm sure they'll like word it a certain way, because if you word it a certain way, technically the Steelers' Monday night streak isn't over.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Technically, but the it's odd.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: Well, technically record uh NFO records are for regular season, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if you say if you say they have not lost a home Monday night football game in the regular season, you would be technically correct.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_04: But it's and it's it's the same with any other NFL record, right?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_04: If if uh if Patrick Mahomes throws 50 touchdown passes.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's a regular season, yeah.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: Right, but but if he throws five in the playoffs, they don't say, well, he threw 55 touchdown passes.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: His record is 50.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like how Franco has like, I think he's still like I isn't Franco still like have the most touchdowns in the postseason or pretty close to it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: Probably, but it's a different, it's a different category.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: He doesn't have the most touchdowns of all time.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: So so so yeah, you're right.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's it's it ended on a technicality.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, um, do you want to learn about the history of Monday night football, Tim?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Of course you do.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Who doesn't?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: So um so after um poor Burt Bell had his heart attack and died, uh, a gentleman named Pete Rosell took over, and when he wasn't getting sued by Al Davis, um he he he was coming up with great ideas and great ways to run the NFL.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: He really is the father of the modern NFL, quite honestly.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: I would say Burt Bell got them through.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: He's kind of like a chief kind of character, like him and the chief, and um who was the George Hallis kind of the the early days, Paul Brown, like those guys kind of got us to the 60s, and then Pete Rossell gets us from the 60s into the when did Pete Rossell stop being commissioner?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: 90s, 80s, 90s?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Late 80s, yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: So that it's kind of we're kind of in that period, and I don't know if that's the peak period of football's popularity or if it's gonna start to wane or what, but you never know.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it per so he had this idea, he wanted to get the NFL to a national audience because it was still a very regional game.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like you and you gotta understand, like back in 1970, maybe I'm sure most of our viewers, but maybe there's some younger guys that younger folks, I don't want to be gender specific, there could be some younger girls too that didn't remember.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that didn't remember that football was a like twice a twice a day kind of thing.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like you saw it, maybe you saw a college game on Saturday, maybe a NFL game on Sunday.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: And normally during the 70s and 80s, that was the CBS game, and they always broadcast what team was broadcast, always CBS on Sundays when CBS had the NFC.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: You remember too?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: That would be the America's team.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the Americas team.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's always been part of the reason why Dallas is so popular, is because they were always the national team.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: So uh with that in mind, Pete Rossell decided to um put a game on Monday night.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um ABC was lacking in the ratings, so they they were kind of like back then you only had what three networks, right?
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: CBS, NBC, ABC, and actually there was some experimenting with games during the week on something called the Dumont Network.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: And the only thing I never know that aired on the Dumont Network was the Ernie Kovacs show, and I don't know why I know that.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't know who Ernie Kovacs is, he was a very avant-garde comedian from the 1950s.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: So wow, there's a reference for you that nobody will get except for me.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um the most popular pairing, of course, that so now there were three national games in a week.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you basically had whatever the CBS afternoon game was and maybe NBC, and then you had a Sunday night game eventually, and then the Monday night game, but it really was there wasn't really wasn't the Sunday night game, really wasn't popular until later, much later in the 90s.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: So it really was Sunday afternoon and Monday night, and it ended up being really great.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: And um, the most popular they had three announcer booths, but they they started with um they actually they started with um oh who's the guy used to call USC Games?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh whoa no.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Keith Jackson.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember his name.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Early on said, Alzheimer's, Tim.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's time for me to go down.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, Keith Jackson they did until um they wanted uh Frank Gifford.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: And Frank Gifford was in another contract, and he becomes available.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So they had Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and Dandy Don Meredith, the former quarterback for the Cowboys at that point, and it kind of stayed like that for a very long time to the 80s, and then finally in the 2000s with Al Michaels and John Madden, and that was kind of the second most popular, but that was at the end of the broadcast TV run, and we'll talk about that at the end of the episode.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: How you know what happened to Monday night football.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna go over Memorable Steelers game.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um here, you want to listen to an opening before one of the Steelers?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Here's Hank Williams Jr., who's a Steeler fan.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, you're ready for the Giants and the Steelers and a Primetime Smash Mouse show.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_06: We're gonna make you smile and get rid of your blue.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_06: What a night football boogie for you.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_05: Are you ready for the football now?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, what a what a what a intro by Hank Williams there.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's keeping it country.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So before the streak started, and I only bring this up because I know Tim was at this game, along with uh Barry Bonds.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Did you realize that you and Barry Bonds attended this football game on Monday night?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: I I didn't until I saw you you um unearthed that picture of him what hanging out with the pit band.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he looks very I don't know, it just looks kind of shocked in this picture.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was like that's the most random sports picture ever.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's Steve found a picture from this Monday night football game of Barry Bonds when he played for the Pirates sitting with the Pit band at a Steeler game.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is Monday, October 14th, 1991.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is the Gia Giants at the Steelers, and the Giants win 23-20 on a Matt Barr field goal.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that Matt Barr, Tim.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um the Steelers were down 20 to 3.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I remember that.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I remember hearing about that because I didn't watch this game live, but I remember news reports, and the Steelers kind of came back in the fourth quarter, but it was one of those games where the Giants kind of gave up a lead and the Steelers tie it, and then Jeff Hostetler, who was the quarterback for the Giants, drives him down the field, and Matt Barr kicks a field goal to end it with four seconds, and that would be the last home loss during the regular season for the Steelers.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, I was I was at that game like Steve mentioned, and that was Chuck Knowles' last year, and it was very similar to the end of the Thomas era where people were just kind of had run out of patience with it was kind of the same thing every year, kind of kind of um story.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, earlier that day the the pirates, you mentioned Barry Bonds.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they were in the NLCS.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they were in the NLCS against the Braves, and they had beaten the Braves to take a three games to two lead in that series.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_04: So they were literally one game away from the World Series.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: So everybody was really excited about that.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_04: And then you come to the Steeler Money in a game, everybody's on a high, and then the first half, it's just like Giants, Giants take this huge lead, uh Bubby Brewster's throwing interceptions, uh when whenever they're not just going three and out.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: And uh what I'll always remember from that game, Stephen, I I spent way too much time trying to actually find the audio of this because I wanted to see if my you know, you know how sometimes your memory, you know You talk the Mandela effect.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well your memory is one thing, and then you you you you'd like to back it up with like actual proof.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: But what I remember from that game is that everybody started after one of those three announcements or turnovers, everybody starts sarcastically started canning let's go bucks.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_04: I see and which is uh you know, you'd never in a million years see that again.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you never know, Tim.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe let's go pens.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe let's go.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe let's go pens.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_04: But but but like literally it and maybe it wasn't everybody, maybe it was, you know, my section of the stadium or or maybe it was during a commercial break.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and and in 1991 low def TV, it's kind of hard to make out audio in the background anyway.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but I did.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: I really tried, I I watched through the whole first half of that game trying to find the spot where the crowd turned.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: There was a lot of booing, that's for sure.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: I found a lot of people booing.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_04: That was easy to spot, but I could not.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Was this the Joe Walton offense?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: This was this was the Joe Walton.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: No, this was Joe Walton.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: This was the end of the techno regime.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and again, everybody was just kind of fed up.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: And hey, why can't you be more like the Pirates?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they're winning.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: They're crying.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: That's a good team.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the best part is they bench, like you said, they benched Bobby Brister for Neil O'Donnell, and O'Donnell had a good game.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: And after the game, Chuck Knoll in all his wisdom says he should have started O'Donnell over Brister due to Brister having a sore knee, thus creating a quarterback controversy on a team that did they even make the playoffs?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think they made the playoffs in 91.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think they were like seven and nine.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_04: They were seven and nine, you're correct.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: So uh uh the Pirates, you know, hey, they're doing well.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: It is kind of weird that that was such a juxtaposition to where we are now, or you would like you said, the Steelers are really good.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like you were probably more chance of hearing a let's go Steelers chant at a Pirates game.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, maybe, Steve, maybe now that the streak has ended, you know, things will flip back the other way.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe that that's that's you know never know.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_04: The streak started with that, so maybe now that it's over.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: So the next season, the Steelers are on Monday night, and it's October 19th, 1992, and the Steelers score 20 points and hold the Bengals to a big fat zero.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the first game of the streak, um, they beat them by Bengals.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: Who gonna beat them Bengals?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Steelers shuts down Boomer, Syson, and Carl Pickens.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they also run the ball with Barry Foster.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: That was kind of that whole season.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: They ran the ball really well.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: He had 108 yards rushing.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Neil O'Donnell played well, just kind of completing passes when he needs to, not throwing interceptions.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Dwight Stone drops a bunch of passes.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot Dwight Stone was still like in the mix at this point, but he does catch two touchdowns.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um here's an interview about Boomer's silence telling us how he and the Bengals suck.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I said that I didn't I didn't ever think that I'd be the quarterback of a team that got 125 yards in a game.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um and we're all taking turns and making mistakes, and and it is very, very frustrating.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: He's not happy.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait a wait until uh that guy might have a career by broadcasting.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you mentioned Dwight Stone.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: There's ball like it's it's literally like three times in.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: I want to say the first quarter or like the first quarter in in change.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_04: He has a ball go right through his hands.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: And one's one's on like the three-yard line where he's trying to turn into the end zone before he gets the ball and not cost him a touchdown.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_04: But but like you said, he kind of comes back later and and makes up for it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: So that was a nice little in-game redemption story for for all Dwight hands of stone.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Here's a question, Tim.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I I get the feel I I was just started following the Steelers in '92.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why why did now normally like he seems to me like he's Ike Taylor?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why did they not make him a corner?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: They needed a corner back then badly.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why not make him a corner?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like, that was never a thought.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like, he doesn't have to catch the ball.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: He can run really fast.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: He can probably he was a good special teams player, too.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: He could tackle.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't understand why they just didn't put him on offense or defense, I mean, as a defensive back.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I would have done with him after the first season of seeing him drop passes.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't know if that ever entered anybody's mind.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, he he did have a pretty long career in the NFL.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: I think he played until like 2002 or something.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: He was a special teams kind of ace kind of guy.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_04: He he they also used him on like reverses, stuff like that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_04: He was he was kind of like that kind of a player.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't I think it's like a shame, but you feel like it's a guy who never really reached his potential because maybe he's kind of like a guy they never could find a position for.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_04: He was immensely talented too.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it you can't.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of reminds me like Tim Tebow.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like they never really he wasn't good enough, he really wasn't a quarterback, but they tried him so late in his career at tight end, he stunk at it.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like they just can never find a good spot.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And there's guys all over the NFL history like that, where it's just like they you you feel like maybe they should have, you know, Cordell Stewart is almost like another one.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: People said he maybe should have been a wide receiver.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't know.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I feel like that I feel like there's a little bit more of that um uh openness to flexibility today.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_04: You you look at like um that guy for the Saints, Taysom Hill, who was a quarterback, and they use him a tight end.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, they they just he he's he's not a star, he's not gonna be a quarterback, he's not gonna be a star tight end, but they just they know he's so athletic that they want to find ways to just use him in the offense.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I think Dwight Stone could have been one of those guys that had they found whatever the right spot for him was, but he he still made some plays.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like you can go dig up some Dwight Stone.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: That game, that game be a two two touchdowns.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he was super fast, he was really fast.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: Very, very, very talented football player.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: Just sometimes, well, a lot of times had trouble.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: But that's why a defensive back, you don't gotta catch the ball.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just don't Dwayne Washington to it to other people.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe he would have been a good defensive back.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: Who knows?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: Good question.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, moving on.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh these games are kind of in no specific order.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're just kind of all over the place.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna go to a game that we've talked about many times before.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Monday, November 13th, 1995.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: A dark day in Pittsburgh sports history and Cleveland sports history.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Is this the day that the Browns rivalry died, or was it later in the season when they played the last game in Memorial Stadium, I guess?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Municipal Stadium.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean Yeah, probably.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it it never really It's either this or that one.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's never really come back after this.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_02: What a sad what a sad, sad day.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's had like little flare-ups.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's like like like if you have like a condition and it's and it's healed to little flare-ups.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: So there's like there was there was the playoff game in 2002, there was the the playoff game in 2020, there was there was a couple other things over the years, but you're right.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: The Miles Garrett instant.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, right, exactly.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it's yeah, it's mostly dead.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the Steelers win this one 20-3.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um Cordell throws his first touchdown pass as a pro.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Speaking of finding ways to use a guy, that was that was exactly what that game did for Cordell because he had never really even sniffed the field at that point, and he said that was November of that season.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then he became this, you know, that again, like that Taysom Hill kind of player, really, for the rest of that season.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it it you know, did and you wore your black armband, right, Tim?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: Orange.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Orange.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it was orange.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, because Cleveland.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Cleveland, yeah.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was that was a weird that was a weird game because all the Pittsburgh fans, you know, wanted to support the Browns and everybody hated the Browns, but nobody wanted to see them leave.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's like, well, we want to beat them.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_04: We don't want their their team to be taken away.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it was a weird time, it was a weird game.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but you know, that's Art Modell.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's and like we talked about that in the other episode.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's just it was a shame that it happened.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but you don't totally blame Art Mardell for it either.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm sure people in Cleveland still do, but sure.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: Sure, and I get it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: I would they're allowed to be bitter, I guess.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, um moving on to 1993.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, moving backwards, we're going back in time.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh November 15th, Monday, November 15th, 1993.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's the Buffalo Bills are in town.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: And can you imagine a time when the Steelers could not beat the Buffalo Bills?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that hard to imagine.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: We're kind of there right now.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's kind of funny when the Bills have a really good quarterback, we really can't beat them.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh the Bills had a really good quarterback, actually had a pretty decent backup, too, Frank Reich.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so they have Jim Kelly, um, and the the Bills who had beaten the Steelers five straight times, and um, and they appeared to be streaming to their fourth AFC title, which I think they did.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: This was their they did go to they did get it this year.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um this always seemed like a turning point in the Bills Steelers season, right?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh Eric uh Green catches a touchdown.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the Steelers dominate.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um here, do you want to see Don B almost get baralyzed?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: First and ten from the 47.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: White.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_06: By Gary Jones at the 30 yard line.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's as big a hit as the guy can take after catching the ball.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_06: That is a courageous performance by Phoebe, knowing full well he's gonna take a huge hit.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, that really sucks for Don D.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Make do that on the street, you might get arrested.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: Do that nowadays you get kicked out of football.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Gary Jones was was a steeler safety who, you know, it people will I was gonna say nobody would remember, people do remember him because of stuff like that.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: He he used to just crush people.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_04: He did that to a guy for the Cowboys, too.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_04: He was just a fierce, one of the hardest hitters in the league.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: But he wasn't, he wasn't like he was one of those like nickelback, dime back safeties.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_04: If he didn't have that from his moniker, no one would ever remember that he played for the Steelers.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: But at least Chris Oldham seemed to make a lot of he was like William Gay.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: They made a lot of interceptions at timely times.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's he's like what Chuck Clark is now on the Steelers.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know, he's like the he'll he'll fill in a gap if somebody's hurt, but he's really not going to play all that much.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: And but that's what he did.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_04: He just he would people he was feared.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: He was definitely feared, and that was back in the days when they didn't have all the protections in place.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, speaking of um, so actually Barry Foster actually sprained the ankle.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: And do you remember LeRoy Thompson from Penn State Sucks?
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: He had a great game, he had actually had a solid year, and I think he went to the um I remember him going and playing for the Patriots.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh Jim Kelly actually got concussed on a sack.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um gotta love the uh Three River Stadium parking lot.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean turf.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Carlton has Hasserig was active for this game, Tim.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of uh blast from the past.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um the Bills actually this was the first time the Bills got shut out since 1985.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: So this is 1993, so it'd been a while.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um and this was after the game in 1992, the the playoff game where the Bills called they like Jim Kelly talked about it.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: The other it was the third in Sammy game, Sammy Walker.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_02: They just kept throwing on the Steelers back up defensive back.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: So Yeah, that was that was shocking.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: I think I think we might have talked about this before, Steve, but do you remember where you and I were for that game?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: But I I were we at the wilds for this?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: Did we get to wild watch the game?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: No, we didn't, yeah.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_04: No, we didn't.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: We were at this like school retreat at this place in North Carolina, and we weren't we were not able to watch the game.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: And our principles, no phones, no cars, no motor car, not a single luxury, something like that.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: There was no smartphones anyway, and they probably would have taken it off you if there were at the time.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_04: Right, right.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: And and so, and and this was in North Carolina, so nobody was like itching, except for like the people from our school, were itching to like see the score of the game.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_04: So our principal actually went out Tuesday morning and came back and told us that the stewards in 120 to nothing, and I thought for sure he must be mistaken.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm like, there's there's no way because again, like you said, we we always lost to the Bills.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: And and sure, there was a chance.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: For the year before we got we got blown out.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like Don BB caught a bunch of passes.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like that.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_04: That was we they beat us twice that year.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_04: They beat us in 91.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: They they they in in Buffalo, like you said, they were the three-time defending, soon to be four-time defending AFC champions.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: They had that great offense.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_04: That was the other thing.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like, it was plausible that we could beat them, but to shut down Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas and Andre Reid and James Lofton, like they had these these studs on offense.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: There's no way we shot them out.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I actually didn't believe them.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I like I I I don't I didn't I'm like, I'm sure you're not intentionally lying, but you probably just misread the it was the other way.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: It was Bill's 20 Steelers here.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_04: Or it was like 20 to 17, and you just yeah, I I just couldn't believe that we actually had shot out that team.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: So and I remember when I got home, my parents had had taped it on a VHS tape.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: So the first thing I did when I got home was I like watched the entire game and I was like, wow, this is so cool.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: And it's funny the Steelers weren't even that good 93.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: They were that was the nine and seven year.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they were very up and down that year.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_04: We did an episode on that team, and uh there were some weeks where they were looked like the best team in the league, and they were beating the elite teams in the league, and there's other weeks where not so much.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: So moving into a trio of games that are from the probably one of the oddest seasons, I don't know, from one of the oddest years in the history of I don't know, in history of my lifetime.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, Tim, but I guess you could do a whole episode on 2020 if we wanted to.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: So 2020, um, the teams are playing in front of half empty stadium, well, whole all the way empty stadiums with like piped in noise, remember that?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then like even if you watch the game, like the Steelers would still act like there was like a crowd, like they play all the music and stuff like they normally do, but there was nobody there.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: It was like I guess the yellow seats were entertained, but it looked like a scrimmage game or like the blue gold game like Pitt plays in the spring.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: So it was definitely odd and odd.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: They did that all season except for like games in Florida, because Florida like just decided to let people start attending games.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: So not to get into all of that.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there you could you know go off, I guess, on whether that was the right or wrong call.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_04: We're definitely not getting into that.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_04: We will we will we are guaranteed to lose half the listeners no matter what side we take on that.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_04: So we're not touching that with a 20-foot pole.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: So um, so what had happened was this game was supposed to be played on Thanksgiving, which was November 26th, and this is the um game between the Steelers and Ravens, and this is actually not a Monday night football game.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is a Wednesday afternoon.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: So, Tim, are you ready for some Wednesday afternoon football?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Wednesday afternoon party.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it was on NBC, so I think Mike Tariko actually called the game because originally it was supposed to be Thanksgiving, and then the Ravens, everybody got sick, and I I guess they didn't want to play a game on Thanksgiving, make the Ravens play a game, so they postponed the game.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's kind of funny because this is very hypocritical of the league because that very same week they made Denver play a game with like a wide receiver at quarterback because all their quarterbacks got sick.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: So why didn't you just make the Ravens play with their backup quarterback?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: But no, no, they delayed it all the way, they're supposed to be played on Sunday, and then it was they're like, oh, we'll play it on Tuesday, and then they delayed it to Wednesday, and the Wednesday, they were gonna play it Wednesday night, but NBC, who still owned the rights to this game, had this is had the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which I guess since it's COVID in New York, nobody's gonna attend anyway.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: But they NBC felt the need to stick with that programming over an NFL football game, and that's what we did, Tim.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was that's how we ended up on Wednesday night.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: So no uh Lamar Jackson.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think they actually started um what's his name?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh no, they started the third guy.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, RG3, yeah.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they had Trace McSorley ended up playing too because RJ3 really wasn't that good.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, there wasn't it wasn't without precedence.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's been 40 NFL games played on Wednesday.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: That was of course in the old Blue Law days in 1925, and the the Steelers, who were previously known as the Pirates, had played 10 games on Wednesday, like we had I think we'd gone over that in an earlier episode between 1933 and 1936.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: But neither the Ravens nor the Baltimore Colts ever played a game on Wednesday, so it was a first for the Ravens.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the Steelers, I think, win 19-14.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a who cares game, except for what it does to the Steelers is now the Steelers win and they have to play like their rival.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: And hey, let's make the Steelers play on Monday, December 7th.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, that I here, I'll make a joke that will get us in trouble with him.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: That went about as well for the Steelers as it did for the United States Navy.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, the the Steelers end up losing to Washington, whatever their name is this at this point in time.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: The team the football team from Washington, previously known as the Redskins.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: And the Steelers had to play on five days' rest, and they were an older team, so I think they needed a regular schedule.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: I really thought this screwed up their whole season, Tim, because this is when things like went downhill in a hurry.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: So and they they really they it and so the Steelers do go up 14 to nothing on the Washington team, but at the end of the half, there's this play, and it just epitomized how the NFL was treating the Steelers at this point.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: I I really think it was like they didn't want Ben Rothelsberger to have back in a Super Bowl ever again, and they just were gonna go out of their way to like you know screw over the Steelers, and this is perfect.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: So with 22 seconds left, Washington's driving to kick a last second field goal before the half, and they have no timeouts.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: Stephon Toett, remember that guy?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like sacks Alex Smith, and there's like 22 seconds left, no timeout.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: So the clock's running, and instead of giving the ball, and when you watch the I have the the video, instead of he runs right by the official Tim with the football.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's looking, the official has his hands out, he runs onto the sidelines.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I forget who the name, it was one of the terrible officials, too.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I haven't seen this guy in a while, so maybe he retired or got fired.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_02: But they they they actually stopped the clock with like 10 seconds left so they can get the K ball because they needed the K-ball to kick.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so they give basically, in all essence, they give Washington a fourth timeout for no reason.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: So the way it should have gone, and that was Dean Blandino, who never has met an NFO rear end he didn't want to kiss.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like basically, well, normally in that situation, we just put the ball down.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Alex Smith had the ball, so that's delay a game.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's either a delay a game.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: One of two things is either delay a game, or you just run the clock and the clock runs out, and everybody blames Alex Smith.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: But instead, Alex Smith is his big hero because he outsmarted and mistreated the big, bad Steelers, who we all hate because they're giving everybody CTE and they have a bad guy quarterback.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: For all my complaining and belly aching, it was still only 14-3.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: If the Steelers just play some defense and tackle and stop the ghost of Alex Smith, you know, that they should have won this game.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: The game ends up uh, what was the final score?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: 17 to 23.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they didn't even have a field goal kicker.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: The Steelers, Boswell was out because I guess he got COVID.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: They had Matthew Wright.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: So at one point on a fourth and one, um, Tomlin passed on that because you're kicking in Hinesfield with a kicker that was Matthew Wright was accurate, but I don't think he had a very strong leg, if I remember correctly.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's just the refs called it an administrative issue.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: It was just it was the most ridiculous thing.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: But they couldn't tackle that one wide receiver for the Reds Washington team.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: He wasn't even anybody good.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_02: They had McLaren, but he really didn't kill them the way the other guy did.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um Washington takes the lead on a field goal, and then with two minutes to go, it's like 20 to 17.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: A Ben Pass gets tipped by Keith Sweat and intercepted.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's kind of the ball game.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Washington, I think, kicked another field goal to make it 23-17, and then that's kind of it.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the Steelers' first loss of the season.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: That whole season was crazy because of COVID.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: And and like to be fair, like the scheduling thing was a mess.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: And it was very inconsistent.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like you said, like they made Denver play that game with nobody, but they but they uh moved everything around for Baltimore.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: That didn't seem to make sense.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: The only thing I'll say, to be fair, it was it was a lot of nobody planned any of that.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was a lot of like unprecedented.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: You saw that, like, my my kids were in elementary and middle school at that point, and I remember the school kind of doing the same kind of inconsistencies, like, well, wait a minute, this but not that.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_04: And I think it was just a lot of just trying to like figure things out as we went because nobody had ever seen anything like this in our lifetime.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I I I'll give them a little bit of grace for that just because I think that it was really um it was just hard to figure things out at that point.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was a Thanksgiving game, and they uh but I mean, I what's the difference?
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't know what if Lamar Jackson just legitimately gets hurt, like sprains his knee or something.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Are you gonna delay a game for that?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: Just because I I don't know.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, uh that leads us to Monday, December 21st, which is kind of the um tail end of this.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_02: And this is the game that like I knew the Steelers were done.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of knew the Steelers were done before they were done because the Bengals were terrible that season, and um the Steelers had to play um Washington on five days rest, and then this game was eight days later, but the damage was done, and they had to play four games in 19 days, which is a little much.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, especially like I said, it was inconsistent, and it was an older team, and you're playing division rivals too, back to back.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: And um, not that Cincinnati didn't have their they were starting some guy named Ryan Finley, who actually had not that great of a game.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: He went seven for thirteen for 89 yards and a touchdown, but that was enough to beat the Steelers because Ben just kept throwing interceptions.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_02: And there was even a pass I remember I was late in the first half or the second half where I forget, I think it I want to say it was um Chase Clapple was wide open in the end zone and Ben just totally overthrew him.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that's fatigue.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Ben makes that I've seen that Ben make that throw 10 out of 10 times.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: This team's just tired and beat up, and just all the it they just couldn't survive it for whatever reason, they just could not survive that.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um that was just the three-game slide in that 2020 COVID year.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Giovanni Bernard had 25 carries for 83 yards.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the big the big news was um Juju Smith Schuster dancing on the logo before the game, which was just yeah.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was a big controversy.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: The Juju dancing on the logo was a big controversy.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_04: You remember that?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, because he just kept doing stuff like that.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: And like you had your defenders and you're well, he's just a kid, he's having fun.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you don't disrespect the team.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you want to do your stupid milk crate challenge, remember he did like a milk crate challenge, or he would show up and do like wild stuff.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was just I think his act wore thin, but yeah, I don't know.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of the same deal, like even with Heinz Ward, how like he would always like, oh, nobody respected me.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of got like that.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like it wasn't necessarily like a bad thing, except for that, that was dumb.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it was just uh and he wasn't Chase Claypool either, but boy, they had some real knuckleheads on the team there.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: They did.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but hey, you know, he's got a Super Bowl ring, Juju.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't know.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he he he got that call in the Super Bowl to help the Chiefs win.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's right.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: So just stupid.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: I the this whole like late season, they just totally fell apart.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: This is like probably one of the biggest collapses in Mike Tomlin's career.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: When wouldn't you say to him, and it all ends with a playoff loss to Cleveland, where they were just horrible at home.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: And and the Cleveland didn't even have its head coach.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: They were like, you know, Stefansky was at home with COVID.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think Alex Van Pelt was calling plays, I think.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um the the the it was a pretty big collapse given that they started 11-0, right?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like they literally started 11-0.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: They were they were finished 12-4, yeah.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they were gunning for the number one seed in the conference.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: And and no Steel team had ever even come close to something like that 11-0.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, there was even talk of could they go undefeated at one point?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_04: And and so yes, it was it was a huge collapse.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like you said, I think it was brought on by the a bunch of factors, the the whole COVID mess, and being an older team, being fatigued.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_04: And and really not being as good as that 11-0 record.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: I don't you're your record is your record, Tim.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I that drove me nuts that whole season.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it I was thinking about this before I did this podcast.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why was I so like because like I never seen like anytime the Dolphins would go 5-0 or 6-0, or the Cowboys is like, oh, they're going undefeated, they're gonna win the Super Bowl, and you're like, okay, no, they're not.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: But like people like every time the Steelers would win, and people like, oh, that was a terrible win.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that was a terrible win, they didn't have this, they didn't have that.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: So what?
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: I what do you want them to do?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, wait, you play the teams you play and with the players they have.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I don't I don't think I don't think I felt like I wanted to take anything away from it.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_04: I just for me it was more like they're they they were definitely a good team, they were definitely uh gonna be a playoff team, but they weren't they weren't like the elite cream of the crop in the in the NFL.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: I guess like you could say that you didn't have the same feel as that 15-and-one team.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_04: And and and and it it's so that's just more just eye test than anything.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you you're right.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: You can't take their wins away, but you never felt like after I would say five or six games, you never felt like you did about that 15-and-one team.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: I will say this, Ben threw a lot of bad interceptions that year.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I remember like kind of like there was a game against Tennessee where we were going to put them away late in the game, and he threw like just an ill-advised pass.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there was like literally three defenders, and like he tried to thread it between three people.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, dude, just just take the L there, throw it out of the back of the end zone and kick the field goal.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because that was a game, the game we won on the Gestowski missed like a 53-year-old, 53-year-old, 53-yard field goal.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, we did that episode about Ben getting hurt and how that really changed the course of Steeler history.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: He was never the same after that injury.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_04: He was he was effective, but he was never like the elite quarterback.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_04: He always was again.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I think if they would have had all the right pieces, if they would have had like this, you know, super stud defense like they had real role early in his career, you know, they they maybe could have gone further.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: But um again, it just in in and like everybody said, well, they're not as good as the 11-0 record, and then they kind of went out and proved everybody right.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: I well, who won the Super Bowl?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: That was the Chiefs first Super Bowl.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_04: No, that was Brady, Tampa Bay.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that was Brady.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right, it was, yeah, that's right.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_04: And they were a second place team.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_04: The Buccaneers, they were a second place team.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_04: So again, it was it was it was a weird season.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't the typical And that would Tampa played a home game for the Super Bowl.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but they played an away game uh against Rodgers at Green Bay for the NFC Championship.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because they were, again, they were a wild card team.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: So again, it wasn't it it just you knew it was gonna be a weird season.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_04: You knew it was gonna be a weird team that kind of I wouldn't say came out of nowhere, but it was it was gonna be one of those seasons where um just some unexpected things happen just because of the conditions.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what an odd season, Tim.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um moving back uh to 2010, a Monday game.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Steelers and Bengals, um, the Steelers have a very injured offensive line, which was kind of like the story of the 2010s, too.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Chris Kimioatu, Max Starks, and Mark Geese Pouncey were all either out or in and out of this game.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, which was cool was the uh Steelers jumped out to a 20-point lead.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: So there's no way they can blow this.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, they almost did blow it.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they let they let uh they had to come all the way back.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um they actually, I think the game-winning touchdown was an Anton Randuel, the Mike Wallace touchdown pass, if I remember.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Atlanto Randuel did throw a pass to Mike Wallace for 39 yards.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Torrell Owens, I forgot Torrell Owens played for the Bengals.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: He had actually a great game.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: He had 10 catches for 141 yards and a TD catch.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um Carsell Palmer was good, 22 of 36, 2D T's and uh two TDs and an interception, 248 yards.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Ben's not so great, 17 for 27, 163 yards, a TD and an interception.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: Rashard Bendenhall, if you don't like you, if you just think of all the off-field stuff, you kind of forget that for this game.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_02: Boy, he was really good.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: He really, really effective.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_02: When I went back and watched the highlights, 22 carries for 99 yards doesn't do him justice.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: There were a lot of plays behind a makeshift offensive line where he broke out for like five-yard carry when he could have easily been tackled for a five yard loss.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: So the play of the game was James Harrison hit Jordan Shipley um to break up the pass on a fourth and five, which actually Harrison hit him pretty legally.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't hit him in the head or anything.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_02: He was real carrying he knocked the ball out.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: That was thirty seconds to go, and the Steelers won.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: They get out of Cincy with a win.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Any any thoughts on the 2010 Steelers there, Tim?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean that was that was again, that was another season where I think we did an episode on that season too where uh like the 2020 season uh it's a good team, but it it wasn't it had its flaws and and then when they got to the Super Bowl, I think a lot of those flaws were exposed, unfortunately.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh but man, some of the the all the all I could think about, Steve, is this like this lineage of Bengals quarterbacks, you know, Jordan Shipley, Ryan Finley, and all that kind of stuff.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that was back when Cincinnati was was bad for a while.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, but Juju wasn't there to dance on the logo, I guess, for that game.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: To fire them up.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're gonna move back to 1993.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_02: This was a fun game to think that to to kind of go back and look at.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the 93 Dolphins, Steelers, uh, the Steelers uh win this one 21-20.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: And um, who do you think the uh Dolphins starting quarterback in 1993 was at this point?
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh let me let me give you a hit.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_02: He was a backup, he was the quarterback before Joe Montana, I do believe.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was Steve DeBerg.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: He also backed up Chris Chandler in Atlanta.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: Steve Berg was a rock forever.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he he, if I if I remember correctly, he retired and then came back like five.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_04: He did like what Philip Rivers did.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_04: He was he came back like five years after he retired to start playing again.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: And actually didn't play terribly.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: So Steve DeBerg, he was the oldest quarterback in the league.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: Can you guess what the oldest quarterback in the league was, what age that was in 1993?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh gosh.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna be something silly like 34 or something.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're close, 39.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: And he was actually playing over quarterback Scott Mitchell.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: And this was, of course, the year that um I I don't remember what week of the season was.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it was the first or second week, but I remember Dan Marino turned towards Achilles early on in the season.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: It was very early, I remember that.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: And talk about a player who was never quite the same after that.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: That that was an injury that really messed Dan Marino up.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_02: Not that he was a running quarterback, but he could kind of like shuffle and move out of the way, and he he really couldn't do that after that.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um OJ McDuffie with a punt return, and that's kind of the the Steelers like what do we want to say, Achilles heel that year with special teams.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like they ended up getting a block a blocked punt that kind of turns the tide in the the Chiefs game in the playoffs, and Miller Hodge with a touchdown in this one.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you know, pretty, pretty amazing.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Rod Woodson with an interception of Steve DeBerg in the final seconds that clinches the game for the win on a 21-20.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: So they it was a pretty pretty good uh I think they never they never got close enough for a Pete Stoyanovich field goal.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: This was in Miami, so this was not away.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_04: So there's there's two things I remember about that game.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: One, and I only remember this because we did a 93 episode and I dug it up.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_04: The the intro to that game was on Hank Williams.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_04: That was a season that they were trying to do like all these like celebrity intros.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_04: And so the the intro to that game was um Salt and Peppa doing What a Man.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_04: But they they changed the lyrics to be like the Stewards and Dolphins.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh what a fan, what a fan, what a fan.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_04: No, I think it was still what a man, but it was like the like the actual lyrics were like the Pittsburgh Steelers, blah, blah, blah, blah, Don Kola, like stuff like that.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: The other thing I remember is that the when McDuffie returned that punt, it was in the fourth quarter, and the score at the time was 21 to 13.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: That was the year before they're and so if OJ McDuffie scores that touchdown like eight months later, then that that would have potentially tied the game.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_04: But because back then an eight-point lead was safe, was a two-score lead.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_02: Now you have to have a nine-point lead.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: Correct.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or in the UFL, a ten-point lead, I guess.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right, because they have the three-point four-point kick or something stupid.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um, any anyway, uh, you know, uh, we'll we'll skip around here a little bit uh on the notes.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh how about another game against Miami?
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna finish up with a a run of Miami games here because apparently we like to play Miami on Monday night a lot.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it's always interesting.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the 96th season, um, Jimmy Johnson is head coach.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: You remember when Jimmy Johnson finished up his head coaching career in Miami?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, the Steelers were eight and three, the Dolphins were six and five, um, Dan Marino was quarterback.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: And um, do you remember who the running back for Miami was?
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_04: Karim Abdul Jabbar.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, after he was sky hooking in the NBA, no, it's a different person.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: He actually had a different name.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: He actually changed his name to that name, which is odd.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I think he spelled it differently, if I remember correctly.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: I probably I don't know.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: He is not the second most points in the NBA, so he's not that guy.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just a mediocre running back for Miami.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um uh Mike Tomzak hits Ernie Mills late in the fourth quarter, which is kind of impressive because hadn't Ernie Mills gotten hurt the year before in the Super Bowl?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, so good for Ernie.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um Vettis had 119 yards rushing, but uh who would have thought he fumbled?
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-oh.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: Tomzak had a kind of Tomzak kind of night, 16 of 29, 250 yards, a touchdown and interception.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: Cordell Stewart has a rushing touchdown in this one.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Steelers hang on to win because the uh Dolphins are driving once again, much like the Steve DeBerg game.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: But this time Dan Breno and the uh immortal Scott Miller can't hook up in the end zone with 25 seconds to go.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: Dan Breno kind of throws like a higher pass, and it was catchable-ish, but you know, if you're throwing to like you know, one of the better wide receivers, you know, maybe.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: But um, I think, you know, oh, and the other game, remember Bernie Parmely?
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: He was in the 93 game.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: I I totally forgot about Bernie Parmely, but just to bring up rare, you know, dolphins of the 90s for 100, Alex.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_04: Did did the Steelers um get on the team playing the fly home and Kareem Abdul Jabbar within the cockpit?
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know you.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, son, but you must have me confused with someone else.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Roger Murdoch.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the co-pilot.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are Kareem.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen you play.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: My dad's got Steven tickets.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think you should go back to your teeth, Joey.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: You try and carry Dan Marino up and down the field for a hundred yards.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, uh, a game I attended, Tim.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how about this one?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Monday, November 26, 2007.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: The Steelers three, Miami nothing.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_02: What an exciting game, Tim.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was at this game.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is, I guess you can call it the turf game.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, actually, the highlight of this game is where the punt stuck in the mud, like a like a golf shot.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't know if you got to take a drop if the dolphins could take a drop on that.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, what do you what do you think the ruling on that one?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there was just a terrible rainstorm before this.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: And they they had had Pitt had played, and the uh high school championships had played before, so they tried to replace the turf.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: And if it wouldn't have rained, it probably would have been okay.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: But because it did rain, it just messed everything up.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Dolphins had a ton of injuries.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: They started quarterback John Beck.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Ben was 18 to 21 for 165 yards and interception.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Willie Parker actually had 24 carries for 81 yards, which I think is impressive on the turf, the way it was.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: So um Heinz Ward, nine catches for 88 yards because he's Heinz Ward.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: And they had like a last second drive.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: I just remember that to kick the field goal and make it three to nothing.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was a pretty not great game to watch, but it was embarrassing too.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it was it was Heinz Field had had turf problems since the day it opened in 2001.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's probably the height of them.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: That it they they mostly got it fixed as it's not great, but it's not that bad anyway.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's never it's never been as bad as it could be that you're right.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_04: That was the apex of how bad it got.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: And then the whole because it was a Monday night game, the whole country kind of got to see what a joke it was.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then the Rooneys were finally like, okay, we we we we gotta do something to fix this.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so where does that leave us?
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: Three to nothing.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, do we want to go with the game that ended uh Tua Tavagaloga's career?
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: How about that, Tim?
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess this is technically still a continuation of the streak if you include the regular season, right?
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: So um the Steelers win 28 to 15.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Tua goes, see, this is what's so deceptive.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, people this is why people think he's good.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: He goes 22 to 28 for 253 yards, two TDs, and one interception.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, well, that's as good as anybody else on this list.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: But the fact it was all after the game was well in hand, right?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_04: It was garbage time yards.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was in 2025.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_04: That was that was the Steelers had that game won by like the third quarter.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, easily in hand.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: Rogers, I mean, about the same, you know, 224 yards, two TDs and no interceptions.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're playing fantasy football, you'd be like, Well, uh, two is good.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you're betting on the game, oh, you know, whatever.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's very deceptive, like that the house stats can be deceptive, but that's the um that's the current if you still consider it a streak, that would be the current game the Steelers are on as of 2026 after the season.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh what the game I'm gonna consider the streak somewhat over.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean Monday, January 13th.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: This the Texans who had not won a playoff game on the road ever in the history of the franchise, which isn't that old.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um they they uh they the the Steelers should have won this game.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_02: The Texans win 30 to 6, but the score is an indicative of how the game went.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I really think if the Steelers take advantage of CJ Strahd and get like a 10 or 14 point lead in that game, I don't think the Texans win it because then the Steelers don't have to throw the ball at all and the Texans can't just win it on defense.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: And um you know, I just they they totally had CJ Strahd rattled.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean and then you know, they tried when they got down, when they finally scored some points, the Texans and the Steelers had to start passing with Rogers, that's when their defense was able to take advantage, and Rogers turned the ball over twice, and that was kind of the ball game.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's it's amazing, Steve.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's one of those games.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_04: There's so many things in sports where somebody's gonna look at that in 15 years and say, wow, 30 to 6, what a blowout.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_04: It was seven to six in the fourth quarter.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if the Steelers when CJ Stroud was fumbling and throwing interceptions, if they just scored 10 points off of that.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_04: If they just had a lead, any kind of lead, it would have been a whole you're right, it would have been a completely different game.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_04: But it was seven to six in the fourth quarter, and then it just kind of got out of hand, like you said.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: But it was literally like a one-point game all the way close to the end of the game, and then and then it just fell apart.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: And you're right, it it they did not you can't you can't have a team turn the ball over that many times in a playoff game and not capitalize on it and then expect to win.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, if they get the 17 or 20 points, I I don't think the Texans have had enough on offense, and then you don't have to take chances on on your offense, you can just run the ball into the line, and as long as you don't fumble, pick up a first down here and there when you need to.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, they scored 30 points.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_04: What 14 of them were on defensive touchdowns, right?
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_04: So you're right.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_04: It it was it was very um it was an odd game, and it was it's it was Mike Tomlin's last ever game.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um with the loss, um, I guess the the Texans have finally won a road playoff game.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I guess the the streak, I guess the streak is over-ish, maybe.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it depends how you count it.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_04: People people still say, you know, the Browns haven't the Browns haven't won at Heinz Field for X amount of years, but because they're not counting the playoff game that they won in 2020, right?
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_04: So it's that's I think that counts more than I agree, but it but it technically, again, like I said at the beginning of the episode, when you're talking about records, if you if you're talking about stats and records, you don't count the postseason.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_04: So it it it's it's all semantics.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: So um the overall record of the El Steel Arenos, uh 32 to 5 home record, they've won 23 straight.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it really was like an amazing streak, too, because it cat carried through two coaches, Tim, Cower and Tomlin.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, which is kind of an odd thing.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like it wasn't just like two years with Tomlin, it was as long with Tomlin as it was with Cower for whatever reason.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um the Steelers have had 90 games total on Monday night football.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Cowboys have the most at 93.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: And like I said, the Steelers have become like a regular staple on Monday night football.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: In contrast, that with like I showed these Bengals games, like you know, we went over those Bengal games.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_02: Do you realize like those are like half the times the Bengals have been on Monday night football is because they are playing the Steelers?
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that crazy, Tim?
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just just like and I I picked the Bengals because I didn't want to pick like Jacksonville or Houston or I I even left Tampa out since they're kind of an expansion team.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: But like really, like, you know, I didn't want to skew the record, but like the Bengals have only they they've only been on Monday Night Football 43 or 40, 44 appearances.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: So they they have the mo they have the fewest among teams that have been in the league since 1970.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_02: So that doesn't count like Tampians Tampa and Seattle are still in like the 30s, but they've only been playing since 1976.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_04: Going back to what you said about Cower and Tomlin, I I never thought about that, but you're right.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_04: The streak literally started in Cower's first season and ended in Tomlin's last season.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a weird symmetry, huh?
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it'll continue under you know the next coach.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: So what happened to Monday night football, Tim?
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what happened was the NFL started playing games multiple days of the week.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_02: You got Thursday, you got Sunday night, you got Tuesday night, you got Wednesday afternoon football, Tim.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's all there because we can't interrupt the tree lighting.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um so with that, um, ESPN moved to more gimmicking tactics, I guess, as the ratings started to wane.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like uh, do you remember uh Dennis Miller, who I liked on Monday Night Football?
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: I liked.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then they had like Tony Kornheiser, who I thought wasn't bad.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh but uh did you happen to catch the uh Manning cast?
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: I do like the Manning cast of Monday Night Football.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: I do enjoy them.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_04: I I haven't actually watched it live, but I've caught like snippets of it.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like with Eli Eli flipped the double bird.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's like, they'll edit this, right?
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, uh no.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_04: Eli's the best, by the way.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_04: I love Eli.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't love that guy, then you're just not a you're just not a happy person.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: Eli's fun.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: He cracks me up.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_02: He seems like he'd be like, like Payne would be fun to hang out with Eli, like Eli would be fun to hang out with too.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't think you'd you'd be bored, that's for sure.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think you'd be bored.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why it was smart doing doing that with the two of them, because they just kind of play off of each other.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it's it it it's it's an interesting thing to do, especially if you don't really you know, if it's not your team playing in the game.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know, maybe you're just watching it for the fantasy stats or something, and it gives you something kind of more interesting to watch.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, speaking of more interesting to watch, um, have you ever watched a game in Monster Vision, Tib?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, you're missing out.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have a link to that, and all our podcast fans can definitely watch the uh game between the Rams and the Eagles in Monster Vision with uh Sully and Mike Wachowski and all the people from Monsters Inc.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: because it isn't like you know Disney and ABC are trying to hype in their own property.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think the NHL does this too.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like they had games like I don't know, is that or that's I guess that's an ESPN thing too.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like they have cartoon games, like it's weird.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like they actually take the game and make them into like cartoon characters and they play football-ish.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's just really odd, Tim.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh yeah.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_04: I I I I don't get it, but I you know I'm not a little kid either.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: They I mean they have at least slime time is just like a replay of the game, and like mainly the highlights, and it's for kids.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um also Monday Night Football moved the ESPN um from 2006 to 2019.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_02: So uh Monday night football, like as it's proper, probably really ended in 2006, I would guess.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um now the announcers are Trey Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who actually aren't bad.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_02: They they they they're solid announcers.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's just you know, just that and and like they stopped.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: I remember they they stopped um I don't think they still do because they don't flex games for Monday.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: They they stop having uh televising games the last week of the season because like they'll end up with like, hey, let's pick the Steelers and Packers, thinking that's a good game.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then either A, both teams are eliminated from the playoffs, or B, both teams have clinched the playoff berth, which means that it's an inconsequential game.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that was the reason like Monday night football.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that was another problem was like Monday night football, always they you always set the schedule like the year before, and the problem with that is is you can't account for injuries or which team's gonna have a good season or which team's gonna have a bad season.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_02: So you always try and like you know pick good matchups, like what like a good matchup might be Steeler Cowboys or Steelers Packers, which you would think, oh, that's gonna be a great game, but it could be both teams are having an off-season, or you know, somebody got Lamar Jackson got injured or has COVID or you know, whatever.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_04: So um that's that's what really started the downfall, Steve.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_04: That that the parody that happened in the 90s, really the late 90s after everybody had a few years to adjust to the salary cap.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because it everything was predictable before that.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_04: You know, in the 80s, it's like you put the 49ers on there, or the Giants, or the Redskins, like these were the powerhouse teams.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_04: You knew they were going to be the powerhouse teams, but then you got into like the late 90s, and remember that one year the Falcons made the Super Bowl when they stunk the year before.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_04: The year after that, the Rams made the Super Bowl when they had stunk the year before.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_04: The year after that, the Ravens made the Super Bowl when they had stunk the year before.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like that was just and then the Patriots when they were you know five and eleven the year before, literally like four years in a row, five years in a row of teams making the Super Bowl that kind of came out of nowhere.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_04: And then the opposite effect happened too, where the teams they thought were going to be good, like you said, they put on these marquee games, and then you get to week 12, and it's these two terrible teams, and nobody cares anymore.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_04: And so when the NFL figured out, hey, we can make Sunday the the game of the week, and then we can flex it and be flex, you know.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's easier to flex a one o'clock game to eight o'clock than it is move a whole day.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_02: Although they're they're starting to do that now, too.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean well, they are, but but but it's bad game proof, right?
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_04: And and I think the viewing habits changed too.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_04: You also started to get like the um the uh the direct TV Sunday ticket kind of stuff.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_02: You had well, I think that's what killed uh Sunday Ticket too.
• 1:05:17
  SPEAKER_02: Is like I remember when I had Sunday Ticket, I was like, there's like four games on at one o'clock today.
• 1:05:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why am I paying all this money for Sunday Ticket when all the games are so spread out?
• 1:05:27
  SPEAKER_02: Even Red Zone is getting like that now, too.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm finding because there's so many games throughout the week, it's like ruining NFL Red Zone.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but but but but my point just being like before if you think back to like the the like the 70s when this started and you had three networks, like you said, you had you had the game in your market.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then like if for so like you had like the Steelers, and then you had like the Cowboys over on CBS, and then you had the Monday night game, and the Monday night game was the only game that you could really watch.
• 1:05:56
  SPEAKER_04: You got to see all these other teams.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_04: I remember being a kid.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_04: I never got to really watch Joe Montana.
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you didn't have all those games on TV, but then you saw them on Monday night.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: And there was no there was no YouTube or internet where you can allow me watch the highlights.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, exactly.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that's what made it big.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_04: That and the fact that it was like it was a show biz production.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like you said, they had the three announcers.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody had three announcers, nobody had celebrities in the booth.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody had like flashy songs, intro songs.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_04: That was all new and and glitzy.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_04: And so that's why it became such a big thing.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_04: And after a while, that just kind of assimilated into the culture and it wasn't special anymore.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_04: So by the time you got into the 2000s and 2010s and and had Sunday night football being a big deal, it just Monday night football wasn't what it used to be.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: Still isn't.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: Still isn't, which is a shame.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I I think sometimes you have to realize with a product, like and I think maybe I'll compare this to baseball cards.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_02: Less is more.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes less is more.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like if I I would get rid of the Thursday night game, quite honestly, and just you you need to keep stuff on either Saturdays late in the season after college football's over, wait till college football's over and do Saturday games, and then just do Sunday games and Monday night games and the Thanksgiving game and Christmas game whenever that falls.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: That that's I I think if you did that, I realized, you know, you could still stream games.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean if you want to.
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I guess that's what they're they're trying to do, is they're trying to squeeze out games on these streaming services, but like I've missed so many.
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like I remember the first time like Netflix had the streaming game and I missed and I was like, oh man, and then this year they had a couple I didn't even care.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so you're you're losing fans by doing this, and I don't think they realize that.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're like, oh, it's the biggest streaming event ever.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like three million people.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you realize like how many a normal broadcast of NFL football gets?
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter.
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's like quadruple that, Tim.
• 1:08:06
  SPEAKER_04: But but it so you're right.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter because there's playing billions of dollars, but that's right.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_02: The bubble's gonna burst here.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, like anything else in life, eventually the the bottom's gonna fall out of this market, and just wonder who's you know what's gonna happen from there.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_02: And will these players be able to adjust when when the salaries go down because the you know, yeah.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't see that happening anytime soon.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_04: But you're right, everything people didn't see Rome falling either.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, stuff does happen.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um It's it's the law, it's just human nature, it's the way the world works.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: It is, it is.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_02: You can't fight it forever.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_04: You can't, but I mean, my goodness.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_04: I just the the gambling and the fantasy football alone have have skyrocketed the NFL into territory that no other sports league could even dream of approaching.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_04: Right, and they they pander to those guys well and it's a perfect sport for those things.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_02: Right, it's once a week, it's a short it's not a super long season.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right, yeah.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_04: If I have to set my fantasy hockey team every night, I'm gonna lose interest.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know, but but football, it's once a week.
• 1:09:22
  SPEAKER_04: Gambling, man, you can gamble on like what the next play is gonna be.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_04: Literally, you know, uh that that's something that that you just don't have in other sports.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_04: So it it really appeals to those audiences, and it's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_04: They're gonna add an 18th game, they're going to just rake in more and more money.
• 1:09:42
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't see it anything anytime soon.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_04: And and like I've said before, Steve, you know, I I we sit here and complain, but then you know, we're right there on Sundays turning on the biggest thing.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I will say that I I I guess.
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't know.
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, I hate to admit this, like, I don't watch the Thursday night games unless it's the Steelers.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't, you know, yeah, it's normally a terrible game.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_02: And if it's on Netflix, I don't care.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not signing up for Netflix just for one game.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't watch anything else on that streaming service.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, that's it for this episode.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we love to talk about Monday night football.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, everybody else does too.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, especially if you're older and you want to reminisce about the downfall or your memories or Bernie Carmele faking an injury to give the dolphins more time at the end of the game, or Alex Smith stealing a ball on a on a Monday night game that was unboxed.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Tim, that Monday night game for watching was on boxed.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um check us out on Facebook.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the Facebook page is great.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_02: Tim does a great job there.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um check us out on our website if you want to check out that episode.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_02: The more uh easier it is on Spotify and all the other screeners, give us a good ratings there.
• 1:10:56
  SPEAKER_02: It helps us uh reach more people.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your wives, girlfriend, you know, people you're be out on the street at the grocery store, whatever.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um thank you for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_02: God bless.