You see a young Dick Enberg, but you see no custom designed on the field stage. No confetti. No preprinted Super Bowl Champion shirts or hats. But none of that diminishes what was and remains one of Steelers Nation’s crowning moments of glory.
Through the magic of YouTube we can all relive the Lombardi Trophy presentation from Super Bowl XIII and behold Art Rooney Sr.’s unshakable humility in the face of the franchise’s greatest glory. Listen to the The Chief’s gracious words while hearing our fathers and grandfathers echoed in his accent. Watch it here now (note, available as of 2/07/14):
Every Super Bowl victory is precious, but the Super Bowl XIII victory did something extra special for the franchise.
The NFL came of age in the 1970’s, and that process was midwifed by Hank Stram’s Chiefs, an aging Johnny Unitas and the Colts, and John Madden’s Raiders. By 1978 these teams had already assured themselves legend status, but they nonetheless took a back seat to three others – The Miami Dolphins, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Pittsburgh Steelers who had each who two Super Bowls in the decade.
By winning Super Bowl XIII either the Steelers or the Cowboys would separate the great from the greatest by becoming the first franchise to win 3 Super Bowls.
Future Hall of Famers Tom Landry, Randy White, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorestt put Pittsburgh to the test, taking the game to the wire.
But at day ultimately belonged to future another group of future Hall of Famers Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Mel Blount, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, Mike Webster, John Stallworth, and Lynn Swann all led by an uncharacteristically exuberant Chuck Noll, who rightly predicted that “This team hasn’t peaked yet.”
Since then the Pittsburgh Steelers have doubled the Lombardi total reached in Miami. But on that day, 3 was enough.
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