“Records are made to be broken.” John Stallworth, during the Steelers 75 Anniversary Game
John Stallworth’s was responding to a question about whether he felt jealous about Hines Ward breaking all of his receiving records with the Steelers. Stallworth admitted he’d sent Hines a letter. “What did you say?” the reporter inquired,
“Stop breaking my records young man!” Stallworth joked, and then went on to talk about how great it was to have is record broken by Hines.
The Steelers 75th Anniversary Game gave cause for celebration in Steelers Nation as did the night less than two years earlier when a pass from Antwaan Randle El pushed Ward beyond Stallworth in the total receptions category. Aside from the record, the Steelers defeated the Browns 34-21 and improved to 7-2.
How times change.
Individual Pittsburgh Steelers are still breaking records, but the stars can’t seem to line up to make it cause for celebration. In 2011 Ward crossed another threshold when he reached the elusive 1,000 receptions mark. Ron Cook of the Post-Gazette said 1,000 catches should cement Ward’s status as a great.
- Yet, the catch actually lost three yards and the play itself had been designed to simply get the ball to Ward for the sake of him getting it.
While it was a triumphant moment, the milestone also marked how far Ward had fallen. Browns fans have even taken to mocking it on YouTube.
Last year Ben Roethlisberger did some record breaking of his own, breaking Terry Bradshaw’s career touchdown passing record. Unfortunately, the event happened as the Steelers were getting embarrassed by a Miami Dolphins team quarterbacked by a player who’d never seen snow.
- Antonio Brown hasn’t broken any Steelers records (yet).
But he did break an NFL record last week by becoming the NFL’s first player to have at least 5 receptions for 50 yards in 20 straight games.
- He was not the only Pittsburgh player to pass a milestone.
Heath Miller passed Lynn Swann as the Steelers 4th all time receiver. The Pittsburgh Steelers even went as far as to tweet the infographic above. Which is fine, but its also safe to say that no one in Steelers Nation feels like celebrating after a loss as bad as the Tampa loss.
Thanks for visiting. Click here to check out the rest of Steel Curtain Rising. Or… Follow @SteelCurtainRis
