By Mike Bires mbires@timesonline.com | Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:45 pm
For Steelers fans younger than 50, there’s nothing like Steelers vs. Ravens. It’s one of the NFL’s nastiest rivalry right now. But for those old enough to have witnessed the 1970s, there was nothing like Steelers vs. Raiders.
That feud was so vicious that some of the battles wound up in a court of law.
Count Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who’s 34, among those who don’t know much about the Pittsburgh/Oakland rivalry of yesteryear. One day during training camp last August, Harrison said he had never even heard of Ken Stabler. Nicknamed “the Snake,” Stabler played quarterback for the Raiders on the 1970s and played a leading role in the rivalry with the Steelers.
When asked what he knows of the history between the Steelers and Raiders, running back Isaac Redman, who’s 27, proudly proclaimed that he knew all about Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception. Kudos to Redman for having an appreciation of the most famous singular play in sports history.
But the Steelers/Raiders rivalry of the ‘70s that gave us much more than just the Immaculate Reception.
Consider that:
-- The Steelers and Raiders met an unprecedented five straight times in the playoffs -- including three times in the AFC Championship game -- from 1972-76.
-- On Dec. 22, 1972 before the Raiders played the Steelers in a first-round playoff, Oakland tight end Rob Moore claimed he was mugged by Pittsburgh police outside the Downtown Hilton. A throng of Steelers fans had gathered outside the hotel and jeered any Raider who ventured in or out.
A police report said that “all hell broke loose” when Moore and a teammate tried squeezing through the crowd after watching a movie. Moore was treated at Mercy Hospital where he needed five stitches to close a gash on his head. Moore played the next day, although he had a hard time putting on his helmet.
-- After losing a first-round playoff game to the Raiders in 1973, the rivalry continued to take shape a year later. During the regular season, the Steelers lost in Oakland. Then on Dec. 29, 1974, the Steelers returned to Oakland for the AFC championship. This was a pivotal game in Steelers’ history, one that got them to the Super Bowl for the first time.
It also marked one of the few times in Chuck Noll’s career as coach that he gave a pre-game pep talk. Noll was none too happy about remarks made by Raiders coach John Madden the previous week. After Oakland knocked off Miami, the two-time reigning Super Bowl champs, in a first-round playoff game, Madden called the Raiders and Dolphins the NFL’s best two teams.
Noll was livid and told the Steelers that “the Super Bowl is two weeks from now, and the best team in pro football is sitting right here in this room.”
The Steelers beat the Raiders 24-13. Two weeks later, they beat the Vikings in Super Bowl IX.
-- The following season, the Steelers and Raiders met again for the right to go to the Super Bowl. But this game was played at ice-cold Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The temperature that day was 17 degrees with a wind-chill factor of minus 10.
“The ice may have been worse than the cold, especially the ice along the sidelines,” said Madden, who insinuated that the Steelers’ grounds crew created this icy situation on purpose in an effort to slow down the Raiders’ passing attack.
“Cold as hell,” Noll said after a 16-10 win. “You couldn’t do the things you do normally. You couldn’t play perfect football, but it was a true test. It brings out character.”
-- As if the football gods added fuel to the feud, these two rivals opened the 1976 season in Oakland. The Raiders won a brutal battle 31-28 in a game in which defensive back George “Doctor Death” Atkinson knocked out Steelers receiver Lynn Swann with a vicious forearm to the head (just as he had dine in the '75 AFC Championship Game). Afterwards, Noll referred to Atkinson when talking about the “criminal element” in football.
Atkinson filed a $2 million defamation lawsuit against Noll and the Steelers, but lost.
-- In the 1976 AFC Championship Game, the Steelers and Raiders met again. But in Oakland, the Steelers lost 24-7 while Harris and Rocky Bleier sat out with injuries.
-- So just how intense and entertaining was the Steelers/Raiders rivalry in the 1970s?
Perhaps ex-NFL referee Tommie Bell put it best before the '76 playoffs.
Because he was about to end his long career as an official, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle granted Bell a retirement wish: For your final assignment, you can work the AFC Championship Game between the Steelers and Raiders, or you can ref the Super Bowl.
Bell chose Steelers vs. Raiders.
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