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Sunday, January 11, 2009
The San Diego Chargers have not visited our fair city for a playoff game since Jan. 15, 1995, when they authored one of the most agonizing defeats in Steelers history.
Chargers linebacker Dennis Gibson celebrates his teaam's upset victory over the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 15, 1995.
Getty Images
Hate to go back there, but maybe reliving it could be a cleansing experience before the Chargers and Steelers bang heads later today at Heinz Field.
Besides, it's not every week you talk to a guy who turned Alfred Pupunu into a star, a defensive guru who's older than Dick LeBeau and a pizza-shop proprietor who is responsible for a painful slice of Steelers history.
First the guru, 82-year-old Bill Arnsparger, who'd just returned from a tennis outing near his home in San Diego when he took time to discuss LeBeau and the '94 AFC title game.
Arnsparger had run the Miami Dolphins' "No-Name Defense" in their perfect 1972 season. In 1994, he was the Chargers' defensive coordinator under Bobby Ross. He was 68 then, three years younger than LeBeau is now, and his work helped a double-digit underdog escape Three Rivers Stadium with a stunning 17-13 victory, one that still pains Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who says seeing the Chargers logo on Joe Robbie Field at Super Bowl XXXIX made him cringe.
The Steelers were so confident that tight end Eric Green had begun plans for a Super Bowl rap video. Nobody thought the Chargers could win, a fact that still makes Arnsparger chuckle.
"The people who make those judgments, they guess about it," he said. "Just like we all do at times."
Arnsparger's influence will be felt today, not because of what happened 14 years ago but because of his relationship with LeBeau, the Steelers' defensive coordinator.
"I like watching him work," Arnsparger said. "He comes up with something new every week."
The seed for LeBeau's "fire-zone defense" was planted during a conversation with Arnsparger in 1988, when LeBeau was the Cincinnati Bengals' defensive coordinator and Arnsparger was the athletic director at Florida. LeBeau was in town to scout players. He decided to pop in and ask Arnsparger about the cutting-edge work he'd done with the Dolphins, including dropping linemen into coverage.
That chat led to a revolutionary style of defense.
"Bill said to me, 'I was just looking for a safer way to get pressure,' " LeBeau recalled during training camp this season. "That was the germ, that sentence right there. A safer way to get pressure. I had a flight after that to Seattle, I think, so I had plenty of time on my hands. I scribbled a lot of things out."
LeBeau was the Steelers' secondary coach in 1994, when coordinator Dom Capers and his "Blitzburgh" defense collapsed against the Chargers, giving up two long passes on the way to blowing a 13-3 second-half lead.
Which brings us to the guy who made Pupunu a star.
Ralph Friedgen ran San Diego's offense at the time, and he put in a special play that week - a funky looking route for Pupunu, his pudgy tight end, built off a play fake to running back Natrone Means.
"(Quarterback) Stan Humphries said it was a high school play, and it would never work," recalled Friedgen, now the coach at Maryland. "He said: 'You don't have the (courage) to call it in a game.'
"I said, 'Watch me.' "
The play worked for a 43-yard touchdown that cut the Steelers' lead to 13-10. The Chargers went ahead, 17-13, with 5:13 left on another 43-yard pass, this one to Tony Martin, who beat cornerback Tim McKyer.
Still, the Steelers had a chance to win with a fourth-and-goal at the San Diego 3 as the clock clicked toward zero.
Which brings us to the pizza-shop proprietor.
"The one thing I remember," Dennis Gibson says, "is how quiet the stadium got."
Gibson, who runs Encore Pizza in Johnston, Iowa, belongs right up there with Francisco Cabrera, Barry Goheen and David Volek among the names that make Pittsburgh sports fans recoil in anguish. He deflected Neil O'Donnell's end-zone pass away from Barry Foster and into Steelers infamy.
And he is often reminded of it.
"It's funny, because a few weeks ago, a guy came up to me and said, 'You know, I'm a Steelers fan,' " Gibson said. "I'm like, 'Oh boy, here we go.' "
Two images stand out in Gibson's mind from that final drive, which began at the Steelers' 17 — Arnsparger's eerie calmness on the sidelines and linebacker Junior Seau's manic behavior on the field.
Gibson was the middle linebacker, responsible for lining up teammates. He could have used a strait jacket for Seau, who played a phenomenal game despite a pinched nerve in his neck.
"He was borderline out of his mind," Gibson said. "I had to grab him one time and throw him to other side of the field. It was like, 'Junior, you have to get over there. You can't have your brain locked up!' He was really out of his head a little bit."
So were Steelers fans when the gun sounded. Asked if he has a message for those fans, all these years later, Gibson paused.
"They shouldn't take it so hard, you know?" he said. "And just because you're picked to win, it doesn't mean it's going to work out that way."
DREAM CRUSHERS
Five athletes who broke Pittsburgh's heart:
Barry Goheen — Vandy star's 25-foot buzzer-beater forced OT, led to upset of No. 2 seed Pitt in 1988 NCAA Tournament — They should have fouled him.
Dennis Gibson — Chargers linebacker knocked down pass at goal line to seal stunning upset of Steelers in '94 AFC title game — Too bad Tim McKyer didn't knock down a pass.
David Volek — Shocking OT goal in Game 7 at Civic Arena led Islanders past Penguins in 1993 playoffs And there went a potential dynasty.
Larry Brown — Two interceptions in Super Bowl XXX foiled Steelers' upset bid — At least he was open.
Francisco Cabrera — Singled home Sid Bream to win '92 NL Championship Series — Basically ended Pirates baseball as we knew it
Five Pittsburgh athletes who broke hearts elsewhere:
Darius Kasparaitis — Beat Sabres on Game 7 OT goal in 2001 — They hated him before he scored
Frank Pietrangelo — Miraculous save changed Devils series in 1991 — Without it, would Pens have won any Cups?
2007 Pitt football team — Beat West Virginia, 13-9, to keep Mountaineers out of national title game — An entire state nearly collapsed in horror
Franco Harris — Immaculate Reception beat Raiders in 1972 playoffs — John Madden will never get over it
Bill Mazeroski — Beat mighty Yankees with one swing of the bat; Game 7 walk-off in 1960 — Greatest moment in Pittsburgh sports history
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