A Tale of Two Running Backs ...

In the wake of Super Bowl XL, there are many of us - at least among those with more than passing fancy for the Pittsburgh Steelers - that are sharing their own, unique perspective on "The Game" and "What It Meant" ...

Why should I be any different? ...

Mine is "A Tale of Two Running Backs" ... and it's about two men whose glory days were spent running the ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers ... and who ended their careers in a field surrounded by Seahawks ... though in VERY DIFFERENT ways ...

I watched the first of them, Franco Harris, when I was a teenager in Pennsylvania, back in the 70s ... Harris was part of what was - to me, at least - the greatest team in the history of American football ... he was one of many, MANY great players and future Hall-of-Famers playing for the Steelers at the time, and was part of one of the most awesome running back duos in the league (the other was Rocky Bleier ... a personal hero of mine, to this day) ...

In one respect, we've never seen another team quite like those Steelers, and never will again ... it was the last team to win a Super Bowl with what was completely home-grown talent, with a starting lineup made up entirely from its own draft ... the times, they were a-changin' back then, and one of those changes involved free agency ...

And that's what got Franco ... On September 6, 1984, unable to come to an agreement with the Steelers in what some suggested might be his last season, he signed with the Seattle Seahawks ... it was a chance at bigger bucks, but not much else ... by the end of October, he was released by the Seahawks ...

The last photo I saw of Franco suited-up was in the uniform of the Seahawks ... and that hurt ... after all, this was the man who had gave us all the Immaculate Reception, which remains one of the greatest images of Steeler glory, and a preview of the greatness that lay ahead for them ... it was enough to make one want to rip off your armband that identified you as a member of Franco's Italian Army ... but you didn't ... he was still Franco, and we still loved him and waited for him to, someday, come home ...

More than twenty years later, along comes Jerome Bettis ... another running back for the Steelers, another great rusher coming to the end of a great career, another half (with Willie Parker) of a dynamic duo of running backs, and another member of a talented ensemble of athletes destined for glory ...

Last night, that glory was achieved, and the running back's career came to an end ... and it happened, once again, in a field full of Seahawks ...

But, oh, the difference ...