Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [6]
Pittsburgh needed just one play to cross the goal line and seconds into the half, the score stood 13-6. The ensuing Buffalo possession was similarly disastrous. Three plays by Kelly’s offense failed to produce a first down, forcing Levy to send out his punt team. From his own twenty-four-yard line, John Kidd booted the ball downfield, only to see the unbelievably strong winds that blew in from Lake Erie stonewall the kick. The punt went five yards. Again, Pittsburgh took advantage of the Bills special teams mishap and quickly put another touchdown on the scoreboard.
At that point in the game, with just over ten minutes remaining in the third period and each team having recorded two touchdowns, the score should have been tied 14-14. But the wind affected more than just the punting game. Three of the four point-after-touchdown tries failed: one for Buffalo and both Pittsburgh attempts. Steelers holder Harry Newsome couldn’t field either one of Dan Turk’s long snaps.
“The ball was fluttering back,” Noll said. “It was like a knuckleball and our catcher couldn’t hang on to it. Our catcher didn’t have a big enough glove.”
Twenty-six-year-old kicker Scott Norwood ignored the kicking game conundrum when he trotted out to attempt a critical field goal. Kelly, Levy, and the rest of the sideline breathed a sigh of relief when his twenty-nine-yard try was good, making the score 16-12. With ten minutes remaining in the game, the task before Buffalo’s defense was simple: keep Pittsburgh out of the end zone.
Pacing along the sidelines during the final minutes, Levy watched Buffalo’s defense—which had been exceptional all afternoon—now surrender large chunks of yardage.
“I kept saying ‘This can’t happen. Not at the end. Please don’t let them score,’” Jim Kelly said.
The Steelers drove from their own twenty-yard line to the Buffalo twenty-nine. With ten seconds showing on the clock, Malone surveyed the field and chucked a pass intended for Calvin Sweeney near the end zone.
“Mark throws it, he tries to throw it into the scoreboard end,” Steve Tasker remembered. “Even on a good day, the wind knocks that down. And he threw it in a windy day and it had no chance. It ended up ten yards short from where it was gonna go and it goes right into Rodney Bellinger’s hands.”
At the two-yard line, Buffalo safety Rodney Bellinger intercepted the pass to secure the victory.
“We were relaxed, we were confident, even at the end,” Bellinger said. “I attribute that to the new coach (Marv Levy). All the guys were loose. He wants to see us have fun and not be tight. I think the coaching change was a step in the right direction.”
During his first postgame press conference, the ever-modest Levy deflected any praise.
“Thank God for 45 stout hearts and the north wind,” he told reporters.
Levy didn’t quite know his situation yet: there were only forty-three men on his roster, and the forty-seven-mile-per-hour winds were blustering in from the southwest.
1
Every Pennsylvania Boy Wants to Play for JoePa
With two athletically gifted older brothers, William Jeffrey Hostetler had learned to wait with patience and humility for his turn in the spotlight. The fifth child (third boy) of Norman and Dolly Hostetler, Jeff was born on April 22, 1961, in rural western Pennsylvania. A tough, hard-working farmer, Norm owned 120 acres off of State Route 601, where he raised dairy cows before a fire prompted him to switch exclusively to chickens. (Although their postal address was Holsopple, Pennsylvania, the family lived closer to the town of Jerome.)
In between feeding chickens and washing eggs, the Hostetler boys tossed around baseballs, footballs, or basketballs and watched Notre Dame football games on television. But because Norm and Dolly were Mennonites, they had not planned on sending the children to public school.
“Mom and dad prayed over the matter,” recalled Ron, the eldest male. “They decided