Ask most NFL fans why their team missed a Super Bowl run between 2000 and 2020, and they’ll point straight at Tom Brady. Six rings tend to do that. But for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a franchise tied with New England for the most Lombardi Trophies in history, the GOAT wasn’t the ultimate roadblock. Former Black and Gold star Le’Veon Bell reveals that Brady wasn’t the sole reason Pittsburgh hasn’t lifted a trophy since 2008.
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“Injuries. I mean that football is one of those games that is rough, bro,” Bell said on Ball in the Family Podcast. “And you need depth, and we had depth. But I think when the kind of star players go down, like if AB [Antonio Brown] goes down, if he’s hurt, if I go down, I’m hurt. Then we lose a lot of our offense.
“… It’s just unfortunate it happened to us. You know what I’m saying? I think if we get healthy and we play the whole season, we’ll be talented-wise. I think we end up getting a ring. And obviously Tom Brady was no damn problem, right?”
Tom Brady and the Patriots rarely let the Steelers breathe easy when they played each other. Brady was 12-4 vs Pittsburgh, including a crushing 3–0 record in AFC Championship games. However, he was only one player; injuries at key moments have held the Steelers back from making a mark in the postseason.
That sure was the case. Drafted in the second round in 2013, Le’Veon Bell quickly anchored Pittsburgh’s offense alongside QB Ben Roethlisberger and WR Antonio Brown, the legendary trio famously dubbed the “Killer B’s.” Yet, their dominance was routinely derailed by brutal health struggles. In 2014, a low hit against the Cincinnati Bengals hyperextended Bell’s knee, knocking him out of the Wild-Card game against Baltimore. A year later, another clash with Cincinnati ended in disaster: a severe MCL and PCL tear in Week 8 that wiped out the rest of his season and stripped Pittsburgh of their star back for the 2015 playoffs.
The health issues didn’t stop. Bell suffered a groin injury against the Miami Dolphins on January 8, 2017, but courageously played through the pain a week later against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That resilience hit a wall during the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots on January 22, 2017. Bell’s groin gave out early in the first quarter, forcing him to the sideline and effectively ending the Steelers’ offensive firepower before it could even get off the ground.
Antonio Brown wasn’t safe either. Brown was sidelined for the 2015 Divisional Game after a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit from Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict left him in concussion protocol. Even legendary quarterback Ben Roethlisberger battled a relentless series of injuries, spending an astonishing 72 weeks on the injury report over his career. But while this was on the offensive side of the ball, the defensive side had its own story.
Linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a serious spinal injury against the Cincinnati Bengals on December 4, 2017. The injury ended his season, so he could not return for the playoffs. As a result, Shazier missed the Steelers’ AFC Divisional Round game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, where Pittsburgh lost and was eliminated from the playoffs.
DeAngelo Williams suffered a foot/ankle injury in the Steelers’ final regular-season game of the 2015 season against the Cleveland Browns. Because of the injury, he missed the team’s Wild Card and Divisional Round playoff games. However, he recovered in time to play in the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots.
His injury was another example of how injuries affected the Steelers’ depth and made their path to the Super Bowl harder. They were all star players at the time of the injuries.
Excellent regular seasons simply stopped translating to postseason survival. Ever since that 2016 run, Pittsburgh has been trapped in an uncharacteristic playoff slump, going a full decade without a single tournament win. Their recent 30-6 Wild Card loss to the Texans marked the seventh straight playoff game in which the Steelers trailed in the second half, and their seventh consecutive loss overall. Inside the postgame locker room, the mood was solemn.
“I think every man in here really wanted it,” Cameron Heyward said after the game.
However, Brady has often steamrolled the Steelers, creating unsavory moments for fans. He had never been defeated by the team when they came to play New England at Gillette, and even won his last Steelers matchup at home 33-3. His passer rating is at an impressive 109.2 vs the Steelers, and he remains 3-0 in postseason clashes with the Black and Gold. Brady had also never been intercepted by the Pittsburgh in the postseason.
Perhaps the most painful memory Brady left on the Steelers fanbase is the 2016 AFC Championship game. Brady spent the entire year trying to escape the shadow of the Deflategate controversy. But he and the Patriots left no stone unturned and won the game 36-17. The legendary quarterback proved why he is one: he set a franchise record of 384 yards and three touchdowns.
The Steelers had to end their run at 11-5 that season, while the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl. Ironically, the Steelers named Le’Veon Bell the team MVP that season. He had a front-row seat to watch what Brady did to them.