The San Francisco 49ers are now in a small fraternity of teams to lose three Super Bowls while winning multiple others; the Pittsburgh Steelers are just outside that group with two losses to six wins, Ryan Clark contributing to both columns. He recalls the loss in 2010 to the Green Bay Packers far more vividly.
“The one we lost to the Packers, I remember everything about the confetti, because it’s falling on my head as Mike Tomlin puts his arm around me and we’re walking off the field”, he said on Inside the NFL last week on The CW. “I don’t care what anybody says. Going to the Super Bowl and not winning it is, to me, worse than never going. I would’ve rather been at my house with popcorn and Diet Coke and finger foods watching somebody else play the Packers, watching the New York Jets and Rex Ryan play the Packers other than losing it”.
View this post on Instagram
The Steelers defeated Ryan’s Jets in the conference finals that season for the right to play in the Super Bowl. Clark is of the opinion that he and his teammates would have been better off losing that game rather than the Super Bowl. Fellow panelist Channing Crowder disagreed, though he never reached even a conference final.
“It’s that miserable of an experience”, Clark said, recalling James Harrison insisting they dance and tear it up anyway because they couldn’t take back the loss. “Getting on the elevator and Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor are hugging and embracing and crying.
“It was almost like mourning a death. So for me, I would rather just not even get to that point and just be like the other 30 schlubs you end up as from not winning it”.
Some people seem to hold this opinion—including fans—and I can never quite buy it. Reaching the Super Bowl is certainly a bigger achievement than not. Of course losing a title game hurts, but so does not reaching it at all. I wouldn’t want to retire having never even reached a Super Bowl.
Everyone has their own experiences, however, and Clark shared his with us. The 2010 loss to the Packers remains a sore spot for Steelers fans. The fact that they pulled to within three with half of the fourth quarter left only makes it worse.
Then Rashard Mendenhall fumbled the ball away, even if he has somehow convinced himself that he didn’t really fumble. David Johnson missed his block, and the defender had a clear shot at Mendenhall. Helmet on ball, out it goes. It doesn’t really matter who’s to blame because the outcome doesn’t change.
The Steelers had already won a Super Bowl in 2005 and then managed another in 2008. They were 6-1 in the championship game by then. They could do no wrong as long as they had a franchise quarterback. So they may have felt. Surely, that only made the pain of losing sting that much harder. The weight of the confetti somehow feeling more burdensome than possible.
