A new series to help finish up and round out the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 offseason. Full disclosure, none of these will be flattering moments in team history. Gaffes never are. And while they’re usually reserved for the spoken world, “what the…” examples exist on the football field, too. Over the next week, we’ll be counting down the top five. Er, bottom five.
At the least, these are moments you can look back on and laugh. To keep from crying.
Steelers Gaffe No. 5 – Richard Huntley Fumbles, Somehow Makes Things Worse
Full disclosure. The Steelers’ 1999, Week 17 game against the Tennessee Titans wasn’t an enjoyable one even putting Richard Huntley’s gaffe aside. In fact, the ’99 season sucked. After a promising 5-3 start, the Steelers dropped their next six games, their longest losing streak since the merger.
By this finale against the Titans, Pittsburgh’s year was over. They hosted Tennessee, whose season was a mirror opposite. They won seven of their final eight games, finished the year 13-3, won the AFC Central, and came up 1-yard shy of a Super Bowl. There was a dark cloud hanging over Three Rivers Stadium going into the afternoon, and it only hung lower throughout the day.
The Steelers kept things close in the first quarter. Huntley’s 8-yard rushing score tied the game at 7 after 15 minutes. The dam broke in the second quarter, the Titans rattling off 24 straight points to take a 31-7 halftime lead, including a Jevon Kearse fumble return touchdown. Pittsburgh had to endure another painful and pointless 30 minutes.
The Steelers rallied in the third quarter. They matched a fumble return score, Joey Porter scooping and running 46 yards into the end zone. That narrowed the gap to 40-29 and it wasn’t even the fourth quarter.
Things calmed throughout the fourth quarter. Driving late with a chance to make it a one-score game with even a field goal, QB Mike Tomczak handed off to Huntley. He never had a grasp on the football, immediately losing control and watching it skip away.
DB Denard Walker picked it up and Huntley went for the tackle. Momentum pulling him the other way, he easily fell off. And then he…stopped. Most charitably, he assumed Stewart had made the tackle. But Huntley turned his back away from the ball, thrashing his arm in anger at his game-sealing fumble. Walker easily broke free from Stewart and brushed past Huntley, either unaware or unmoved by the play not being over. Walker took it to the house, 83 yards, for the third fumble-return touchdown of the day.
As Chris Berman and Tom Jackson broke down that evening, Huntley’s gaffe was impossible to miss.
“Another guy who thinks the play was over,” Jackson said. “It will be in just a second.”
Knife twisted.
Things got more embarrassing from there. WR Bobby Shaw scored a garbage time 35-yard touchdown, lifting up a Superman shirt to celebrate. Bill Cowher’s chin was out in full force.
The Steelers would rebound in 2000, going 9-7. Though they missed the playoffs, it felt like progress. Huntley didn’t go in the same direction. His offensive role was slashed and production across the board fell off. He would become known for being the final Steeler to score in Three Rivers Stadium but by 2001, he was in Carolina.
Huntley’s saving grace is this. Ugly as the moment was, it didn’t really hurt the Steelers. Even if they stormed back and completed the comeback, their season was over. 6-10 versus 7-9, it didn’t really matter. But if you want the epitome of making a bad situation worse, fumble the football like it’s covered in oil and then angrily stew while the other team blows past you for a long defensive score.
