Former Pittsburgh Steelers RB Rocky Bleier played 10 games as a rookie for the Pittsburgh Steelers, got drafted to the Vietnam War, suffered life-threatening injuries, and lost a part of his foot. He then came back and managed to run for 3,826 yards and 23 touchdowns, including a 1,036-yard season in 1976. But in the eyes of The 33rd Team’s Ian Valentino, that’s less impressive than Adrian Peterson coming back from a torn ACL or John Riggins coming back from a holdout.
In a list of the ten greatest player comebacks in NFL history, Bleier’s comeback from war and life-threatening injuries ranked 10th. Riggins, whose big comeback came because he spent a year on a farm during a contract holdout, ranked sixth, while Peterson’s recovery from a torn ACL ranked third.
Peterson did win MVP the season he came back, and he quickly recovered after tearing his ACL in Week 13 the previous season. But his comeback is from an unfortunately common injury that NFL doctors know how to treat effectively and get players back to full strength. Rocky Bleier literally lost part of his foot from grenade shrapnel and gunfire and came back and was a huge piece of Pittsburgh teams that won four Super Bowls during his time there.
Putting Riggins ahead of Bleier on the list is beyond egregious. He missed the 1980 season with a holdout, went to work on his farm near Lawrence, Kan., and attended classes at the University of Kansas. He returned after the holdout and became a Super Bowl MVP later in his career, which is impressive. But “coming back” from a holdout is a whole lot less impressive than coming back from life-threatening injuries suffered during the Vietnam War.
If you want to judge the list strictly off player accomplishments after they came back from their injury or ailment, that’s totally fine, but that’s not consistent with how the rest of the list is selected. Plenty of people deserve to be on the list and are. Damar Hamlin came in at No. 1, Alex Smith at No. 2, and both Eric Berry and Tedy Bruschi made the list. I have no qualms with any of them being on the list or their placement. But to say that John Riggins’ comeback from a holdout or Peterson’s from a knee injury is more impressive than Bleier’s is pretty ludicrous to me.
Bleier will always be a Steelers legend for his on- and off-the-field actions, and he deserves to be much higher on this list.
