On a sunny day in 1970, the Pittsburgh Steelers played their first game in a state-of-the-art complex known as Three Rivers Stadium. They lost that season opener to the Houston Oilers, but over the next thirty years, the venue became one of the NFL’s toughest places to play. Over that span, the Steelers went 169-67 in the regular season and 13-5 at home in the playoffs.
After three decades of thrilling wins, the last game was played on December 16, 2000. A rainy Saturday against the Washington Redskins.
Fifty-one former players, introduced before the game by Myron Cope, gathered to celebrate the moment. There were Bleier, Blount, Frenchy, Kevin Greene, Joe Greene, Harris, Lambert, Lipps, Noll, Swann, among others. L.C. Greenwood wore his gold shoes for the occasion. Joe Gilliam, the groundbreaking quarterback from the 70’s, drew a loud ovation when he was featured on camera. Sadly, he had only eight days to live.
For Ainsley Battles, a rookie from Vanderbilt who started the game at safety, the historic moment wasn’t lost.
“You’re talking about Three Rivers Stadium. So, this is one of the Meccas of football,” he tells me in a recent interview. “This is the Immaculate Reception with Franco Harris. When you talk about the Steelers, again, on the sidelines, we’ve got Mel Blount, all the Steelers from whoever played, or so, when you kind of walk out there. You’re looking at decades of players standing there watching you.
“When I stop and think about who’s been on this field and what’s happened here, and for me to have my first start in the NFL in the last game at Three Rivers as an undrafted free agent, it’s a big deal.”
For running back Richard Huntley, he had other things on his mind.
“I wasn’t thinking about that. I knew that I had to have a good game because I was working on the next year’s contract,” he told me.
By kickoff, Battles was in the same state of mind.
“During the week, it’s emotional. Come Sunday, it’s work. You’re going to go out there to get it done.”
The first quarter was a standoff. Washington flashed initial momentum, moving the sticks a few times, but only managed a field goal. The Steeler offense had a three-and-out and a few futile but respectable plays. As with the 2000 team, the defense looked good.
In fact, the team allowed a mere 22 touchdowns over the 16-game season. They registered two shutouts and, in one five-game stretch, did not allow a touchdown. Considering the team’s historic identity, the unit was poised to bring a fitting end to the stadium.
Early in the second quarter, the Steelers started showing signs of life, largely thanks to quarterback Kordell Stewart, who threw well and escaped pressure to run for first downs all afternoon. When Kris Brown kicked a field goal, the score was knotted at three.
With three minutes left in the first half, rookie Hank Poteat was just past midfield when he caught a punt, bolted quickly across the field, and broke the game open on a fine return for a touchdown. It was quick thinking. The punt spiraled to the left side of the field. When Washington’s tacklers took a hard angle to the right to cover him, the wet turf and good blocks from the Steelers took them out of the action. Poteat simply barreled past the punter and broke a tackle to score the longest punt return touchdown in stadium history.
The crowd went bananas. The score was 10-3.
Less than one minute later, the Redskins completed a pass, but Steelers cornerback Chad Scott strong-armed the receiver and snatched the ball from him. Pittsburgh was on the march again.
Kordell Stewart and Jerome Bettis moved the yardsticks on running plays, and Huntley scored his first of two touchdowns on the day from three yards out.
Frankly, the Redskins were a broken team. They might as well have loaded the bus and driven to the airport instead of finishing the game.
As with any game from the time period, much of the game’s action came from Jerome Bettis’ legs, chewing up yardage and time late in the game. When not running the ball, he was a decoy on Kordell’s play-action passes. It was fitting, given the legacy of Franco Harris, Barry Foster, and others, that he repeatedly pumped up the crowd with his powerful running. He was on his way to one of his 100-yard days.
Battles summed up the man.
“I’d call him the people’s champ. I mean, he is, he’s the mayor, man. He’s such a personable man. He’s having hot dogs with everybody else. It’s almost counterintuitive. Because you would think [being] that type of celebrity would make you secretive.”
Bettis’ backfield colleague Huntley, negotiating for a better contract with his feet, ran for his second touchdown late in the game. Off left tackle, he displayed acceleration at first in getting free. Next, he slipped a couple of tackles from dispirited Washington defenders and brought the crowd to its feet for a 30-yard touchdown, closing the score with the resulting 24-3 Steeler lead.
Huntley was focused on playing a great game to secure a good contract, so the finale may have lacked personal sentimentality, but he still loves his team 26 years later.
“The Steelers are a great organization; they always treat you like family. The Rooneys take good care of their players and the families of the players. I had my son on the day of the last preseason game, and Mr. Rooney said, ‘You can go home and be with your new son. Take some time off.’ The one thing is we all wanted to win.”
Ainsley Battles played a fine game, too. Battles put pressure on George at times as part of defensive coordinator Tim Lewis’ safety blitz-heavy game plan. He defended one pass and was in on 5 tackles.
In the context of the NFL’s 2000 season, the outcome of the game didn’t mean much. However, with a 9-7 record, the year marked the end of Bill Cowher’s back-to-back losing seasons, and it was an unforgettable day for Battles.
“But to me, that’s the equivalent of what I think a bowl game would have felt like in college,” he said. “Oh, that’s not, you don’t want to mess that one up. You don’t want to be that guy on that day.
“And that’s one of the things I hold inside. That’s a memory for life. Because again, we think about all the different scenarios that had to happen,” Battles continued. “You couldn’t write that. There’s no movie script. And so, to stand there on the field for me, saying, ‘I’ve earned this. I wasn’t a first-round pick. I wasn’t given a bunch of money. I’m like, good luck.’
“So that’s one of those self-actualization moments where you’re like, no, I can do this. I am good. I am a professional, you know, and it doesn’t matter. I didn’t go to the combine. I wasn’t drafted. I didn’t do any of that stuff. I just got a phone call. I got a playbook, cleats, a locker, and a helmet. See you at 8 o’clock. And you just figure it out, right? You never know how good you are. You just got to have the guts to put yourself in that situation.”
Steve Massey’s latest book is Revolution: The Transformation of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL