Super Bowls that could have been for the Steelers but did not happen

The Steelers have six Super Bowl victories but could have had many more

The Steelers have been privileged to have hoisted the Lombardi trophy six times since 1974, with the last time occurring after the 2008 season. Although we have won six Super Bowls, we have also lost two Super Bowls; one after the 1995 season to the Dallas Cowboys; the other after the 2010 season to the Green Bay Packers.

What I find interesting is the fact that the Steelers have played in several AFC Championship games that resulted in losses.  What if we had won every AFC Championship game in which we played?  How many of those additional Super Bowl appearances would have resulted in victories?

With Super Bowl LIV (54) looming, I got to thinking about the Super Bowls that could have been for the Steelers.  Obviously, this is wishful thinking as we have played in only eight Super Bowls, but would it surprise you to know that we played in eight AFC Championship games that we lost?

According to Pro-Football-Reference, the Steelers lost the AFC Championship game in 1972, 1976, 1984, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2016.  Truth be told, I remember all of the games with exception of the 1972 and 1976 games as I was 3 years old and 7 years old, respectively.

Instead of being 6-2 in Super Bowl appearances, would the Steelers now be 14-2 or 6-10 or have some other record in the ‘big game’?  Obviously, we will never know, but I think it would be interesting to hypothesize about what could have been.  We had some really great teams that made it to the Championship game but could not get over the hump.

Let’s start our journey down the road name ‘what could have been’.