Whether due to hierarchical disagreement, conflicting notions of net worth, or mutual understanding, celebrated players occasionally part ways with the franchises they’re most familiar with. The Steelers have also experienced these changes.
Some imports appear odd in other uniforms, their tenures devolving into trivia queries—think Emmitt Smith in Arizona—and others succeed, remaining relevant with rings to show for their relocation. Earlier this month, New England Patriots faithful looked on as Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski linked up to score in the Super Bowl, no doubt a common sight. This time, however, Bill Belichick wasn’t on the sideline.
It’s well-documented that Brady, feeling he wasn’t being held in high enough regard by Belichick, migrated south to prove himself in different colors. Gronkowski, a four-time first-team All-Pro and endorser of Tide Pods, emerged from retirement and was traded to Tampa shortly thereafter. It wasn’t only New England where fans watched, happy for their departed cornerstone or bothered by the fact they couldn’t help the confetti fall at their previous stop.
Those in Jacksonville found themselves questioning whether their club made the right decision by cutting loose one of the most productive rushers in Jaguars history, Leonard Fournette. This postseason, he rushed for 300 yards and three touchdowns.
Another tailback, LeSean McCoy, picked up from Kansas City following last season, surely won’t be remembered as a Buccaneer, rather a Philadelphia Eagle or Buffalo Bill.
No different, the Steelers have seen key contributors, even superstars, hoist shiny hardware in other locales. Here are the five best to do so.
Mike Vrabel
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel would sever his manhood in order to raise another Lombardi. He’s even said so. While best recognized as the stalwart linebacker on three title-winning teams in New England, it was actually the Steel City where Vrabel launched his playing career in 1997. A third-round draft choice by way of Ohio State, he improved his craft beside Pro Bowlers Greg Lloyd, Jason Gildon, and Levon Kirkland.
Vrabel logged 56 tackles, 7 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles in the 51 games he played as a Steeler, and, initially, he was no protagonist in the Greater Boston area. As a rookie, in the final minute of the AFC divisional playoff, he sacked and extracted the football from Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe, icing a one-point Pittsburgh victory.
He packed his suitcases following the 2000 season and departed for Foxborough. No longer an understudy edge defender, Vrabel was deployed in a more versatile role under Bill Belichick. In fact, it was Bledsoe that advised former Pats assistant coach Charlie Weis to let Vrabel try his hand at catching passes.
With New England, Vrabel reeled in ten scores, all from Tom Brady. In the waning minutes of Super Bowl XXXVIII, against Carolina, he grabbed a one-yard, go-ahead touchdown. The next season, facing Philadelphia in Super Bowl XXXIX, Vrabel found the endzone once again.
In his 14-year career, including two final seasons in Kansas City, Vrabel played 206 regular-season games, tallied 762 tackles, and sacked the quarterback 57 times.
Plaxico Burress
There was little over a minute left on the clock in Super Bowl XLII. His pursuers zeroing in, Eli Manning climbs the pocket. Momentarily engulfed by a navy blue pass rush, the passer pulls away from a defender’s grip, flees, and slings the football deep. With a safety dressing him, David Tyree pulls the ball in, pressing it to his helmet as he crashes to the turf.
The image is among the most renowned in NFL history, but it was Plaxico Burress that beat the final nail into the previously undefeated Patriots’ coffin.
Acquired by the Steelers with the 8th turn of the 2000 NFL Draft, Plax spent the first half-decade of his career in black and gold. All-time, he places 9th in receiving yards in Pittsburgh, and, owing to the fact that his time here coincided with some of Hines Ward’s most productive seasons, he’s not as applauded as others so high on the list.
A reliable target for Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox alike, he led the team with 1,008 receiving yards in 2001. With Ward bettering 1,000 yards receiving also, the two became the first Steelers tandem to accomplish the feat. Burress reached the mark with 28 fewer receptions.
Burress left Pittsburgh for the New York Giants in 2005, who he would lead in receiving yards for the next three campaigns. Following a 20-month jail sentence and a stint with the New York Jets, he circled back to a Pittsburgh receiving corps beset by injury in 2012.
Mike Tomlin
Unlike all the others on this list, Mike Tomlin won his first Super Bowl prior to arriving at the confluence of the three rivers.
After assistant coaching stops such as Virginia Military Institute and Arkansas State, Tomlin was in his second year on Jon Gruden’s coaching team in Tampa Bay. It being his first professional coaching job, he worked on a defensive staff alongside eventual head coaches Rod Marinelli and Raheem Morris.
Tomlin was yet another cog in the Buccaneers’ memorably assertive defense. Working as the Swashbucklers’ defensive backs coach, he supervised a secondary that boasted future Hall of Famer John Lynch and All-Pro Ronde Barber.
The Bucs finished the regular season with a 12-4 mark, good enough to be their division’s champion and the second seed in the NFC playoffs. Indisputably, Tampa’s defense was the best in the NFL. It allowed only 2,490 yards and 10 scores through the air, both the least in the league. The unit’s 31 interceptions were almost double the next closest team’s.
In the postseason, the Pewter Pirates soundly dispatched both the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles before meeting Oakland in Super Bowl XXXVII. Tomlin’s defensive backfield harassed Raider quarterback Rich Gannon, amassing a Super Bowl-record five interceptions, three being pick-sixes.
In 2006, Tomlin boarded ship with the Minnesota Vikings as the franchise’s defensive coordinator. He helped coach a top-ten unit, then interviewed for both Pittsburgh’s and Miami’s head coaching vacancies. Of course, he would carry his championship pedigree to the Steel City.
Rod Woodson
It would be difficult to argue that Rod Woodson was undeserving of a Lombardi, but did it really have to be with Pittsburgh’s archrival?
After a decorated decade as a leader on the Steelers’ defense and a one-year layover in San Francisco, Woodson landed in Baltimore’s nest in 1998. The Ravens, toddlers in terms of NFL eldership, were pleased to employ the five-time first-team All-Pro as their secondary’s spearhead.
It was a year later that Woodson, then 34 years old, converted to safety and, considering he followed up by tying the league’s lead in interceptions, the transition went as smoothly as it possibly could have.
One of three Pro Bowlers on Baltimore’s unyielding defensive unit, Woodson started all 20 games on the back end in 2000. He racked up 77 combined tackles and 4 interceptions at an age where most speed players would be applying for their league pensions.
Under the veteran direction of Woodson and franchise cornerstone Ray Lewis, the Ravens marched to Tampa and Super Bowl XXXV with thundering footsteps, battering the New York Giants, 34-7.
No longer able to afford him, Baltimore waived the aging Woodson following the 2001 campaign. He’d ink a contract with Oakland and again tie for the league lead in picks while reaching Super Bowl XXXVII.
While unable to win a title in black and gold, Woodson was named by the Associated Press as the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 1993. His 71 career interceptions are the third-most in league lore.
Antonio Brown
It feels like ages, but it wasn’t all that long ago that Antonio Brown was bringing masses of Steelers fans to their feet.
From the kick return, he carried to the endzone in his first game with Pittsburgh to the 185-yard, two-touchdown performance in the penultimate contest of the 2018 regular season, and all that came between, AB was debatably the best wideout in the entire league.
In all but two years as a Steeler, Brown exceeded 1,100 yards receiving and was named to the Pro Bowl. In 2014, Brown caught 129 footballs, then the second-most in a single season, and was listed as a first-team All-Pro for the first time. The next season, he topped the mark, tallying 136 receptions and 1,834 yards, both of which rank in the top four in a single schedule in NFL history.
Two times did Brown lead the league in receiving yards and, in his last go-round in Pittsburgh, he caught 15 touchdowns, the most that year. All said, Brown earned an All-Pro distinction in four successive campaigns. He paced the Steelers in receptions and receiving yards in five different seasons.
Following spells in Oakland and New England, Brown sat home for a year. He rejoined forces with Tom Brady in Tampa after serving a suspension and grabbed 45 footballs for 483 yards and 4 touchdowns.
In the closing seconds of the first half of Super Bowl LV, Brown faked out All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu and pulled in a one-yard score from Brady.