Pittsburgh native features Steelers' 'Immaculate Reception' in NFL.com's 'What If' series - TribLIVE

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During the covid-19 pandemic, we’re running out of old games to replay. Speculation over the NFL Draft has come and gone. And now more lists about “all-time great sports movies” exist than actual sports movies.

So what’s the new layer of content to mine?

It’s not even speculation about what will happen — like the NFL Draft. Or when we may ever see a live sporting event again.

Instead it’s speculation over what could have happened. Like if something in history changed.

Nobody is doing that better than Wilkinsburg’s Dave Dameshek. He’s Bill Cowher’s worst nightmare because he’s “playing the ‘what if’ game.”

And playing it brilliantly.

Dameshek is working with some NFL Network on-air colleagues for a web series of “what if” scenarios.

“What if” Dave Clark doesn’t make “The Catch” for the San Francisco 49ers? “What if” the New England Patriots lose the “Tuck Rule” game?

And — most germane to Pittsburgh — ”what if” Franco Harris doesn’t catch the “Immaculate Reception”?

Dameshek and company dive down the rabbit hole of these “butterfly effects,” as well as many others. The Immaculate Reception episode is fascinating.

If the outcome changes in that game, the ripple effect could have been much more significant for the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins than it would have been for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Think about it.

If the Immaculate Reception falls incomplete, the Steelers season ends in 1972. Then the Dolphins end up hosting the Raiders in the AFC Championship game, instead of traveling to Three Rivers Stadium the next week as an undefeated road team.

Back in ’72, the home sites for the championship games were done on a rotating divisional basis. So the Dolphins got a raw deal in that regard, having to visit Pittsburgh at 15-0.

But they still won in real life.

In the view of many on the panel, though, it would have been a harder game for Miami to win at home against Oakland. In their opinion, a lot of the on-field matchups favored the Raiders.

I get it. But I tend to disagree.

Yes, Oakland had beaten Miami in the 1970 playoffs. But Miami would go on to avenge that defeat in 1973’s postseason. And they split two regular season games in between. So I don’t think Miami would’ve lost that AFC title game, even though the Raiders had more playoff experience at the time than the Steelers did.

However, I do think Dameshek and the rest of his cohosts were right in saying that “Immaculate Reception,” while iconic, wouldn’t have exactly been the impetus to rewrite history if it didn’t happen.

After all, the Steelers did lose the next week to the Dolphins at home anyway. No Super Bowl is taken off the books as a result. And the Steelers got thumped 33-17 in Oakland in 1973’s playoffs.

So, for as memorable as that play is, all the Steelers did with it was lose their next two postseason contests.

It wasn’t until 1974 that they won their first Super Bowl.

The argument that a lot of people make is that the play “announced the arrival” of the franchise. The victory and ensuing close loss to the Dolphins the next week (21-17) showed that the Steelers belonged with the AFC elite.

That’s all true. But maybe that’s accomplished by just getting to the playoffs and playing the Raiders tight in the first round before the Immaculate Reception.

In this podcast, Dameshek and I debate all those angles, plus a few other Pittsburgh sports “what if” moments:

• What if David Volek and Tom Fitzgerald don’t score against Tom Barrasso in 1993 and 1996?

• What if the Pitt Panthers of the early 1980s had a college football playoff?

• What if the Steelers draft Dan Marino?

• What if Barry Bonds doesn’t leave Pittsburgh?

• What happens with the Steelers and Raiders and Rams if the Patriots lose the “Tuck Rule” game?

Listen: Tim Benz and Dave Dameshek break down some Pittsburgh sports “what if” moments

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

Categories: Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz