Back when the Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years, they had a significant rivalry with the Houston Oilers.
The Oilers were fond of saying that the path to the Super Bowl ran through Pittsburgh, knowing they'd have a likely showdown with the Steelers in the playoffs.
There were two AFC Championship games against the Oilers at Three Rivers Stadium, both of them won by the Steelers.
After the first loss, the Oilers returned home for a fan rally and coach Bum Phillips promised that after knocking on the door, then pounding on it, the Oilers were ready to "kick that son of a (gun) in."
It never happened. The Oilers couldn't beat the Steelers when it mattered. Phillips was fired, the franchise moved to Tennessee and the rivalry was consigned to middle-of-the-night NFL Films retrospectives.
Now it's 2017, and the Steelers are on the other end of a dysfunctional rivalry.
They have good teams with Super Bowl potential, but can't quite get past the New England Patriots.
The Patriots made it look easy last Sunday winning by 19 points, even without tight end Rob Gronkowski, who is a big part of their offense.
The Steelers have become the Oilers to the Patriots' impersonation of the '70s Steelers.
The road to the Super Bowl goes through Foxborough, and the Steelers broke down. Again.
What is it about the Patriots? Yes, it's Tom Brady. Even more than that, it's Bill Belichick. He's a step ahead of just about every other coach and it seemed like the gap was even bigger than that against a Steelers staff that came in with a flawed plan and couldn't adjust.
It wouldn't appear that either Brady or Belichick will be leaving soon, so that obstacle will remain for the Steelers.
Might not be a bad idea to go to school on their organization and figure out why they're able to sustain excellence in an NFL system that's devised to prevent long-term dominance.
Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan are not going to the Hall of Fame. Yet they combined for 298 receiving yards and three touchdowns against a defense that had been playing pretty well.
The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl with LeGarrette Blount as their No. 1 running back. Is the difference just Belichick's savant-like knowledge?
They're doing a lot of things right, and that deserves plenty of scrutiny.
If you can't beat them, perhaps copy them.
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--LOCAL CONNECTION
We are looking live at the end of Brent Musburger's broadcasting career.
He will retire soon, calling it quits before his 78th birthday.
Does anyone remember when Musburger did some Pirates games on radio in 1971? It happened.
KDKA was the rights holder then and fired Gene Osborn, the No. 3 announcer, after one season. The Pirates only did 38 road games on TV back then so they could cover with two announcers, Bob Prince and Nellie King.
On those TV dates, they would hire a freelance announcer in the other city to help out on radio for a few innings. Musburger, who was in the process of transitioning
from newspaper writing to broadcasting then, was the hire in Chicago.
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--OH SO BAD
Pitt lost a home game to Louisville last week. The final score was 106-51.
That means even if the Panthers had gone on a 30-0 run at the end, they still would have lost by 25 points. It was Pitt's worst defeat since 1906. Rick Pitino didn't even run up the score deliberately. No starter played more than 25 minutes.
OK, Louisville is ranked and Pitt isn't very good. But is it a coincidence that the hideous outcome came hours after the coach was publicly critical of his players' dedication?
First-year coach Kevin Stallings has some issues to sort out.
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