Pomp and circumstance will be part of the proceedings when the Steelers and Dolphins face off Sunday night, with the hosts honoring their 1972 Super Bowl team, the same one that pushed through Pittsburgh in the AFC championship en route to the only unbeaten season in NFL history.
The celebration surely won't mention it, but one of the subplots of that memorable game was what happened to the Steelers' starting quarterback. Terry Bradshaw had his "bell rung," as one Post-Gazette writer put it in the next day's paper. Steelers coach Chuck Noll told reporters Bradshaw had a pinched nerve in his neck, and "had trouble remembering things." Bradshaw himself said afterward he was "knocked a little crazy," referencing a hit to his shoulder and neck, and that he "had trouble thinking."
Fifty years ago, no one thought much of Bradshaw going back into that game. Fifty years later, all eyes will be on a pair of starting quarterbacks who each left their last game with a diagnosed concussion.
