Will There Ever Be Any Appreciation For Neil O'Donnell?

By Anthony Defeo on Jun 15, 2011 2:52 PM EDT

I've recently posted some stories about the Steelers playoff teams of the 90's under Bill Cowher and how awesome I thought those years were.

The Steelers had a great run in that decade, making the playoffs six-straight seasons. The starting quarterback in four of those six seasons ('92-'95) was Neil O'Donnell. The Steelers were 43-21 in those four years with him at the helm, advanced to the AFC Championship Game following the '94 and '95 seasons, and appeared in their first Super Bowl since 1979 when they made it to Super Bowl XXX in 1995.

The Steelers didn't win the championship as they fell short after O'Donnell threw not one, but two very horrible interceptions to Larry Brown in the second half when Pittsburgh had a chance to take the lead.

O'Donnell signed with the Jets following the Super Bowl, played there for a few years, bounced around a bit, and then finally retired in 2003 after a few years with the Tennessee Titans.

O'Donnell played 14 seasons in the NFL, threw for 21,690 yards, 120 touchdown passes, and only 68 interceptions. In fact, O'Donnell retired with the best interceptions to attempts ratio in the history of the league (2.11 for every 100 attempts). I'm not a stats-guy and can certainly understand that the true measure of any quarterback is winning championships, but that's a pretty decent career right there. And the prime of it was played right here in Pittsburgh.

Despite the lackluster performance of O'Donnell in that Super Bowl, he still had a pretty impressive run as starting quarterback for the Steelers. You would think his time here would be celebrated just a little bit. However, just mention Neil O'Donnell's name to most Steelers fans and you will probably get an overwhelmingly negative reaction.

The main reason, of course, is because he came up short in the Super Bowl and then left as a free agent immediately after that. But O'Donnell wasn't a well-liked figure here in Pittsburgh even before those two interceptions. I was watching a replay of Super Bowl XXX recently (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment) and one of the NBC guys mentioned that O'Donnell wasn't the most popular player among Steeler fans.
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2011/6/15/2225163/pittsburgh-steelers-history-sb-xxx-cowboys-bubby-brister-neil-odonnell

Quite honestly, I never understood all the Neil O'Donnell hate. He had some great seasons with the Steelers and led us to a Super Bowl. The first interception in SB XXX was his fault, but on the second one, Andre Hastings ran the wrong route. But yet O'Donnell received all the blame. O'Donnell became the Bill Buckner of the Steelers, even though it wasn't entirely his fault, so I don't blame him for leaving.

It's time to stop the O'Donnell hate and recognize the fact that he is not the only reason we lost SB XXX and he was the best quarterback we had between Bradshaw and Roethlisberger.