Bill Cowher on AFC Championship Game losses: 'It hurts more than losing the Super Bowl'

As Conference Championship Weekend approaches in the National Football League, now feels like a good time to point out that the Pittsburgh Steelers have been in the AFC Championship game more times (16) than any other team.

I feel the need to do that because when they last qualified for that game in the 2016-17 playoffs, they lost it in New England 36-17. They haven’t won a playoff game since.

Hence, I feel it is my moral obligation to remind everyone that it is possible for the Steelers to get beyond the first round of the postseason. In fact, it used to happen quite frequently around here.

The Steelers have also hosted 11 AFC title games, three more than any other franchise (the New England Patriots are next with eight). Unfortunately, the Steelers lost five of those games.

• 1972-73 to the Miami Dolphins

• 1994-95 to the San Diego Chargers

• 1997-98 to the Denver Broncos

• 2001-02 and ’04-05 to the New England Patriots

Bill Cowher was the coach in the last four of those contests, dropping the first two at Three Rivers Stadium and the other two to New England at what was then still Heinz Field.

During a recent appearance on “The Steam Room” podcast with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, Cowher said those losses all hurt more than his Super Bowl XXX defeat at the end of the 1995-96 season to the Dallas Cowboys.

“Losing the Super Bowl, that was tough,” Cowher said. “But you had the whole two weeks. You had the whole hoopla that went in. And there was finality in that game. It’s over, and a week later, everyone’s watching basketball.”

That is a good point from Cowher. There is a tangible accomplishment even if you lose the Super Bowl. “At least we got to the big game.” And for two weeks, you are at the center of the world’s attention.

However, Cowher said the angst of failing to get to the Super Bowl when you are on the cusp is true football agony.

“The (conference) championship games? I lost four of those,” Cowher continued. “Every one of those games came down to the fourth quarter. Every one of those games we could’ve—or should have—won. Then (you) watch the team that beat you go to the Super Bowl. All the stories are being told about them; you’ve got to listen to them for two weeks. You can’t get away from it. The season is still going on.”

More sports

• U mad, bro?: Steelers fans argue about Mike Tomlin, rip media coverage of QBs, quote 'Macbeth'
• Aliquippa forced to move to Class 5A football after PIAA rejects appeal
• Myles Garrett beats out Steelers’ T.J. Watt for PFWA DPOY; AP award announced Feb. 8

Cowher said he couldn’t even watch those Super Bowls he barely missed.

“I just want to watch the halftime,” Cowher said. “It was hard. The loser of that (Conference Championship) game, it hurts more than losing the Super Bowl.”

Even from a fan perspective, I get where Cowher is coming from — especially when it comes to the two weeks of hype he referenced.

Think back to the loss to the Chargers in ‘94-95. Instead of two weeks of Steelers vs. 49ers to determine the first team to win five Super Bowls, it was two weeks of, “How about these fun, plucky, upset-minded Chargers with no-name guys like Stan Humphries, Alfred Pupunu and Dennis Gibson!? Do you think they can cover the 18½ point spread?”

Psst! They didn’t. They lost 49-26. And the 12-4 Steelers were at home watching it happen on television as San Francisco became the first city to claim a fifth ring.

Ick!

But I also think, like all things, it’s a matter of perspective and circumstance. For instance, to underscore Cowher’s point about losing all of those AFC Championship games, they could’ve won all of them and should’ve won at least three. Each one was played at home. They were favored to win in ‘94-95 (minus-9) and in ‘01-02 (minus-10). And they were underdogs by a field goal or less in the other two.

Meanwhile, they were 13.5-point underdogs in Super Bowl XXX against a Cowboys team that was trying to win its third ring in four years. The Steelers put up a valiant effort and nearly pulled off a stunner. If it wasn’t for …

Lombardi No. 5 for the @dallascowboys (1/28/1996):

✨ Classic @SuperBowl match-up against the Steelers
???? Former 12th-round pick CB Larry Brown (2 INTs) becomes first CB to win MVP
2⃣2⃣ @EmmittSmith22 turned picks into points with two TD runs pic.twitter.com/WblPJMWTl8

— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) August 6, 2019

But those Conference Championship game losses? It felt like Cowher’s Steelers flat-out blew at least three of them.

Other teams may have a different opinion, like the ’90s Buffalo Bills, the Denver Broncos of the 1980s or the Minnesota Vikings of the ’70s.

Even the 2007 Patriots. Hey, that era of Patriots teams won six rings, they lost four AFC Championship games, and I bet nothing hurt worse than the undefeated season going up in smoke to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

And I bet the other Super Bowl defeat to the New York Giants four years later and the “Philly Special” loss to the Philadelphia Eagles rank second and third before you get to any of the AFC title game losses.

When you’re “s’posed to” win in the Super Bowl, and you don’t, that stings much worse than any kind of loss in the Conference Championship round. Or, in the cases of the Bills, Broncos and Vikings, when your team kept getting close and couldn’t win, the fall out was even more bitter.

But for the time, situation and circumstance that Cowher was living firsthand, I can definitely understand his point.

I mean, I was just a fan crying in my beer, and I felt the same way. He lived it.

Since we’re on the topic, though, Bill, remind me why you didn’t run Jerome Bettis more in the second half against Denv—

… never mind. Sorry, I brought it up.