The opinions found in Asked and Answered do not reflect the views of the Steelers organization.
Let's get to it:
MARK WICKERHAM FROM BEMUS POINT, NY: You always heard that Mike Tomlin won Super Bowl XLIII with Bill Cowher's team. How many starters from Cowher's Super Bowl XL team were on Tomlin's Super Bowl XLIII team?
ANSWER: I hate this entire narrative and always have, but I decided to address this just one time. I'm not going to pore through the lineups of Super Bowl XL and compare it to Super Bowl XLIII to make a case one way or the other, but I will point out 3 players who were not starters on Bill Cowher's Super Bowl XL team: James Harrison, who had a 100-yard pick-6 at the end of the first half that in my opinion is the greatest play in Super Bowl history; LaMarr Woodley, who finished the game with 4 tackles, 2 sacks, and his strip-sack with 15 seconds left iced the Steelers 27-23 victory; and Santonio Holmes, who caught 9 passes for 131 yards and the 6-yard touchdown that provided the decisive points along the way to being voted Super Bowl MVP. And while Holmes was drafted in 2006, before Mike Tomlin was hired, he spent that season buried on the depth chart behind Cedrick Wilson. Harrison and Holmes flourished after Tomlin was hired.
Certainly Tomlin inherited a roster with many talented players, but it's really no different than the roster Cowher inherited from Chuck Noll when he was hired in 1992. On that 1992 roster were a couple of future Hall of Fame players – CB Rod Woodson and C Dermontti Dawson – plus RB Barry Foster, who still holds the single-season record for yards rushing in a season; Carnell Lake, and Greg Lloyd. In all, Noll left a roster that contained 2 Hall of Fame players, 13 guys who made the Pro Bowl, and 7 who won the Steelers MVP award. But that roster was 16-16 in Noll's final 2 seasons and missed the playoffs twice, and it's Cowher who deserves the credit for taking that group, adding to it, and making the playoffs six straight times from 1992-97 while advancing to the AFC Championship Game 3 times.
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DONNIE BROWN FROM VAN BUREN, ME: Can't say enough about the play of Jaylen Warren, who thus far I believe leads the league in scrimmage yards, and is having a team MVP-caliber first one-third of this season. Kenny Gainwell was voted a very deserved team MVP award last season, but have there been 2 different RBs to win the Steelers MVP Award in consecutive seasons?
ANSWER: First, while Jaylen Warren leads the AFC with 640 yards from scrimmage, he is behind the NFC's Jahmyr Gibbs of Detroit (747 yards) and Bijan Robinson of Atlanta (732 yards) in the NFL rankings. As for your questions about different RBs winning the Steelers MVP Award in consecutive seasons, it's a no. Five different RBs have been voted Steelers MVP by their teammates: Franco Harris in 1972; Barry Foster in 1992; Jerome Bettis in 1996, 1997, and 2000; Willie Parker in 2006; Le'Veon Bell in 2014 and 2016; and Kenneth Gainwell in 2025.
DAN CLIFF FROM NORTH CHILI, NY: With all of the WR rumors flying around in the media about the Steelers signing Tyreek Hill, or JuJu Smith-Schuster, or trading for Brian Thomas, I'm curious why no one talks about giving Max Hurleman an opportunity? He was very good in each of the last 2 preseasons. Is he injured?
ANSWER: Yes, Max Hurleman is currently on the practice squad injured list. The Steelers put him on that list on Sept. 19, which was before the team's game vs. New England during the second week of the regular season. Hurleman has not been able to practice since then, which means he has been unable to show he is deserving of a call-up to the active roster.
SCOTT RANDALL FROM CONWAY, SC: Do you think the team will look to go out and sign a WR, or dip into the practice squad ? When is RB Rico Dowdle supposed to be back?
ANSWER: If you're referring to adding a WR for today's game vs. Tampa Bay, I believe the spot(s) will be filled by practice squad elevations and/or distributing the playing time among TEs or RBs. Rico Dowdle (toe) was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday and then was upgraded to a full participant on Thursday and Friday. That indicates he was trending in the proper direction, and then on Friday the Steelers listed him as questionable for Sunday's game vs. the Buccaneers.
RAY NEWMASTER FROM SINKING SPRING, PA: I think you may have answered this in the past, but for the life of me, I can't remember. Please explain the timeout rules. When a team calls a timeout, it appears to me that the referee states that and then adds it's a 30-second timeout. What other timeout duration is there?
ANSWER: Timeouts are tied to the broadcast of the game. If there is no need to go to a commercial break, the timeout usually is kept at 30 seconds. If the network needs to get to commercials during a stoppage in play, the timeout will be adjusted to allow that to happen.
JOE ASHER FROM TAMPA, FL: With Baker Mayfield out this Sunday, I'm hopeful T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig, and Alex Highsmith will feast on rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels. Maybe it's my optimistic nature, but I have fond memories of our defense playing well against rookies. Do you have any stats when the Steelers play rookie quarterbacks?
ANSWER: In my mind, here is the only stat that matters: During Mike Tomlin's tenure, the Steelers were 26-6 vs. rookie quarterbacks, a winning percentage of .813.
CHRIS GALLOWAY FROM FATE, TX: J.T. Thomas recently received his Super Bowl XIII ring. I thought all players received one if they were injured, or in his case sick, if they were on the team.
ANSWER: That certainly is the case now, with all players on the 53-man roster, plus injured reserve, plus the practice squad, all typically receiving a ring if the team wins the Super Bowl. But that was not the case in the 1970s. J.T. Thomas was not on the Steelers active roster at any point in 1978, and so he did not appear in the team photo taken before the start of the season, and he did not appear in the team photo taken at the site of Super Bowl XIII, which was Miami, FL. But when the Hall of Honor Selection Committee elected Kevin Colbert, J.T. Thomas, and Craig Wolfley to be inducted as the Class of 2026, Steelers President Art Rooney II decided it was an appropriate time to add Thomas to the list of players from the 1970s to own 4 Super Bowl rings because Thomas returned in 1979 and ended up starting at safety in Super Bowl XIV. Rooney contacted Josten's, the company that manufactured the Steelers Super Bowl XIII rings, had one made for Thomas, and presented it to him during the Hall of Honor Induction Dinner on Sept. 25 at Acrisure Stadium.
The whole thing was kept a secret, and Thomas was visibly surprised when Rooney handed him the box with the ring in it on stage. Thomas then told those attending the dinner that when he had gotten a phone call several weeks earlier asking for his ring size, he thought HOH inductees were given rings. But then he learned that HOH inductees are given replica steel footballs that are engraved and personalized, he was confused about why he was asked for his ring size.
RUSS PALLONE FROM TRINIDAD, CO: Was sorry to hear of the passing of a true "Yinzer", Iron Mike Ditka. I believe he embodied what Western Pennsylvania football is all about. When I was a boy I went with my father to pick up some University of Pittsburgh players to bring them to a sports banquet in a suburb of Pittsburgh. Mike Ditka was one of them. I believe there was also a player named Paul Martha in the car. He may have gone on to play for the Steelers. Am I right?
ANSWER: That's very possible. Mike Ditka's four years at Pitt were 1957-60, and Paul Martha's four years at Pitt were 1960-63. Martha was the Steelers' No. 1 pick in the 1964 NFL Draft, and he played 6 seasons with the team. Two of those seasons were on offense and the last four were on defense as a safety. As a safety, Martha intercepted 15 passes, but he made a much more significant contribution to the NFL after his playing career ended and he earned his law degree at Duquesne University. In 1982, Martha and Dan Rooney were instrumental in crafting an agreement that ended the NFL Players' strike.
TODD HAMMERS FROM BLOOMFIELD, IA: Why do teams use different players to return punts and kickoffs? What's the difference?
ANSWER: That's because the jobs require different skill-sets. A punt returner is best served by being shifty and with short-area quickness, rather than having straight-line speed. A kickoff returner needs straight-line speed and a fearlessness that allows him to trust where the hole is supposed to be and attack that area at full speed.
ELLEN CAUDLE FROM CHATTANOOGA, TN: It would be so nice for the Pittsburgh Steelers to win two, three, or four games in a row, instead of win, lose, win, lose. When was the last time that the Steelers were on a winning streak, and how many games in a row did they win?
ANSWER: Going backward from the current season, the Steelers won 4 of their first 5 games and then won 4 of their last 5 games in 2025; in 2022, they won 6 of their last 7 games; in 2020, they started the season with 11 straight wins; in 2019, they won 6 of 7; in 2018, they won 6 in a row; in 2017, they won 10 of 11; and in 2016, they won 7 in a row. I wasn't going to go back any farther than that.
BOB ALEXANDER FROM LECANTO, FL: I was born and raised in PA and have been a Steelers fan for 50 years, but no longer live in PA. I am very disappointed that I can no longer listen to the Steelers game live on the app. However those who speak Spanish do get a free broadcast. Are there many other fans who feel this is unfair to dedicated lifelong fans who grew up listening to the game?
ANSWER: I checked around, and this is what I was told about the NFL policy regarding the issue you are encountering: Steelers live game day audio includes pregame and postgame programming. Users can listen to pregame and postgame programming from anywhere in the world on Steelers.com. NFL geographical restrictions apply to the game broadcast stream for both desktop and mobile users. This means that the audio game broadcast is restricted to only those in the NFL's defined "Pittsburgh Home Marketing Area," which is a 75-mile radius around Downtown Pittsburgh, plus the team's International Home Marketing Countries of Mexico and Ireland.
