Immaculate Reception - Aftermath of The Play

Aftermath of The Play

The week after this playoff victory, the Steelers lost the AFC championship game to the Miami Dolphins 21-17, who won Super Bowl VII in their landmark undefeated season. The Steelers, however, reversed four decades of futility and went on to become a dominant force in the NFL for the subsequent decade, winning four Super Bowls with such stars as Bradshaw, Harris, John Stallworth, and Lynn Swann and the Steel Curtain defense led by Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, "Mean Joe" Greene, Mel Blount, and Dwight White.

1972 was the team's 40th year in the league, during which they had finished above .500 only nine times, and until then had never won a playoff game. In fact, before this game the only playoff game the team had ever played in was a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1947 after the two teams finished tied for the Eastern Division championship. (The Steelers also lost to the Detroit Lions in the 1962 Playoff Bowl, though this was considered an exhibition game between the two second place teams in league record books and not an actual playoff game.) They had long been regarded as one of the league's doormats (as the 1944 Card-Pitt merger was 0-10 and was ridiculed as the "Carpitts," a play on the word "carpet"). As recently as 1969 the team had posted a 1-13 record, thus securing the first draft choice in the subsequent NFL draft (in which the Steelers chose Terry Bradshaw) and seeding their remarkable turnaround. Since the AFL-NFL Merger, the Steelers have the NFL's best record (surpassing Miami in 2007 because of the Dolphins' recent struggles), have had a league-low three head coaches, and have had only nine losing seasons, none worse than 5-11. Only twice since the Immaculate Reception has the team had losing seasons two years in a row and none three years in a row.

The Immaculate Reception spawned a heated rivalry between the Steelers and Raiders, a rivalry that was at its peak during the 1970s, when both teams were among the best in the league and both were known for their hard-hitting, physical play. The teams met in the playoffs in each of the next four seasons, starting with the Raiders' 33-14 victory in the 1973 divisional playoffs. Pittsburgh used the AFC championship game victories over Oakland (24-13 at Oakland in 1974 and 16-10 at Pittsburgh in 1975) as a springboard to victories in Super Bowl IX and Super Bowl X, before the Raiders notched a 24-7 victory at home in 1976 on their way to winning Super Bowl XI. The two last met in the playoffs in 1983 when the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders crushed the Steelers 38-10.

The play itself started another, rather unique rivalry between the Raiders and the rest of the league, as Oakland fans have long thought that the league has wanted to shortchange the Raiders (and specifically Al Davis). In 2007, NFL Network ranked the "Raiders versus the World" as the biggest feud in NFL history.

For the 1978 NFL season, the rule in question regarding the forward pass was repealed. There are no longer any restrictions on any deflections of passes, and a future play that mirrored the Immaculate Reception would simply be an extraordinary legal reception (however, the question of whether a future Franco Harris actually grabbed such a deflected football before it struck the turf WOULD be a modern issue, because of the myriad cameras and use of instant replay that is part of the present-day NFL).

The game itself was not seen on TV in Pittsburgh - 1972 was the last year that the NFL forbade any local telecasts of home games. Starting the next year, any home games that sold out 72 hours before kick-off could be televised locally. As the Steelers began their home sell-out streak in 1972, blackouts have never been needed in the Pittsburgh area.

The Steelers organization still consider the Immaculate Reception the greatest moment in team history. On December 23, 2011, the 39th anniversary of the play, the team's official Facebook page posted a black and white photo of Harris running in for the touchdown to commemorate the anniversary. The Immaculate Reception will be documented by NFL Network's A Football Life in 2012.