Steelers Confident Ahead Of Several Entertaining Super Bowl Rematches In 2023

For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Super Bowl isn't just a goal at the beginning of a season, it has become more of a citywide birthright. Every year we allow ourselves a deluge of nostalgia ahead of the regular season, remembering past championship seasons that were successful, and times we fell short. Win or lose, though, the city of Pittsburgh will always go into an NFL season with the belief that the rightful home of the Lombardi Trophy is the Steel City. It always adds some extra fuel to the fire when a game is also a rematch of a past Super Bowl, and in 2023, the Steelers will have four matchups that mirror those beloved clashes, giving fans four chances to relive those flashy, all-or-nothing moments.

Steelers Ready For A Blast From The Past

On January 20, 1980, the Steelers faced off against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV, winning the game 31-19 and securing the last championship of the storied 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers. As the fans rocked the Rose Bowl, none suspected that it would be the last chance at a Super Bowl for the team until Bill Cowher's Super Bowl XXX loss. The victory put the Steelers in the upper stratosphere of NFL franchises, with four championships to their name, two separate back-to-back wins paving the way. Since then, with the Rams in the NFC and the Steelers a proud AFC resident, the teams have only faced each other 11 times (8-3 in favor of the Steelers).

43 years after that championship game, the oft-relocated Rams are back in Los Angeles, ready to host the first matchup between the teams since 2019. Pittsburgh will be coming off their bye week going into the Week 7 game, hopefully looking back proudly at a successful start to the season. With this being the only rematch from the brilliant 1970s Steelers, the bad blood is more of a temperate dislike, but with a week of nostalgic media to ramp up the emotions, expect this mid-season battle to bring back some of that infamous Pittsburgh grit.

Steelers Anxious For Modern Rematches

In Week 10, the Steelers get a chance at revenge when they host the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium. Everyone knows that there was something special about that 2010 Steelers group, but on that fateful day, the Packers used a rocky Pittsburgh performance to hand Aaron Rodgers his first and only championship (31-25). The two teams have faced off three times since then, with the Steelers winning in 2013 and 2017, but the Packers emerging victorious in 2021. This will be the first time since that Super Bowl that the Steelers and Packers will play each other without Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger on the roster, ending one era and ushering in the opportunity for Jordan Love or Kenny Pickett to make their mark on a historic clash between two historic franchises.

Week 17 will bring back many memories with tears of joy, ecstatic screaming, and victory. More than that, this moment in Steelers' history was when the infamous Pittsburgh football chant, "One for the thumb," went from a plea to a successful mission; the Steelers had secured their fifth Super Bowl title. On the other side of that game, though, was the less-than-pleased Seattle Seahawks who make their living off rehashing the officiating from Super Bowl XL. Roethlisberger's first Super Bowl - in his second year, no less - was hardly a game that he likes to remember from a performance perspective, the calls were odd and somewhat surreal from the referees, but for any Steelers fan, this game comes down to the images of Willie Parker racing 75 yards down the field to a then-longest Super Bowl run, and Hines Ward gleefully skipping into the endzone following the Antwaan Randle El trick pass play.

These two rematches are from either end of the NFL spectrum. One is about revenge and the desire to live a different history than what actually happened, the other is the chance to bask in the glory of a truly historic moment; both are filled with memories ready to be relived.

Steelers Await Historically Great Super Bowl Rematch

The Steelers will go into Week 13 ready for the height of historical memory to be experienced when they travel to play the Arizona Cardinals. Many consider the Super Bowl XLIII game between the Steelers and Cardinals to be the best Super Bowl of all time, and among the best games ever played in the league's history. The NFL itself considers the game the 12th best game to exist, making it a difficult moment to live up to, but both teams will be pulling at the reins to prove that they belong in this timeless rematch.

The brilliant Super Bowl had two of the greatest plays in both Super Bowl and NFL history, setting it apart from the other wildly entertaining games that simply can't stand up to what Super Bowl XLIII offered. The player who was the catalyst and wrecking ball on the same play, James Harrison, never held back on his view that his 100-yard interception return at the end of the first half is the best play ever, composing half of the two incredible moments.

The teams left it until the waning moments of the game for the play that caused all of Pittsburgh to explode into joyous pandemonium, when Roethlisberger double-pumped and then found Santonio Holmes in the corner of the endzone to put Pittsburgh ahead with :35 seconds to go in the game. No matter how many times the moment is replayed, Steelers fans still feel that same rise and then bonfire of emotion when Holmes clutches the ball amidst his celebrating teammates as he sat on the turf.

It's a hard one to live up to, but the 2023 Steelers are built to rise to the situation. In all four games, the spirit of teams past will be watching, and there is no doubt that they will be proud of what they see.

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