Recalling Super Bowl X:
Lynn Swann’s juggling catch an indelible image.
If every memorable Super Bowl includes one hero, a player standing tall in our collective consciousness, then Lynn Swann looms large over Super Bowl X.
And if most memorable Super Bowls also include a goat, one player coming up short when the stakes were highest, then Mark Washington also merits mention.
Swann was the pride of Serra High in San Mateo, before Barry Bonds and Tom Brady followed him as famous and accomplished alums. And Swann became the central character in a classic duel between his Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys on Jan. 18, 1976, at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
Back then, football fans knew it was a meaningful game simply when they saw those uniforms: the Steelers in their menacing black jerseys with gold pants, the Cowboys in their signature white jerseys with silver pants. Super Bowl X also offered a marquee matchup of quarterbacks, with Terry Bradshaw squaring off against Roger Staubach.
But the most enduring image of that game remains Swann making a leaping, juggling, tumbling catch near midfield. It happened late in the second quarter, with the Steelers facing 3rdand-6 at their own 10yard line.
Bradshaw released the ball right at the goal line, a majestic if slightly underthrown pass falling to earth about midfield. Swann jumped high into the air, rising above Washington, a Cowboys cornerback — who also tipped the ball as he stumbled to the ground.
Swann kept his concentration, his eyes fixed on the fluttering football, and made the catch. The Steelers didn’t score on the drive, but the acrobatic nature of Swann’s play — magnified in slow-motion replay — turned it into a popular highlight over the years.
He actually wishes he could revise this slice of Super Bowl history.
“I’ve always said if I had done it right, I would have caught the ball the first time, came down and kept running for a touchdown,” Swann told the Pittsburgh PostGazette in 2001, on the eve of his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“But that’s the nature of the Super Bowl. Sometimes, you just do your job and the circumstances make you a hero. If Washington hadn’t tipped that ball, it wouldn’t be remembered as one of the greatest catches in football history.”
Swann made another spectacular, leaping catch along the sideline earlier in the game, deftly keeping his feet in bounds. The Steelers still trailed 10-7 entering the fourth quarter, until a safety (on a blocked punt) and two field goals pushed them ahead 15-10.
That’s when Bradshaw found Swann again on a 64-yard touchdown pass over, yep, Washington. He was draped all over Swann, but Bradshaw threw a perfect pass to cement Pittsburgh’s 21-17 victory. It was the Steelers’ second consecutive Super Bowl title, in what would become a run of four championships in six years.
Swann — who wasn’t even sure he would play in the game, after sustaining a concussion against the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game — finished with four catches for 161 yards. He became the first wide receiver to earn Super Bowl Most Valuable Player honors.
Washington, a 13thround draft choice from Morgan State, became a historical footnote.
“What's it been, 25 years?” he told the PostGazette in ’01. “I’m still seeing his catches on TV. I keep looking for him to drop one, but he never does.”
“I’m still seeing his catches on TV. I keep looking for him to drop one, but he never does.” Mark Washington, who became the goat to Lynn Swann’s hero