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At 73-years-old, Captain Comeback wants another shot at beating the Steelers.
That's right. Even 36 years after his team's second Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh, Roger Staubach is still looking for another re-match against the team that twice defeated his team for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
According to Staubach's friend and former teammate, former Cowboys defensive back Charlie Waters, Staubach still yearns for another chance to beat Pittsburgh.
"In Rodger's mind, he probably thinks he can still play today. I know he does," Waters said in the NFL Network "A Football Life" documentary dedicated to Staubach. "Even today, 40 years removed from the second Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh, whenever I see Roger, he will immediately go to, 'You know, if we played them again one more time, today, we can beat them. Now why don't we just get up like a touch football game and see if we can beat them one more time.' It's sorta playful, but then again, he's serious as cancer."
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It's easy to understand why Staubach, four decades later, still can't let go of the sting the Steelers applied on him and his teammates back in the 70's. After all, if not for the Steelers, the Cowboys would have been anointed as the team of that decade. Dallas had won two Super Bowls and played in another that decade. One or two wins over the Steelers would have put that era of Cowboys on an entirely different platform among the greatest teams to ever play pro football.
Unfortunately for Staubach and the Cowboys, Dallas was unable to upend Pittsburgh in each of their Super Bowl match-ups in the 70's. In Super Bowl X, the Cowboys led Pittsburgh 10-7 before the Steelers scored four times in the fourth quarter to prevail, 21-17. Three years later, Dallas led 14-7 in the second quarter before Pittsburgh scored 28 of the game's next 31 points to pull out a 35-31 victory to cement their claim as the team of the decade. The Steelers went on to win the following Super Bowl by defeating the Rams, who upset the Cowboys in the playoffs in what was Staubach's last NFL game.
While the chances of the 70's Steelers and Cowboys squaring off in a touch football game any time soon is unlikely, it's fun to imagine Joe Greene and the rest of the Steel Curtain defense chasing down Staubach and Tony Dorsett, one more time. It's fun to think about Lynn Swann going against Cliff Harris for a jump ball again, along with Franco and "Hollywood" Henderson exchanging words in the heat of battle once more.
If history repeated itself, the third match-up between the Steelers and Cowboys of the 1970s would again be a close, exciting affair, with the Steelers making just enough plays to pull out a victory yet again.