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My first season with Pittsburgh was 1969. We were still in the old NFL. My second year, we moved to the AFC when the leagues merged. I went to the Pro Bowl that season, and there must have been nine Raiders and nine Chiefs. I got to know all those guys.

Over a 10-season stretch from 1967 to 1976, eight Super Bowl champions either were the Raiders or had to beat the Raiders in the playoffs. The Jets, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Baltimore Colts, Miami, the Steelers each of the first two times... we all had to deal with the Raiders.

The single most important thing we had in the Steelers of the '70s was the ability to work together.

I grew up knowing I would be good at athletics, and dreams of a Super Bowl were always within reach as long as I progressed.

My mother was a huge Steelers fan, so they were my team growing up.

Winning the Super Bowl was obviously a great one, but the joy I felt of going to the Super Bowl, it was what I felt about the Pittsburgh Steelers and where we came from, the history of us to that point.

You remember driving your kids to Little League, and they're nervous about making the team, and you're encouraging them. Forty years down the road, we're having the same conversation. Only it's about the Ravens and Steelers, or Stanford and Cal.

The people that I was working with made it all good for me - made it important to me - made it special. I will miss everyone in the Steelers organization.

To be honest, I've just become a Steelers fan.

Even in past years, when I wasn't in the Super Bowl, I wished I was.