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As I and the rest of my Pittsburgh Steelers teammates prepared that week in late December 1974, we knew one thing: The road to the Super Bowl in the AFC went through Oakland. To achieve your dreams as a team, you had to slay the Oakland Raiders. They were the barometer of what it took to be a championship team.

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.

The Steelers have influenced everything I've done as an adult.

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

Pittsburgh was a great team. Coach Noll, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, L.C. Greenwood and all those guys did a great job. That's the team that kept us from winning two Super Bowls. It was a great rivalry.

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

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.

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.

I think that's one of the great things about the Pittsburgh Steelers - we're not a big free-agent team. We build guys up through our system to have a better understanding of our defense.

Our whole philosophy was to intimidate the quarterback. We were able to do it. We were pioneers. People still recognize us as, maybe, the best defensive line of all time.