One glance at the final score of Super Bowl XL, and most would assume the Pittsburgh Steelers handily defeated the Seattle Seahawks, but that was far from the case in their 21-10 win. It was a one-score game until the final 10 minutes. An altered outcome of just a play or two could have changed the course of Steelers history forever. That’s why this little-known story recently shared by Pro Hall of Fame guard Alan Faneca is so fascinating.
Imagine reaching the biggest moment of your career only to be told you might have to do a job you’ve barely practiced. That’s the predicament Faneca suddenly found himself in late in the third quarter of the Super Bowl.
“Our backup center goes down, he’s on kickoff return and he hurts his knee. He’s outta the game. Our starting center, he’s had a bad knee he’s been kind of keeping together for the whole season. He’s starting to ache a little bit,” Faneca said in an interview with WAFB Louisiana’s Jacques Doucet. “So Russ Grimm, he tells me ‘Jeff [Hartings]’s hurting. Go down there and get some snaps with Ben [Roethlisberger].’
“I’m like, ‘I’m not going down there. I’m not taking snaps with Ben.’ So this goes back and forth until he finally says a few choice words…I told [Ben] the situation, he gets up, throws his hands up, and he’s like ‘Nuh uh, I’m not doing this.’ I was literally one false slip from my first snaps being in the third quarter of the Super Bowl.”
Backup C Chukky Okobi got injured midway through the third quarter on the kick return-unit. His role was to be the wedge buster, but he (somehow) managed to get injured on a touchback. Hartings’ ailing knee almost forced Faneca to move from left guard to center, which would have thrown a wrench in the entire offense for the rest of a tight Super Bowl contest.
Had Faneca shifted further inside, Trai Essex—a rookie tackle at the time—may have been thrust into action with the starting offense on football’s biggest stage against one of the best defensive lines in football that season.
The game was still just 14-10, meaning there was little margin for error. A complete overhaul of Pittsburgh’s offensive line at that stage of the Super Bowl could have changed everything. Center is one of the hardest positions to play in football. Just look at Maurkice Pouncey’s 2020 playoff disaster as an example of what one bad snap can do to the outcome of a game.
Determined to achieve his life’s biggest goal, Faneca had a pep talk with Jeff Hartings and his injured knee.
“I said, ‘Look Jeff, snap the ball. I’m gonna take care of everything else.’ Thankfully, I didn’t have to,” Faneca said.
Hartings held up, Faneca stayed at guard, and the rest is Steelers history. It was one forgotten moment that nearly changed everything.