Kirkland was always one of my favorite linebackers. Complete player against the run or pass. And for a guy his size to be as good as he was in all phases of the game was crazy. I wish he and Lloyd could have won rings with the Steelers.
I’m surprised that there wasn’t a highlight showing Jerome running over Bills’ linebacker, Bryce Paup. My brother, whom is a Bills fan, called me immediately following Jerome running over Paup and asked me, “Holy cow! Where the heck did they get that guy?!” I told him the Steelers acquired Jerome from the Rams and it looks like a perfect match for the Steelers and Jerome.
1996 was The last season where the Steelers wore their classic block numbers. In 1997 they shifted to the Fortuna font numbers we know today. 2019 was the first time they wore these uniforms again.
@ EdmacZ The Team brought back those block style uniforms to celebrate the teams 40th anniversary of winning Super Bowl XIII. They wore them in 2019 in the home game vs Rams for the 40th anniversary of Super Bowl XIV
@@ItzYinzburgh Isnt that how you get paid. I was told that the video must be watched in till their done and comments must be made for you to get paid. Oh well, I love your videos so i'll comment anyways ... LOL
Jerome Bettis is the reason I’m a Steeler fan. I was Rams fan as a kid. When they traded him to Pittsburgh I was so mad I just started watching Pittsburgh. I was 14 years old at the time. Been a die hard Steelers fan ever since. There will never be another Bettis!! Kirkland was one of my favorite players when I started watching the Steelers. If Ben would have came along about 7 years earlier, who knows what could have been!!
Same for me, never had a team, but Bettis and Ward finally got me to buy in wholesale on the Steelers, and I'm a man of dedication, doesn't matter how long it took me to settle...I'm a Steelers fan for life.
Kirkland, at 270 in 1996 was a perfect size/weight that season. He had mobility. His weight went up to nearly 300 lbs during his final 4 seasons in Pittsburgh.
Love these old Bettis clips when he was in his prime. I'm still trying to find the hit he had on a secondary player attempting to hit him high where he almost flips the guy feet went higher than his head. I want to say it was against the Browns but unsure. Favorite Bettis play ever truly a brutal RB back then. Kirkland has to be the largest ILB to play at his caliber of play that's ever played
Even watching footage now, STILL cannot believe had the Size/Athleticism....@ 270#. NOBODY nowadays has that kinda athletic prowess @ 235-255! LOVE that "Over-The-Shoulder" Willie Mays-deal covering Johnson. He should be considered for HOF. And what more can be said of #36 that hasn't been re-hashed/re-iterated Over & Over....WIDE-LOAD....COMIN' THRU YAWL!
Because only two teams get to play in the super bowl per year. Most years we weren't one of the teams that got to play. Most of this era's years that we were, we collectively blew it. Not really the deepest of questions there guy.
@@stevenlockhart9255 Yeah that was supposed to not be a question that really need much thought. Just a fan that knew we were certain pieces away from dominating like NE. So sorry I didn't spell it out better for the masses.
This game showed why the Steelers made Levon the highest paid MLB at that time. Sadly, once Levon got that new contract extension he coasted. He would consistently show up to training camp thirty lbs. overweight and it infuriated Bill Cowher. It got to the point that during the offseason Cowher sent the team’s conditioning coach down to Kirkland’s South Carolina home to get him in shape. Levon did not receive a second contract extension from the Steelers because his expanding girth prevented him from making the kinds of plays that he did in this video. Levon literally ate himself off of the Steelers’ roster.
Great game for Kirkland. The bus - not so much, take away the one run he busted and it's not so impressive anymore. Don't get me wrong he was a great back, but this belongs as a Kirkland highlight reel. 19 for 83 is a lot less impressive than 20 for 133, and one tells the story a lot better than the other.
If you can take a 50-yard run off of a back’s rushing total as an outlier and he still averages over 4.3 yards on 19 carries, I’ll take it. I’d be happy with that production from a junior high runner.
@@thomasclendaniel520 surely you can, I just did. Just like when a WR is wide open and has a game that's 5 rec for 101 yds and a TD. If he wasn't wide open and broke the one for 80, and suddenly it's 5 for 28, it's average production at best and probably getting called a bum by every Steelers fan in existence.
I thought it was a good performance regardless. He worked for that long run, set up by the short ones. Broke tackles and his speed did the rest. No such thing as taking plays out, he earned that shit.
By your standards every player is sub par. So we should remove all big plays from everyone's stats? Guess we better tell Barry Sanders and Jerry Rice they aren't great players anymore because big plays don't count.
