Pitt's Dan Marino Addresses Missed Super Bowls with Steelers

Marino fell in the 1983 NFL Draft, after throwing 23 interceptions to 17 touchdowns as a senior in the 1982 season.

Five other quarterbacks went ahead of Marino and the hometown Steelers passed over him at No. 21, as they drafted Texas Tech defensive tackle Gabe Rivera, who would only play in six NFL games.

The Miami Dolphins took Marino with the 27th pick in the first round and he went on to have a Hall of Fame career with the franchise, spending 17 seasons with them from 1983-99.

His best season came in 1984, when he led the NFL with 5,084 passing yards, 48 touchdowns and a 108.9 passer rating, earning First Team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl nod, plus winning the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award and the NFL MVP too.

Marino also took down the Steelers that season in the AFC Championship Game, throwing for four touchdowns and 421 yards in the 45-28 victory at home. The Dolphins would lose Super Bowl XIX, 38-16 to the San Francisco 49ers.

The Steelers made the playoffs just once in the following eight years, as they struggled from the transition from the "Steel Curtain" to afterwards.

Marino finished with 61,361 passing yards and 420 passing touchdowns, which both rank in the top 10 all-time in NFL history.

He also earned numerous honors, including three First Team All-Pro and three Second Team All-Pro nods, nine Pro Bowl appearances, while leading the NFL in passing yards five times and in passing touchdowns three times.

Pittsburgh would get back to the playoffs for six straight seasons, all starting with Bill Cowher taking over as head coach in 1992. This included making Super Bowl XXX in the 1995 season, where they lost to 27-17 to the Dallas Cowboys, as Pittsburgh quarterback Neil O'Donnell threw three interceptions.

Marino spoke on the Not Just Football podcast with Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward and said that if he played with the Steelers in his career, he may have won the Super Bowl or multiple.

“Looking back at their teams, I probably [would’ve] won a couple Super Bowls,” Marino said. “I really do because of the defense they had and all that. What year was it? I’m trying to think. We beat them to go to the Super Bowl in the AFC Championship game. Mark Malone was on that team and I got to play against Jack Lambert, which when I’m growing up… and then I see Jack Lambert playing and Donnie Shell, so that was huge for me, but I feel like I’d have been pretty good in Pittsburgh.”

Marino did say that him leaving was also good for him, as it got him out of Pittsburgh at 21 years old and he had a different experience.

He earned his enshrinement into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2003, Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and then the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. Pitt and the Dolphins both retired Marino's No. 13 jersey as well.