Ex-Steelers QB Neil O'Donnell accused of rigging Super Bowl XXX by his former teammate

Accusing a former teammate of rigging a Super Bowl is an extraordinary claim, yet that is precisely what former Steelers guard Emerson Martin alleged while speaking on "Million Dollar Minute" with Neil Haley. Martin’s comments reignited debates among fans who still wonder if O'Donnell’s performance was merely an off day or something far more controversial. Regardless of the truth, the memory of Super Bowl XXX remains a defining and painful moment in Steelers history.

"Yes, so listen, nothing against Neil O'Donnell, but I do believe he threw that Super Bowl," Martin said while speaking on the show. "Neil threw two perfect passes in that game. Go back and watch the game. We had a receiver named Corey Holliday running down the sideline with his hands up and almost like [Larry] Brown was checking down in the slot and Neil's perfect two passes went to Brown."

That is a big statement to come out of the mouth of a player who only appeared in two games for Pittsburgh and started just one. 

However, Martin played from 1995 to 1996 on the Steelers' practice squad. He later bounced around between NFL Europe and the Arena Football League before returning to the Steelers in 1998 once again as a practice squad player.

"We had held Emmitt Smith to under 50 yards for the game," Martin said. "He had one long run for 36 yards. So he had one run for 36 yards and he was under 50 yards for the game. If you take those two plays away where Brown returned those two interceptions inside the 10-yard line, that is two touchdowns that they converted in that game and they would have been totally dominated by us and we would be talking about a different story...we should have won that game. We were the better team that day. We played better with the exception of two plays."

Steelers' Neil O'Donnell allegedly never got on the team plane after Super Bowl XXX

Martin does make a good point that without those two interceptions, the game likely swings in Pittsburgh’s favor. However, on that day, things simply did not unfold that way for the Steelers. Whether O'Donnell just had a bad day at the office or whether something more mysterious was happening is a debate that continues to resurface from time to time.

The truth may be much simpler. O'Donnell was an above-average quarterback who got nervous on the biggest stage, or perhaps there were basic miscommunication errors that made the mistakes appear far worse than they actually were. Either way, it is a complex situation, and claiming O'Donnell deliberately rigged the game without substantial evidence is a serious accusation to make.

That said, Martin did reveal that after the Steelers lost, the only player who did not return on the team plane was O'Donnell, and Martin claims he never saw him again.