An interesting email landed in our inbox this week from longtime Steelers fan Don Moore. Don attended Super Bowl X in 1976 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys in Miami. He had seats just behind the endzone and was watching the pregame warmups with he witnessed something very bizarre…here’s what happened:
Curious if anyone else is aware of this as I’ve never seen it in print. Prior to [Super Bowl X] Roy Gerela was practicing kicks and there was no net. Balls were not being returned [from the stands]. He ran out of them, became enraged and jumped into the stands triping over the railing and falling akwardly on top of a poor woman in the 1st row. I was in about the 6th row, happened right in front of me. Police and Franco came over, helped Gerela off and that was that. No big deal – lasted less than a minute. I always believed though that was the reason for Gerela’s poor game which they said was a result of cracked ribs caused by a tackle injury on the 1st play. Only thing I ever saw was a brief article years later that said the Steelers had settled a law suit involving an incident prior to the game. Any of this known? Amazing how things have changed. Can you imagine today a player jumping over the railing into the stands?
Don added:
| I mean as I said imagine today that prior to a Super Bowl a player attempted to go after a fan, took a running start, attempted to jump over a railing like a trackstar, caught his toe and ended up sprauled on top of a fan apparently injured! And two policeman walk over with a player or two and then walk off with the Gerela as if nothing happened. And then the official version is he broke a rib on the first play of the game. I probably wouldn’t even have been curious about it other than he missed a field goal or two and an extra point. Seems like it should be part of Steeler lore. |
Definitely a crazy incident to say the least. Gerela would go on to miss two relatively easy field goals (36 and 33 yards), an extra point and he was nearly the goat of the game.
Here’s what the United Press International wrote about Gerela’s injury the next day via the Tyrone Herald:
It it possible that the injury occurred prior to the game and the Steelers were able to conceal the incident? It certainly would be a lot easier to do that in the 1970s prior to cell phones and such a large media presence at the Super Bowl. For what it’s worth, I spent several hours searching for more info on the lawsuit and incident during warmups and found nothing.
If anybody else remembers the strange pregram incident or can shed some light on the situation, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. Also, if you are curious, Gerela is currently a high school teacher and assistant football coach in New Mexico.
