🏈 The NFL considers Franco Harris’ “Immaculate Reception” the greatest play in league history, but it’s more than that.
By 1980, just as the Steelers were celebrating their fourth Super Bowl victory, Pittsburgh’s famed steel industry was moving from decline to all-out collapse. Many young people moved out of the demoralized region in search of jobs across the country .
“It’s what kept us going as we saw our immigrant culture begin to dissipate, as the economics went down, the steel mills closed, as people moved out into the suburbs, people moved out of the area," said Vallone. He used to preside at Masses at St. Peter Church, the parish nearest the stadium, where the congregants included many game-day tailgaters, clad in Steelers' black and gold.
And where Three Rivers Stadium once stood — now a sea of parking spaces near the Steelers' current stadium — there's a monument to the Immaculate Reception. You might call it a shrine. While the Immaculate Reception has a Catholic name, it also has an element of interfaith cooperation. “Touchdown Jesus,” a large mural of Christ with his arms raised, is a landmark near the stadium of Notre Dame University, the Catholic school that long ago fielded the apocalyptic backfield, the Four Horsemen.
“If you want to believe God’s on your side in a football game or a soccer game, that’s fine, as long as you live your life on God’s side,” Vallone said.
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