Ryan Clark, Pittsburgh Steelers. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
Ryan Clark recounts Aaron Rodgers and his worst NFL memory of all time.
Ryan Clark‘s Pittsburgh Steelers lost to Aaron Rodgers‘ Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 45.
On Thursday’s edition of Get Up! , Clark had to relive his worst moment of his playing career in front of his ESPN colleagues. Clark won a Super Bowl with the Steelers back in 2008 and made it to a Pro Bowl back in 2011. He spent eight of his 13 NFL seasons with the Steelers out of LSU. However, he’s often reminded of how he came this close to stopping Rodgers in the Super Bowl.
To say Ryan Clark got a little animated here would be an understatement.
Clark was an inch away from breaking up that pass thrown by Rodgers down in Texas on that early February 2011 night. This play came in the midst of Clark’s playing prime with the Steelers. He could have been a hero for the Steelers like James Harrison was two years prior in Super Bowl 43. Instead, Rodgers got to hoist the Lombardi Trophy that night and Clark went home empty-handed.
Rodgers would go on to refer to Clark by his jersey number, No. 25, pointing out how close Clark was to making a play on his thrown ball. Clark called it pouring salt in the wound by saying Rodgers had his thumb and index finger only slightly apart to signify how close Clark was to making a play on the ball. Clark may respect him as a player, but that doesn’t mean he’s not mad.
Football is a game of inches, and it is with these minuscule measures that games are won and lost. If Julian Edelman doesn’t come down with that catch, the Atlanta Falcons win Super Bowl 51 and not the New England Patriots. Had Kevin Dyson been one yard closer to the goal line, the Tennessee Titans would have won Super Bowl 54 and not the then-St. Louis Rams. It happens.
What is especially weird in all this is neither the Packers nor the Steelers have been back to the Super Bowl since. Pittsburgh has only been to one AFC Championship game since 2010, falling to the Patriots in 2016. Since 2010, the Packers have lost three straight NFC Championship games, losing to the Seattle Seahawks in 2014, the Falcons in 2016 and the San Francisco 49ers last year.
Clark may never be able to get over Rodgers getting the best of him on that play in Super Bowl 45.