**(Part 2 of 3)
The Kansas City Chiefs owned the best record in the NFL (13-3) and the league’s top-ranked defense. They also hadn’t lost at home.
“(Everybody was) talking about Kansas City and who they were gonna play (in the next round),” says Bailey. “Of course they looked past us.”
“No, I really don’t think we were looking past them,” says Greg Manusky, a linebacker on that '95 Chiefs squad and formerly the Colts' defensive coordinator. “We were giddied up and really excited to play the Colts. It wasn’t like we were looking at who we were gonna play in the next game.”
Sunday, Jan. 7, 1996 was a frigid day in Kansas City. The temperature at kickoff was zero with a wind chill of 15 below. The field turf, particularly on the sidelines, was hard as ice. For a team that played its home games in a domed stadium, it didn’t bode well for Indianapolis.
“It was so cold, you wanted something to warm you up, so you took hot apple cider to the field,” Crockett says. “It was frozen by the time you got to the middle of the field. Guys like me from Florida, we’re like, ‘OK, we’re gonna be tough.’ I had no sleeves on with the Vaseline on the arms and then the shade came over the field by halftime. I literally almost froze to death.”
Facing the league’s No. 1 rushing offense, the Colts defense proved to be the difference. Chiefs running back Marcus Allen rushed for 94 yards but did not get into the end zone, and Kansas City quarterback Steve Bono was intercepted three times.
With the weather conditions, Harbaugh wasn’t very effective through the air – completing 12-of-27 passes for 112 yards — but he managed 48 yards on the ground, keeping drives alive when Kansas City’s defense flushed him out of the pocket.
“We called it plastering – you’ve gotta plaster on the back end and that’s what we had to do that day with Harbaugh,” Manusky says. “And I think he found a couple openings. With the conditions that we had and even though we had Neil Smith, Derek Thomas and Dan Saleaumua, we just didn’t have an opportunity to get to him.”
A 7-7 contest at halftime, a Blanchard field goal in the third quarter would decide it. The Chiefs' Lin Elliott missed three field goals, including a 42-yarder that would have tied the score late in the fourth quarter.
“They had a last-second field goal try and they end up missing it, and I remember nudging one of my best friends to this day, (wide receiver) Bobby Olive, and we went crazy,” says Bailey. “We were like little kids in a candy store, running and jumping around, hugging each other.”
“You were just like, ‘When is this fairy tale gonna be over?’ ” Crockett says.
Next up would be the Pittsburgh Steelers for the right to play in the Super Bowl. But first, a homecoming.
A football city is born
After the Colts upset the Chiefs in Kansas City, the team was welcomed home by a crush of fans at the Indianapolis airport.
While many became aware of Indianapolis as a football town after Peyton Manning became the Colts’ quarterback in 1998 and the team became a perennial playoff contender, Bailey says it began before that.
“You’ve gotta think about it. Indianapolis was a basketball city,” Bailey says. “You fast-forward to right now: It’s kind of split. It was flattering to see that 12th man – that’s when they were born, that ’95 season."
“When people lined up with banners and signs, we felt like rock stars coming back home that day,” says Crockett. “Everyone knew who you were. Imagine if we had social media like we have now; it would’ve been unreal.”
'We’re the hot team’
The Steelers were on a mission to reach the Super Bowl after coming up 3 yards short the season prior against the Chargers, and the Colts were coming in riding a wave of underdog momentum.
“(Marchibroda’s message was:) ‘Everyone’s counting us out. We believe,’ ” Bailey remembers. “‘The guys here in this locker room believe. The people in Indianapolis believe. You play for them. You play for your brothers here in this locker room. We’re the hot team.’”
A Neil O’Donnell touchdown pass to Kordell Stewart with 13 seconds left in the second quarter gave Pittsburgh a 10-6 lead going into halftime. Television replays showed Stewart stepped out of bounds and came back into the end zone to make the catch, but the penalty wasn't called.
After the teams traded field goals, Harbaugh, beginning at the Colts’ 30-yard line early in the fourth quarter, threw three straight completions followed by a 47-yard touchdown pass to Floyd Turner to put Indianapolis ahead with 8:46 remaining in the game. With the Colts up 16-13, the Three Rivers Stadium crowd was stunned.
“It was definitely an emotional roller coaster, from your heart racing to your heart pounding when you’re kinda worried, to you’re excited,” says Bailey.
Indianapolis had a third-and-1 at its own 31 with 3:57 to go. A first down would keep alive a drive that could eat enough clock to seal a trip to the Super Bowl. But blitzing Steelers cornerback Willie Williams swept in from the right side and grabbed Warren’s ankle to bring him down short of a first down.
“If he wouldn’t have gotten an ankle tackle right there, man … the game was over,” Crockett says. “Game was over.”
The Colts were forced to punt. On the third play of the next Pittsburgh drive, O’Donnell threw a short pass intended for wide receiver Ernie Mills that Quentin Coryatt almost intercepted.
“(Coryatt) started running and at the last second, this guy comes in and punches the ball out of his arm,” remembers Bailey.
Following another incomplete pass, it was fourth-and-3. A stop here, and the Colts would have the football, 2 minutes away from Super Bowl XXX.
But O’Donnell completed a pass over the middle to Andre Hastings for 9 yards.
The next play was a 37-yard completion to Mills to the 1, and running back Bam Morris took it in from there to give Pittsburgh a 20-16 lead with 1:34 to play.
The Colts began their final drive of the game at their own 16. With 88 seconds to go 84 yards, “Captain Comeback” went to work.
“It was just all in the moment,” Harbaugh says. “And you just trusted your teammates and had great confidence that they would make the appropriate play, finish their assignment, do their job.”
Harbaugh was forced out of the pocket on first down and threw the ball away.
Eighty-two seconds left.
On second down, Harbaugh completed a 7-yard pass to Warren to the 23.
Seventy-four seconds.
On third-and-3, Harbaugh completed an 18-yard pass over the middle to Turner to the 41.
Sixty-six seconds.
Harbaugh couldn’t find an open receiver on the next play, and ran for 8 yards.
Timeout with 39 seconds left.
On second down, Harbaugh threw over the middle for Turner again, but it went in and out of the hands of Steelers defensive back Chris Oldham. Harbaugh was slow getting up after taking a shot from Pittsburgh defensive end Brentson Buckner.
Bleeding from his right hand, Harbaugh threw his next pass incomplete for Warren, bringing up fourth-and-2.
Twenty-eight seconds.
Harbaugh found wide receiver Sean Dawkins, who went out of bounds at the Pittsburgh 38 for a first down.
Twenty-one seconds.
Harbaugh was immediately pressured by the Steelers’ pass rush on the next play and scrambled to the 29. With no timeouts, he hurried everyone to the line of scrimmage and spiked the ball to stop the clock.
Five seconds. One shot at the end zone. One shot at the Super Bowl.
Everything in slow motion
The Colts ran the Hail Mary during Friday practices each week.
“There was nothing that I could remember (in the huddle) that was any different than: Here’s the play, and you trust that everybody’s going to do what they’re supposed to do,” Harbaugh says. “Without even thinking that they wouldn’t. Just trust and knowing that they would.”
“We’d been in close games most of the season,” says Bailey. “So it was just like business as usual; we’re gonna go down here, we’re gonna make a play and we’re gonna score.”
As Harbaugh walked up to the line of scrimmage, he had only one thing on his mind.
"I just kept telling myself: 'Hit a spot, hit a spot 5 yards deep in the end zone and don’t throw it out of the end zone,' ” Harbaugh recalls. “Whatever you do, don’t throw it out of the end zone.”
As he jogged out to the right side as part of a triple-right formation for the Colts, Bailey was talking to himself, too.
“Brian Stablein, he was on my side; it was Brian, Floyd Turner and myself,” Bailey says. “Brian was always the tip guy because with his vertical he could jump up and tip the ball in the air or just jump up and catch the ball.
“And Floyd and I were the ones that were gonna catch the tip. I distinctly remember running down and thinking, 'I’ve gotta get down here, I’ve gotta get down here, I’ve gotta get down here and get into position.' ”
Harbaugh took the snap, dropped back, paused, and lofted the ball into the air.
“I turn around and I see the ball coming,” says Bailey. “And it’s coming right to me. And your whole thought process is: I hope we can keep it inbounds. And as the ball was coming down, we started jostling for position.
“So I’m feeling guys tugging on my arms, I’m feeling guys trying to pull me down. I’m feeling guys grabbing the back of my jersey. You’re shaking yourself loose through all this stuff, and then all at once, you jump up.”
The ball was tipped and juggled between Bailey and multiple Steelers defenders. When Bailey fell to the ground, NBC television commentator Phil Simms yelled out: "He caught it! He caught it!”
Bailey stood up and with the football in his left hand, raised both hands in the air.
“We were always taught: Make the ref make a decision,” Bailey says. “You go up, you put the ball in the air. The ref says no, he saw it. And that was the end of the game.”
The referees ruled the ball had hit the ground. It was all over. The Steelers were going to the Super Bowl.
(Page 2 of 3)