Bill Cowher coached 261 games in his career, 240 in the regular season, another 21 in the playoffs. With that kind of longevity, he experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. After years of coming oh-so-close, Cowher won a Super Bowl, his Pittsburgh Steelers’ team knocking off the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL.
Success can be defined as standing on top of a pile of your failures. For Cowher, one of those painful moments on the way to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy was the 2001 AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. The first of two such playoff defeats to Bill Belichick’s Patriots, Cowher says it remains the top game that keeps him up at night.