Barry Pearson wasn’t fooled.

Trouble was, the other members of the Pittsburgh Steelers special teams unit were.

And because of that collective gaffe, the complexion of the 1972 AFC championship game changed.

On Sunday night, the Miami Dolphins will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their undefeated season, the festivities coinciding with the Steelers’ visit to Hard Rock Stadium. The opponent is an appropriate choice given that the Dolphins had to get through the Steelers before they could complete their unblemished record with a victory against Washington in Super Bowl VII.

History will show that one of the momentum shifts in the Dolphins’ 21-17 victory at Three Rivers Stadium on Dec. 31, 1972, was Larry Seiple’s fake punt that gained 37 yards and set up a touchdown in the second quarter that erased a 7-0 Steelers lead.

• 50 years after 'The Fake': Dolphins' Larry Seiple recalls his fake punt to help beat the Steelers, preserve a perfect season • Mark Madden: Barring a massive overpayment, Steelers shouldn't trade Chase Claypool • Steelers 4 downs: Per analytics, Steelers offense has faced NFL's toughest schedule of defenses

It was a fake that Pearson, a rookie wide receiver, was powerless to stop, a play he’ll never forget and one that stings 50 years later.

“That, I don’t talk about,” said Pearson, who has more pleasant memories from a week earlier when he was on the field for the Immaculate Reception. “I don’t like to go there.”

Pearson reluctantly did, however, in a recent interview. He rehashed the play that gave the Dolphins life in another game in which they hardly resembled the team that went 14-0 in the regular season. A week earlier, while Franco Harris’ immaculate catch helped the Steelers win the first playoff game in franchise history, the Dolphins needed a touchdown with less than five minutes remaining to beat Cleveland, 20-14, in their divisional playoff game.

The conference title game was played at Three Rivers Stadium even though the Dolphins hadn’t lost while the Steelers were 11-3 in the regular season. Home-field advantage 50 years ago was determined on a rotational basis rather than record.

“We had our crowd, and I can remember feeling very hyped and good about the game and our chances to beat them,” said Rocky Bleier, who was in his first full season on the active roster after recovering from wounds he sustained in Vietnam. “I didn’t see why we couldn’t.”

And here, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Dolphins were trailing 7-0 with 12 minutes, 40 seconds left in the second quarter and facing a fourth-and-5 just inside the 50. Coach Don Shula, though, knew the Steelers liked to peel back their blockers to set up a return, so he gave the go-ahead to Seiple to run the fake if he saw enough open field in front of him.

Seiple did.

“It was wide open,” Seiple told the Trib this week. “My grandmother could’ve run through that hole.”

Pearson’s job was to contain the left side. The up back saw him coming and forced Pearson wide of Seiple, who had started his dash downfield.

“When I first got through the line and went toward Seiple, I looked off to the side, and said I’m (screwed),” Pearson said. “There was nothing I could really do. It happened pretty quick.”

Seiple was off and running. As anticipated, the rest of the Steelers return unit had turned back to set up the return. They were oblivious to Seiple’s deception.

“It was a bad play, a bad decision on our part,” Pearson said. “I didn’t like it, but what are you going to do? It was my second game, I wasn’t going to argue with them.”

Pearson had spent the entire year on the taxi squad — the 1972 version of the practice squad — but was elevated to the active roster for the playoffs when wide receiver Frank Lewis hurt his hamstring in the season finale against San Diego. Pearson played special teams in the playoff game against the Raiders and said he was the one who brought in the play call from the sidelines on the Immaculate Reception.

“It was my first play (on offense),” he said. “The pass was intended for me.”

The Steelers needed 10 yards for a first down, and Pearson said the play was designed for a 12-yard pass across the middle.

Video shows Pearson running a route down the right side when Bradshaw gets trapped in the pocket, breaks loose and unleashes his throw that is re-directed in the collision between Jack Tatum and Frenchy Fuqua and lands at the feet of Harris.

“It was inches off the ground,” Pearson said, “but it was off the ground.”

Now, a week later, Pearson is chasing after Seiple as he embarks on a 37-yard gain to the Steelers’ 12. Seiple runs past Steve Furness, who has his back to the play. Finally, Bleier and Glen Edwards converge from the left while Pearson frantically pursues Seiple from the right.

“I remember being very focused on my responsibility,” Bleier said. “I had to pick up one of their up backs that was in front of the punter as they came down the field. That’s all I focused on, as my fellow teammates did, too.

“If you look at it, it was pretty intense. Everybody was running downfield doing their job, and nobody was looking behind them.”

A few plays after the Seiple fake, Larry Csonka scored a touchdown, and the Dolphins tied the score. It remained 7-7 heading into the halftime.

“That was a turning point,” Bleier said.

The second one came when the Dolphins emerged from the locker room. Shula benched quarterback Earl Morrall and replaced him with Bob Griese, who hadn’t played since breaking his leg in the fifth game of the season.

The Steelers opened the third quarter with a Roy Gerela field goal to retake the lead 10-7. But Griese threw a 52-yard pass to Paul Warfield that gave the Dolphins confidence. It set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Jim Kiick.

Another touchdown run by Kiick in the fourth quarter padded the Dolphins’ lead, and they held on for the four-point win.

“The rest of the game gets kind of blurry,” Bleier said.

Pearson also has few memories of the game aside from the Seiple fake.

“I guess it’s because we got beat,” he said. “You hate to say they outcoached and outplayed us, but they probably did. They accomplished quite a feat that year.”

As disheartening as the loss was for Steelers fans on New Year’s Eve 1972, it paled in comparison to the news that broke the next morning.

Pirates great Roberto Clemente had been killed in a plane crash.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)