Steelers face long odds, but unlikely champions have been crowned before

The Pittsburgh Steelers enter tonight’s AFC wild-card game against the Kansas City Chiefs facing the longest odds, not only of any team in the NFL playoffs this season, but of any team ever at this point of the postseason.

They are 13½-point underdogs against the two-time defending AFC champion Chiefs for their 8:15 p.m. kickoff at Arrowhead Stadium. As a No. 7 seed, they are staring down 80-to-1 odds of winning the Super Bowl, according to BetMGM.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger admitted this week that the perception is the Steelers “probably aren’t supposed to be here” and that “we’re probably 14th” of the 14-team NFL playoff bracket.

And yet, if you listen to those who have been in similar situations — and faced even steeper odds — they’ll tell you there’s a chance.

After all, the sports landscape is littered with examples of big underdogs pulling off unforgettable upsets.

• The New York Jets scored arguably the NFL’s most memorable upset when they defeated the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

• The Steelers themselves completed an improbable run during the 2005 season when they won the Super Bowl as a No. 6 seed.

Outside of pro football, there are others:

• Boxer James “Buster” Douglas was a 42-to-1 longshot when he knocked out the thought-to-be-invincible Mike Tyson in 1990.

• Team USA faced reported odds of 1,000-to-1 to win the 1980 Olympic hockey gold medal but shocked the Soviet Union en route to the gold.

• In Premier League soccer, Leicester City was a 5,000-to-1 underdog but nevertheless won the championship in 2016.

“I don’t really care about the underdog thing,” Steelers rookie running back Najee Harris said. “I don’t think that matters. At all.

“But just for us to be here and have the opportunity to play, I am always excited for that, so let’s have fun. Let’s compete, man.”

Penguins General Manager Ron Hextall has taken note of the Steelers’ improbable run to the playoffs. The team had to win their final two games and get help in the form of other upsets along the way to qualify.

“It being Big Ben’s last year and to get in (to the postseason) like they did,” Hextall said, “it’s been pretty cool to watch.”

Hextall can relate firsthand that anything is possible. He was part of an NHL organization that did one better: He was the assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Kings a decade ago when they won the Stanley Cup after entering the playoffs as a No. 8 seed.

“I don’t think as an athlete — or even management — you ever think you don’t have a chance,” Hextall said. “You always think you have a chance.”

The sportsbooks peg the Steelers (9-7-1) a 5-to-1 longshot to beat the Chiefs (12-5).

“It’s kind of like, ‘Us against the world,’ and ‘Let’s go show them,’ ” Hextall said. “That was the attitude of our group (the 2012 Kings), and they pulled off something special that probably nobody expected.”

The Steelers’ most unexpected playoff victory came 16 years and one day ago, a wild 21-18 win as an 8½-point underdog at Indianapolis. It highlighted a run as the NFL’s first No. 6 seed to win the Super Bowl.

“That was so long ago,” Roethlisberger said of the 2005 team, “(my teammates) were in middle school or elementary school when that was going on.”

Many of the players on the current Steelers roster weren’t even born when the most famous major upset to play out on Pittsburgh soil took place a quarter-century ago.

Coppin State captivated a Civic Arena crowd by beating No. 2 seed South Carolina on March 14, 1997, becoming only the third No. 15 seed to win an NCAA Tournament men’s basketball game.

“The biggest thing when you play as an underdog is that you’ve got to believe in yourself,” former Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell said by phone last week. “Just like with the Steelers, they’re going to believe in themselves as a team. We believed in ourselves and didn’t even look at the fact of being underdogs.”

Safe to say those 2005 Steelers didn’t, either. Nor did the two other No. 6 seeds that won Super Bowls: the 2007 New York Giants and 2010 Green Bay Packers.

The Kings’ Stanley Cup run as the Western Conference’s “last team in” came six years after No. 8 seed Edmonton similarly made it to the Stanley Cup Final. Last season, the Montreal Canadiens advanced to the Stanley Cup Final despite having the worst record of any team that qualified for the playoffs.

“When you get in as (the lowest seed),” Hextall said, “you always feel like an underdog. And there’s something that drives you when you are the underdog.”

Still, fresh in many people’s minds is the 36-10 beatdown the Chiefs handed the Steelers just three weeks ago at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs jumped out to a 30-0 lead in that game.

“The longer you stay in there and hang in,” Mitchell said, “the longer you believe that you can get it done, the tougher it becomes on the other team. Because they are supposed to demolish you.”

Yes, the Chiefs — winners of nine of their past 10 — are supposed to win. But a Steelers win wouldn’t come close to even the biggest upset of this NFL season. Just a week ago, the 15-point underdog Jacksonville Jaguars overcame 6½-to-1 odds and knocked off the Indianapolis Colts. That Jaguars win helped propel the Steelers into the playoffs.

So why not believe?

“Sometimes,” Hextall said, “you are more than the sum of your parts.

“When you have the chemistry and you have everybody committed to the same goal and they accept their role and they play unselfishly for the team, you can achieve big things.”