Dolphins legend Dan Marino on his greatest win over Steelers team that passed on him in 1983 NFL Draft

Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl, but the Miami Dolphins legend and Hall of Fame quarterback did win an AFC title against his childhood team — the Pittsburgh Steelers — who immediately regretted not selected him in the previous year’s NFL Draft. 

In fact, many Steelers fans of a certain age (including the father of this story’s author) still haven’t gotten over the fact that Pittsburgh passed on Marino, who in the 1984 AFC Championship threw for 421 yards and four touchdowns while leading the Dolphins to a 45-28 win.  

“Tell him not to let it go,” a smiling Marino said in a one-on-one interview with CBS Sports when told of the still-upset Steelers fan who has never forgiven his team for passing on Marino. 

Marino, who also starred at the University of Pittsburgh, doesn’t hide the fact that facing the Steelers added a special element to what was already a massive game. After a record-setting 1984 season that saw him set then-NFL single season marks with 5,084 yards and 48 touchdowns, Marino essentially closed the door for good on the Steelers’ 1970s dynasty. That was that final playoff game for several pillars of Pittsburgh’s major players from those teams. 

“Well, that’s a pretty cool one because we were playing Pittsburgh, and I grew up there,” Marino said. “It was pretty special to play them. Donnie Shell was still playing, who is a Hall of Famer. Jack Lambert’s a Hall of Famer. They were in that game. 

“As a kid, I grew up watching them. To be able to beat them in the Orange Bowl and then go on to the Super Bowl was, for me as a 22-year-old kid, it was really cool.” 

Many expected Marino to have to match wits that day with fellow draft class member John Elway and the Denver Broncos. But Elway and Co. were upset by Chuck Noll’s Steelers in the divisional round a week earlier after Pittsburgh’s defense picked off Elway twice, sacked him four times and held him to 184 yards in Pittsburgh’s 24-17 win. 

The Steelers, however, were not able to duplicate that success against Marino and Miami’s talented receiving duo of Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, who caught three of Marino’s four touchdowns. 

Pittsburgh took its only lead on John Stallworth’s 65-yard touchdown catch-and-run in the second quarter. Marino immediately responded, though, by firing his first of two touchdown passes to Duper. Stallworth scored agin in the third quarter, but Marino once again countered after leading two more scoring drives that put the game on ice. 

When the dust settled, the Dolphins defeated the Steelers in what remains the highest-scoring AFC championship game ever. Marino then went on to enjoy a legendary career with the Dolphins that included setting the NFL’s career marks for touchdown passes and passing yards. In 2019, Marino was included in the NFL 100th All-Time Team. 

The Steelers wouldn’t make it back to another AFC title game until 1994. It took another decade before they finally found their next future Hall of Fame quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who was drafted 21 years after Pittsburgh famously passed on Marino in the 1983 NFL Draft. 

Marino, who after beating the Steelers, played the 49ers and Joe Montana in arguably the greatest matchup in Super Bowl history, is excited to be part of “M&M’s Ring of Comfort” promotion along with fellow Hall of Famers Bruce Smith and Terrell Owens. The trio celebrated the ring in a commercial that will air during Super Bowl LVIII, which you can catch on CBS on Sunday, Feb. 11. 

The rings are 14K gold and actually include specially created diamonds made from real peanut butter M&M’s candies.

“Well, I mean, I think it tastes a lot better,” Marino said when asked how the “Ring of Comfort” compares to his 1984 AFC title and Hall of Fame rings. “It’s really cool. I think people will get excited about it. 

“It’s just a fun message about guys like myself, Bruce, TO, and a lot of guys — Hall of Famers, too — who played hard throughout their whole career and didn’t win. This is a way they can have some fun with it and get a ring, a diamond ring which is made of M&M peanut butter. It’s exciting and a fun commercial.”