(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
The shining moment of Alan Faneca's Hall of Fame career was when he pulled from his left guard spot to the right and delivered a key block on Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill in Super Bowl XL that sprung Willie Parker for a 75-yard touchdown run to give the Steelers a 14-3 lead early in the third quarter. Parker's touchdown still remains as the longest touchdown run in Super Bowl history.
Faneca was on the WDVE Morning Show this past Monday to talk about being nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2021, and one of the topics that came up was the 34-counter pike play he was a part of that freed Willie Parker for a 75-yard touchdown in Super Bowl XL that helped the Steelers capture their fifth Super Bowl title in franchise history.
“We had a great setup. The coaches came up with a plan,” Faneca remembered of the play. “We're trying to get them to overplay. It was an audible on about six, seven, eight plays. Just to see it come together and happen in the moment. You are in your stance and all of the sudden you notice holy s***, we are about to call this play. We are about to do it. So I go over there. We do the audible. Big Ben calls it. I get my block, and I just wanted to see the whole thing go down. I don’t ever hit my block and spin around. I just hit the turf and turned and spun around and I wanted to see Willie run down the field.”
Faneca posted a photo on Twitter of him watching Parker take it to the house in Super Bowl XL on the 15th anniversary of the game on Feb. 5.
“I don’t think I’ve seen the photo in a decade. And somebody showed it to me the other day," Faneca said on WDVE. "It’s a photo from the end zone, and Willie is running at it. And I had just spun around on the ground to watch. It's just amazing. It was awesome."