Episode 27: Rocky Bleier

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This week’s guest represents three hallowed traditions. On the football field, he won a National Championship at Notre Dame and four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and on the battlefield, he won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart while fighting with the US Army in Vietnam. Join Bernie as he welcomes Steelers Hall Of Honor member Rocky Bleier to the program to discuss growing up as the son of a bar owner in Appleton, WI, the origin of his nickname and the myriad of emotions he experienced when being drafted into the NFL, and then, into the armed forces. Plus: details of the extraction operation during which Rocky was wounded in Vietnam; playing for Ara Parseghian and Chuck Noll; the games and plays that defined his role on the great Steelers teams of the 70s, and the enduring bond shared by those teams and the city of Pittsburgh. Later, Rocky gives insight on his many charitable endeavors, including his Beating The Odds Foundation, which helps students be successful outside their school’s curriculum, before telling Bernie what really happened at the end of the 2019 E60 documentary, The Return, and more!