The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.
Evander “Ziggy” Hood was the last player taken in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, a few months after the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
Although Hood never emerged as a star in his five seasons with the Steelers, he was a serviceable defensive end whose sack in Super Bowl XLV could have been pivotal had the outcome swung in a different direction.
Midway through the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers, the Steelers had just gotten a touchdown and 2-point conversion to pull within 28-25. On the first play from the Green Bay 25, Hood crashed through the line and dropped Aaron Rodgers for a 4-yard loss.
The chance for the Steelers to retake the momentum ended, however, when Rodgers threw a 31-yard completion on third-and-10 to ensure a field goal that capped the Packers’ 31-25 victory.
And so it is that Hood’s sack is a mere footnote in Steelers annals.
Hood was voted by the Tribune-Review sports staff as the best Pittsburgh athlete to wear No. 96. He edged Brentson Buckner, who spent three years with the Steelers in the mid-1990s and started in Super Bowl XXX.
Also under consideration was Pitt’s Vince Crochunis, a three-time Academic All-American, 2005 Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an All-Big East defensive tackle.
Hood’s sack of Rodgers in the Super Bowl was his second of the 2010 postseason. His first came against the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round, when he totaled five tackles. He had four more tackles in the AFC championship game win against the New York Jets.
The following year, Hood had four tackles in a playoff loss to the Denver Broncos, but he never appeared in the postseason again in a career that spanned through the 2018 season.
In his five seasons with the Steelers, Hood totaled 111⁄2 sacks. But in his final year with the Steelers, he was surpassed by another late first-round pick, Cameron Heyward. The Steelers allowed Hood to test free agency, and he signed a four-year, $16 million deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars in March 2014.
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