Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney died Thursday. Rooney, the son of team founder Art Rooney and controlling owner of the franchise since 1988, is probably best known for the personal letter he sent a Seattle Seahawks fan in February, 2006, on team letterhead with copies sent to commissioner Paul Tagliabue, insisting the Steelers won Super Bowl XL fair and square.
According to a post by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio in 2009, the letter surfaced three years later in an auction on the web site eBay.com. Although the letter’s provenance was never officially confirmed, Rooney entered into Seattle lore as a sore and smug millionaire trampling on the heartbroken: “You are something special,” Rooney wrote in the cover letter.