In the three decades that the Pittsburgh Steelers played at Three Rivers Stadium, no player ran for more yards in a game than the day in 2000 when Fred Taylor of the Jacksonville Jaguars had 234 rushing yards.
But according to Taylor, that game is the only one from his 13-year NFL career that he regrets. In an appearance on Trey Wingo’s “Half-Forgotten History” podcast, Taylor said it could’ve been a historic day if he wasn’t hungover that day.
“It was the year 2000 at Three Rivers Stadium, I go for 234 [yards] and I missed, I don’t know, 10 minutes or so in the fourth quarter because I was dehydrated,” Taylor told Wingo on the podcast. “The few days leading up to it, myself and a few guys went down to Orlando to party. We had to be back Saturday morning for a team meeting at 8 o’clock. I think we rolled back to Jacksonville in a limo.
“We pull up to the stadium around 7:30, we get out and everybody’s leaking whatever they were drinking. We get in, we fly to Pittsburgh, thank God it was a Sunday night game, because the next day we were all hungover doing IVs … that didn’t work. We get out there and we start the game off, I’m cutting left and right, just chunks: 20, 10, eight, seven, 20, 30.
“I cramped up. Ask my teammates, it was crazy. I cramped up, I couldn’t finish the game. Walter Payton — he’s my idol, he’s the reason I started loving the running back position and I wanted to play running back — I wanted to break his single-game record that day. But I cramped up and couldn’t finish the game. So that’s my one big regret.”
Payton’s 275-yard day in 1977 was the NFL single-game rushing record at the beginning of the 2000 season. Corey Dillon of the Cincinnati Bengals broke it with a 278-yard performance in October 2000 before Taylor’s 234-yard day in November.
Since then, Jamal Lewis broke the record with the Baltimore Ravens in 2003 when he ran for 295 yards. Then Adrian Peterson ran for 296 during a game in 2007.