Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and four-time Super Bowl champion Rocky Bleier is the Steelers nominee for the NFL’s Salute to Service Award presented by USAA. The award recognizes NFL players, coaches, personnel and legends who make a commitment to supporting the military community.
Bleier, who was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart and Combat Infantryman Badge for his service in the Vietnam War, supports numerous veteran causes — including Operation Strong Vet, Victory Media, and Nationally Owned Veterans Business Association (NaVOBA). He has been involved with the Wounded Warriors Project, Warriors2Citizens, Veterans Job Fair, Operation Check Point, Homeless Vet Run, Vietnam Veterans of America, The Crucible, National Veterans Wheelchair Games, SW Veterans Center, and Veterans Leadership Program.
Rocky Bleier is the #Steelers 2024 Salute to Service Award nominee!
📝: https://t.co/OYtMHFdKV4 pic.twitter.com/GFDD5nnxa9
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 1, 2024
Bleier, 78, first joined the Steelers in 1968, but his time with the team was interrupted by his military service. Bleier was drafted into the Army on Dec. 4, 1968 and volunteered for infantry duty in South Vietnam.
Bleier was wounded twice in the Vietnam War, taking a bullet in the thigh and then a grenade blast damaged his lower right leg and foot. Despite being told he would not be able to play football again, Bleier rejoined the Steelers in 1970 and resumed playing in the 1971 season.
Bleier played 10 more seasons after his wounds, rushing for 1,036 yards in 1976 to join backfield-mate Franco Harris in the 1,000-yard club, the second time in league history two teammates rushed for 1,000 yards in the same season. Bleier was part of four Steelers Super Bowl wins and is a member of the team’s Hall of Honor.
“When I came here, especially trying to make a professional football team, I didn’t know what the future would hold,” Bleier said, via Steelers.com. “I know the biggest part of my life has been in Pittsburgh, with an organization and a family like the Rooney family and how they ran the organization. Whatever success I have is tied directly to an opportunity, being given a chance, being a teammate with all of those Hall of Famers, being on a team that won those four Super Bowls and dominated the imagination of Steelers fans and football fans around the world. I understand that. It’s not that I individually had great talents. I was surrounded by a group that had great standards.
“When I look back at success and whatever has happened in my life, it is part of being a group of people that helped raise your stature in the world of sports and in this city.”
On Aug. 20, 2018, Bleier returned to Vietnam for the first time since he was injured for an ESPN documentary, ‘The Return.‘ He went there on the 49th Anniversary of the day he was wounded.
“In hindsight, I look back and I am very happy to have gone back,” Bleier said. “I think it gave me the closure I wasn’t aware that was needed. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction that if in the end it gives somebody else the closure they need, maybe helps them understand and close things. That would make it all worthwhile.”