Franco Harris statue wears Raiders beanie (photo)

The Franco Harris Immaculate Reception statue in the Pittsburgh International Airport has been photographed wearing an Oakland Raiders beanie in the week leading up to the AFC rivals’ showdown in Week 9.

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The Oakland Raiders are actually a decent football team at the halfway point in the 2015 NFL Season. At 4-3 they’re a playoff dark horse, and have reinvigorated their fervent fan base. So much so that in the lead up to Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they decided to rewrite history just a wee bit.

Since Raider Nation is feeling confident about their young, but talented football team, somebody put a Raider beanie on the Franco Harris Immaculate Reception statue in the Pittsburgh International Airport. The famous play that sent the Steelers to the Super Bowl on a tipped pass caught by running back Franco Harris.

Though famed, the original broadcast of the said Immaculate Reception does not show Harris actually catching the football.

Both the Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers feel like strong AFC Wild Card contenders entering the second half of 2015. Oakland probably won’t catch AFC West rival Denver, nor will Pittsburgh jump Cincinnati in the AFC North.

However, besides the New York Jets, these are the two other teams in the AFC that can possibly win in the playoffs from either Wild Card spot. That fifth seed should crush the winner of the lackluster AFC South.

It’s nice to see this historical AFC rivalry have some meaning to it. This rivalry between the Steelers and Raiders was once as important as say the current rivalry between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. Could an emerging Oakland Raiders team under new head coach Jack Del Rio spark a return to this once bitter rivalry? The Raiders beanie on the Franco Harris statue is a great flint stone, or really bulletin board material for the Pittsburgh Steelers.