Bill Cowher ponders why losing the AFC Championship hurt more

Legendary NFL head coach Bill Cowher explained why losing the conference championship was much harder to deal with than losing the Super Bowl.

Cowher led the Steelers to two Super Bowl appearances from 1992 to 2006. The team fell just short in 1995 against the Dallas Cowboys. However, his team lost in the AFC Championship four times.

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He said in an interview on “The Dan Patrick Show” Monday that the what-if scenarios always linger while watching the Super Bowl.

“Losing the (conference) championship game was a lot harder,” he said. “And I lost that four times. I’ve lost a Super Bowl once, won it once. But losing those championship games was harder because, you know, you sit there for two weeks and you look at the team that you had a chance to beat and you could have beaten them. Look at the Rams, they could have gotten there. Had Denver if they had their quarterback, right?

CBS sportscaster Bill Cowher before the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos game at Empower Field at Mile High on November 16, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)

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“After this game? After next weekend, everybody’s watching NCAA basketball. There’s no more football. There’s finality in what you do.”

Cowher added that when he won the Super Bowl in 2005, he immediately got back to work. He watched his daughter play basketball and did chores that were put off until the season was over.

Bill Cowher on the set of “Thursday Night Football” before the game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers at Ford Field on December 3, 2015. (Tim Fuller/USA TODAY Sports)

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After that, he had to get ready for the NFL Combine with free agency and the draft behind it.