PITTSBURGH – He waited 11 years for yesterday.

Bryan Cox failed in the AFC Championship with the Dolphins in 1992 and again with the Jets in 1998.

He didn’t fail yesterday.

He came back from a pair of broken legs – in December with the Jets and October with the Pats.

“This is why you play football,” Cox said. “Not being around my kids, being away from my family, all those things, this makes it worth it,” Cox said. “This one opportunity makes it worth all those years of being away and missing out on all those things.”

Cox, whose leadership is such that he was voted defensive captain, made a statement at the coin toss.

“We just wanted to prove a point that we weren’t backing down and we were gonna be here the whole day,” Cox said.

The message was delivered to Jerome Bettis (9-8 rushing). “He was saying how he was ready and we were saying, ‘Hey man, we’re ready as well,’ ” Cox said. ” ‘You don’t intimidate us; we ain’t running because you’re playing this week.’ I thought they felt like they could really run us over, and we were able to come in and just put together a game plan and really shut them down.

“While they were busy making Super Bowl reservations and stuff last week, we were preparing. All of our efforts went into winning this game.”

This is a special team because it overcame so much adversity. Just like Cox. “We’re just a hard-working, blue-collar team that puts forth all that we can on any given week, and that’s all you can ask,” Cox said. “It’s not always pretty, but the results we’ll take.”