Judge Dwayne Woodruff, who spent the 80s playing cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, formally announced his intention to run for one of the three vacancies in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Woodruff, a Democrat, has been with the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas as a Family Court judge since 2005.

Woodruff, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in 1979 as a rookie, went on to have 37 interceptions in his career. He also played with Lynn Swann, who ran an unsuccessful Republican campaign against former Governor Ed Rendell in 2006.

Rendell gave Woodruff his start in politics, nominating him to the Court of Common Pleas in 2004, after which he was elected to a full 10 year term. As judge, Woodruff and his wife have championed the Do the Write Thing campaign, a national campaign that encourages middle school students to speak out about how violence has touched their lives.

Woodruff joins about a dozen names looking to fill just three spots. Among them is Correale Stevens, whom Gov. Corbett tapped to fill the vacant spot of Justice Joan Orie Melvin after she was indicted in a public corruption scandal. Also campaigning for the two other vacancies created by Justice Seamus McCaffery’s resignation after he was named in the pornographic email scandal, and Chief Justice Ronald Castille who, at 70, has reached the mandatory retirement age, are Superior Court judges Anne Lazarus, David Wecht, Christine Donohue, and Republican John Bender.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court currently has a 4-3 Republican majority, counting the empty seat held most recently by McCaffery, a Democrat.