The real key to the 70's Steelers got very little recognition of his talents at the time but had Mr. Rooney not had Chuck Noll..............Yeah, I know that Paterno turned it down but Noll was still the right guy. He'd played for Paul Brown and coached under Don Schula at Baltimore. The Steelers also must have had some fine scouts that hadn't shone their brilliance before.....or maybe Noll just said they'd have to perform or he'd kick their asses. They found Bradshaw and Harris and then in what may have been the greatest draft selection of all time, drafted Mike Webster, Jack Lambert, John Stalworth, and Lynn Swan all in one draft.

I'm not sure anyone ever assembled a defense quite as fine as the Steel Curtain nor has anyone done a better job writing an offense around the personnel. And even if you hated the Steelers, how could you not love Rocky Bleier? Noll used what he had and great drafting to put together a team for the ages that stands up well against the legends like Lombardi and Brown. Noll was a blue collar guy from Cleveland working in another "shot and a beer" town. To me, he's never gotten the credit that he rightly deserves......but that kinda' goes with the image too. Blue collar guy......Doin' his job.


Spaw