Latest book on Steelers dynasty of the '70s is also the best.

I grew up a Steelers fan. Hooked on with them during the 1972 season; I liked the black uniforms and the smothering defense. Seattle didn’t have a team at the time, so everybody in the neighborhood had their own favorite team, which in some ways is cooler than being in a city where everybody’s riding the same horse. On the bus I rode to school, the Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams were all represented.

Anyway, I’ve read a bunch of Steelers books over the years. About Three Bricks Shy Of A Load was the classic by Roy Blount, Jr., imbedded with the team in 1973. Dan Rooney did a book on his 75 years with the franchise. Sam Toperoff hung with the team for a good chunk of the 1988 season. Art Rooney Jr. has one that I haven’t gotten around to yet, though I hear it’s good. And in the last year I’ve read two books about the NFL in the ‘70s that has a bunch about the Steelers.

Frankly, I’m getting tired of reading about the Steelers. It’s the same old stories getting rehashed.

But I stumbled onto this book by Gary Pomerantz, Their Life’s Work, published last fall. The cover is insanely cool, so I picked it, flipped through a few pages, and decided to give it a shot.

While we’re all very familiar with the basic nuts and bolts of the Pittsburgh story, this book takes it to the next level. Pomerantz is a skilled, veteran writer (he went to training camp with the Steelers in 1981) and he was able to sit down and do 200 interviews with former players, coaches and relatives. He’s able to add context and meaning to what happened in the ‘70s. He gives us a better idea of who these guys really are, and what they’re up to today.

For anybody who’s kind of a fan of the Steelers or that team, it’s a must read.

Among the highlights:

Bill Nunn Jr. played a huge role in the creation of this dynasty. He was a writer for The Courier, a weekly in town, and he followed the black colleges very closely, compiling a black All-America team each year. This is back before scouting was the science it is today. Few were paying attention to the players on these teams. The Steelers hired Nunn as a scout, and he was able to direct them to the likes of Mel Blount, L.C. Greenwood, John Stallworth, Frank Lewis, Donnie Shell and Ernie Holmes, all from small schools. When Chuck Noll was interviewed for the head coaching job in 1969, he was asked how he felt about black players, and if he had a quota system in mind. Noll told the Rooneys, “I don’t care what color my players are. You find good players where they are.” Being a step ahead of the rest of the league in tapping into these off-the-radar smaller colleges was key to Pittsburgh being the dominant team of the ‘70s.

I didn’t understand the significance of Mean Joe Greene. A great defensive tackle – an Ndamukong Suh type of talent – but he was also the leader of that team. He was the pulse and the motivator. He was the guy helping Terry Bradshaw along. He was the guy getting in faces of teammates who weren’t playing well enough. After the team beat Buffalo in a playoff game, Greene caught John Stallworth and some other rookies asking the trainer for moving boxes. They figured that if the team lost at Oakland in the AFC Championship game, it would give them a head start in getting their stuff packed up the next Monday. Greene caught them and called them out. “What do you want the boxes for?” Stallworth says after getting dressed down by Greene, they started thinking differently about the game against the Raiders.

Franco Harris comes across as a really good guy. A leader, and very thoughtful and cerebral. He tried to help Joe Gilliam and Mike Webster when they were having problems in the ‘90s. He was the only member of the team to attend Gilliam’s funeral. Showed up to lead a counter-protest when the Ku Klux Klan was holding a demonstration.

Chuck Noll liked John Stallworth more than Lynn Swann in 1974. But they drafted Swann in the first round because other teams knew all about him. Swann had played at Southern Cal. The Cowboys probably would have gotten him if the Steelers hadn’t picked him. The Steelers were still able to get Stallworth in the fourth round because other teams didn’t know about him, in part because the Steelers took one look at Stallworth’s highlight film (back in those days, teams viewed actual reels of film) and decided to “lose” it rather than send it along to other teams, as was standard procedure. Stallworth had played at tiny Alabama A&M, and no other NFL teams were really familiar with his work.

Jack Lambert comes across as an asshole. Also the one notable player who apparently wouldn’t sit down for an interview with Pomerantz. Great player, though. At 6-foot-4, and with that great defensive line in front of him, he could drop into coverage and create problems for quarterbacks. Tough to throw over him.

J.T. Thomas, I was not aware, was the first African American to start for Florida State. He was called out and insulted by one of their assistant coaches prior to his first game. It wasn’t until later that Thomas realized the coach was doing this to keep the focus on J.T. Thomas the player rather than getting caught up in the racial history. The assistant coach was Bill Parcells.

I’ve always been interested in the quarterback controversy of 1974, with Terry Bradshaw, Joe Gilliam and Terry Hanratty. Recall that Gilliam started all of the preseason games (winning all six of them), and started the first six regular-season games, going 4-1-1. Pomerantz lays it all out. Gilliam started using heroin after the Steelers lost to Oakland in Week 3. He struggled in each of his next three games, before the team went back to Bradshaw. If Gilliam hadn’t turned to drugs, he probably would have been their quarterback in the playoffs that first Super Bowl season. Whether the team could have beaten Oakland and Minnesota with him at quarterback makes for an interesting water cooler discussion. Bradshaw didn’t become a great quarterback until four years later, but he realized before Gilliam the value of simply relying on the defense and the running game. The quarterbacks were calling the plays at the time. Gilliam was passing over 30 times per game, while Bradshaw won those last two playoff games while completing only 8 and 9 passes.

I’m a little annoyed at Chuck Noll. When he was the coach, he never wanted to say anything. Then he retired and never really talked. He never explained how he felt about Joe Gilliam or Terry Bradshaw or why he felt it was important to keep a distance from his players. We don’t get to hear from Noll, and it’s never going to happen. He’s 82, using a wheelchair, and is starting to lose his mental sharpness. The book says he’ll go to a restaurant, order, then forget that he’s ordered. As a coach, Noll would never do endorsements or have a coaches show. But in retirement, he’s done some of the sports collectors shows, signing memorabilia for $75 and $95 an item. That doesn’t seem like something Noll would have even considered 30 years ago. Seems like if you’re signing, you should also do some explaining.

Only a couple of errors that I saw. I wouldn’t mention them, except Pomerantz is a professor at Stanford, so I’m holding him to a higher standard. Gale Sayers appears twice in the book, and both times he’s identified as “Gayle” Sayers. And Gabriel Rivera, the defensive tackle chosen in 1983 (when the owner wanted Dan Marino – another issue Noll could have weighed in on) is referred to as “Senior Sack”. The nickname was “Senor Sack”.

Overall a great book. A great book for fans of that franchise, and worthwhile for those who are simply interested in the game in general.