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ARTICLE
Steelers All-Time Team Bios Thirty-three players
were named to the Steelers All-Time Team the club announced the members as part
of the Steelers 75th Season Celebration. The squad includes both
former and current Steelers players who make up the official Steelers All-Time
Team. The players will be honored at the team’s Nov. 4 Gala event
at the Throughout this week
www.steelers.com will feature bios of the
players who were voted to the team. Be sure to check back each day for those
bios. DEFENSIVE LINE Joe Greene – Defensive Tackle (1969-81)
Only the truly great
can change history, and that’s what Joe Greene did. When Chuck Noll first met
the team he inherited in 1969 he told the players that the goal was to win a
Super Bowl championship but that most of them weren’t good enough to be a part
of that. Then, the first player Noll added to that room was Joe Greene. He’ll be
the first to say he’s getting way too much credit, but Joe Greene’s legacy to
the Steelers transcends any statistics. Greene was all about the winning, and
his standing among his peers in the locker room guided them in that same
direction. In a 1972 game the injury-ravaged Steelers had to win to make the
playoffs, Greene had five sacks and blocked a short field goal attempt by the
Oilers; he recovered one fumble and forced another, and those takeaways led to
two field goals in a 9-3 win. In 1974 the Steelers won their first championship,
and Greene had nine sacks and an interception during the season, and then
another interception and a fumble recovery in Super Bowl IX. He earned All-NFL
honors five times and was voted to 10 Pro Bowls. Greene was twice the league’s
Defensive Player of the Year. L.C. Greenwood – Defensive End (1969-81)
Jack
Ham remembers it well, still. It was in 1976, when the Steelers defense was so
dominant that it forced rules changes, and the team had a game in Kansas City.
So dominant were the defensive linemen on his side of the field – Joe Greene at
left tackle and L.C. Greenwood at left end – that he, as the left outside
linebacker, went through most of the entire first half without being touched.
Picked in the 10th round by the Steelers from Arkansas AM&N, Greenwood was
too slight to play for many teams, but Chuck Noll and line coach Dan Radakovich
nurtured his athleticism. Recognized for the gold high-top cleats he wore,
Greenwood was known as a big-game player. From 1973-75 he had 25.5 sacks; in
Super Bowl IX he batted down three passes; and in Super Bowl X he sacked Roger
Staubach three times. He is ranked second on the team’s all-time sacks list with
73.5. Casey Hampton – Nose Tackle (2001-Present)
He is known
throughout the NFL as a nose tackle who stops the opponent’s running attack, but
Casey Hampton’s most memorable stop came on a different playing field. Lined up
with the rest of the players and coaches on risers in the East Room of the White
House, Casey Hampton stopped the President of the United States with his smile.
Hampton always claimed to know George W. Bush from their days working out
together at the University of Texas in the late 1990s. When the Steelers were
invited to Washington, D.C., to be recognized for winning Super Bowl XL, Hampton
proved it. “Hey, Hamp, how ya doin’,” said Mr. Bush, who stopped to shake hands
on his walk to the podium. Hampton has appeared in three Pro Bowls during a
six-year career so far, and he was voted co-MVP by his teammates during the 2005
championship season. Ernie Stautner – Defensive Tackle (1950-63)
“That man ain't
human. He's too strong to be human ... He's the toughest guy in the league to
play against because he keeps coming head first. Swinging those forearms wears
you down.” That’s the way Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jim Parker once
described Ernie Stautner. A
nine-time Pro Bowl selection, Stautner came to the Steelers as a second-round
draft choice from Boston College who had been told by the New York Giants that
he was too short to play professional football. But he anchored Pittsburgh’s
defense for 14 seasons and was voted the NFL’s Best Lineman Award in 1957
because of his strength and toughness. “What made him was his strength,” said
Dan Rooney. “This was a time players didn't have strength, they didn’t lift
weights. I remember we were playing the Giants at Forbes Field one time and it
was a very close game, and they were moving the ball. He sacked the quarterback
three times in a row.” The Steelers retired his No. 70 jersey in 1964 following
his retirement, and he remains the only Steelers player to have received that
honor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1969. Dwight White – Defensive End (1971-80)
It will go down as
one of the most courageous efforts on a football field in NFL history. After
arriving in New Orleans a week before Super Bowl IX, Dwight White was diagnosed
with severe pneumonia complicated by pleurisy, a lung infection. White spent the
week in a hospital being pumped with antibiotics and losing 18 pounds, but he
showed up on a wet, 46-degree day and played virtually the whole game. Seven of
the Vikings’ first eight running plays attacked the right side of the Steelers
defense, and White made three tackles for a grand total of no yards gained. The
Vikings finished with 17 yards on 21 rushing plays, and White scored the game’s
first points when he covered Fran Tarkenton in the end zone for a safety.
Nicknamed “Mad Dog” for his intensity, White was voted to two Pro Bowls (after
the 1973 and 1974 seasons), and his 46 sacks is seventh in team history. From
1972-75, White had 33.5 sacks and he capped that era with three sacks against
Dallas in Super Bowl X. |
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