Chuck Noll - Gone and Forgotten

The key to the Steelers' SB run was having a Hall of Fame caliber player at almost every other position. That was a product of an incredible run of organizational success in player evaluation and drafting.

When that group of players went away, the Steelers were rarely better than ordinary through the rest of Noll's long stay.

 

Players that Noll helped acquire and develop. Too many people have credited his ability to make players better for it to be coincidence.

He definitely had issues with quarterbacks. You could definitely argue that he held Bradshaw back more than anything and the position was a weak spot more often than not during the rest of Noll's tenure.

 

That is true but they but you can also say that Noll system helped to get them there.

 

I think there's something to this argument, but I think Noll deserves some credit for what he did in the '80s, when the talent level on the team had dropped off considerably. He got the 1984 team to the AFC Championship game, even though the quarterbacks were Mark Malone and David Woodley, and the running backs were Walter Abercrombie and Frank Pollard. (That team also gave the 49ers their only loss that year, by the way.)

And he got the 1989 team into the playoffs, turning things around after they lost their first two games 51-0 and 41-10. That team -- quarterbacked by Bubby Brister -- won a wild-card game and came very close to beating the Broncos in Denver in the divisional round. A lot of the young talent on that team -- particularly on defense (Rod Woodson, Carnell Lake, Greg Lloyd, Hardy Nickerson, Thomas Everett, among others) -- set up Bill Cowher for the success he had at the beginning of his tenure.

 

What system?

 

From 1972-79, the Steelers won four Super Bowls. For the rest of Noll's tenure (1980-91) they won two playoff games.

 

And before he got there, they were one of the worst franchises in the NFL for 40 years. It certainly wasn't all him, but he played a very large role in turning things around there.

 

He's not supposed to win four more Super Bowls, is he? I mean there was pretty much no way he could measure up to what he had created. The '80s were defined by another team (the 49ers) as well as the parity that ensured no repeat champion between 1979 and 1989. At some point pretty soon--if we're not doing it now--the same thing will happen to Bill Belichick (won three Super Bowls from 2001-04, is "just" 5-5 since and 0-3 in his last three). Noll's accomplishments aren't diminished b/c he was merely pretty good his last 12 years, are they?

 

You're missing the point.

They weren't "pretty good" during his last 12 years. They were mediocre, thanks to some hideously bad personnel decisions and drafting.

I'm not diminishing what Noll did in turning the Steelers from a joke into a powerhouse, nor am I dismissing a run of four SB titles in six years. It's impressive. But when that core group of players went away, the Steelers didn't have much success.

As great as the Steelers of the '70s were, I think it's more impressive when teams can maintain a level of success with an ever-changing cast brought on by the salary cap.

If the Steelers make the SB this year, it will be with some significant changes from their '05 and '08 SB teams.

 

Smasher is right. You look at the Steelers records in the 80s and they were bad more often than good ... Six losing seasons, includng four in a row in the mid-to-late 80s.

 

Actually, you really are dismissing the turnaround of the franchise and the four Super Bowls when you judge him by the '80s. And it isn't like he never won without those guys.

Look at the '84 team. Bradshaw had just retired. Harris forced a trade in the preseason. Lambert got hurt and barely played. Most of the rest of the core had been gone even before that. Noll took a team with no real quarterback and a bunch of young starters to the AFC Championship Game.

The turnaround in '89 was even more impressive. That team was an absolute disaster two weeks in, but they came within a lucky break here or there from another trip to the AFC title game.

Did he win a Super Bowl without the core guys? Nope. And they didn't win one without him, either.

 

Banquet tales by Myron and Rocky aside, the "Emperor Chas" (another Cope-ism) was a renaissance man in the 70s. He became a wine connosieur at a time whem most Americans - long before today's fad- thought a good bottle of wine was TJ Swan. He took an interest in boating, and soon after made a family vacation of navigating the intercoastal waterway top to bottom.
Look back a few years to stories when St. Vincent College named their new stadium Noll Field and he was too infirm to attend, and you'll understand his silence, Boom. It is a void indeed. This, after all, was the man who once opined of his backup fullback Sidney Thornton, "He has problems, and they are many." His pressers, at a media-room table with maybe a half-dozen others, were verbal and intellectual fencing matches. Point, ouch. Wonderful.