RIP Chuck Noll

[Steak Snabler]

RIP to a coach who had a HOF quarterback and two HOF wide receivers.

And a Hall of Fame RB. And a Hall of Fame center. And a Hall of Fame DT, 2 LBs and a CB.

All of whom he drafted.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Only four-time Super Bowl-winning coach. That says it all.

RIP, Chuck.

I would argue the Steeler dynasty of the 70s was the best ever, certainly in the modern (post WWII) era.

The team that won Super Bowl XIV (1979 season) had no players that had ever played for another team. All of them had been drafted by the Steelers, and knew no other way of professional football than the Noll way.
I think it's safe to say we'll never, ever see that again.

Now THAT's a pretty amazing stat.

 

[Songbird]

Rams should've won that game. Up 19-17 going into the 4th. Waddy WIDE OPEN down the sideline ...

 

[playthrough]

Holy cow. You can't find a big-time college team today that doesn't have at least one kid who transferred from somewhere else, never mind the pros.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

Met him at the celebration following the final game at Three Rivers Stadium. Very gracious. Took the time for every interview that day...and there were a ton of them. Noll and Bill Walsh are probably having some great conversations in Heaven right now.

Are you suggesting Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi are in the other place?

 

[Liut]

RIP.

Didn't Madden offer him a coordinator's position the year before he went to Pittsburgh?

 

[jr/shotglass]

RIP to a coach who had a HOF quarterback and two HOF wide receivers.

And a Hall of Fame RB. And a Hall of Fame center. And a Hall of Fame DT, 2 LBs and a CB.

All of whom he drafted.

Exactly. And he didn't just roll out the footballs at camp, either.

 

[outofplace]

RIP to a coach who had a HOF quarterback and two HOF wide receivers.

And a Hall of Fame RB. And a Hall of Fame center. And a Hall of Fame DT, 2 LBs and a CB.

All of whom he drafted.

Exactly. And he didn't just roll out the footballs at camp, either.

True, though Art Rooney, Jr. and Bill Nunn deserve a good bit of credit for those draft picks, too. At least Noll was smart enough to back down when need be, as he did when the scouts insisted on Franco Harris even though Noll wanted Robert Newhouse.

 

[Mark2010]

Interesting how Noll, Tom Landry and Don Shula all coached their same teams for more than 20 years. No one comes close to that anymore. Now, it's win in three years or you're out. Kinda sad.

 

[Batman]

Interesting how Noll, Tom Landry and Don Shula all coached their same teams for more than 20 years. No one comes close to that anymore. Now, it's win in three years or you're out. Kinda sad.

Don Shula wasn't exactly a schlub when he went to the Dolphins. He'd won an NFL championship already, and the late 1960s Colts are among the forgotten great teams. He also got the Dolphins to the Super Bowl in his second season with them, and won in the third and fourth.
Noll inherited a mess, but had the Steelers in the playoffs by his fourth season.
Of those three, only Landry (sub-.500 records each of his first five seasons, then .500 in Year 5 and back-to-back NFL championship game losses in 1965 and '66) seems like he needed a longer rope than usual. He started with an expansion team, though.

 

[Riptide]

Of those three, only Landry (sub-.500 records each of his first five seasons, then .500 in Year 5 and back-to-back NFL championship game losses in 1965 and '66) seems like he needed a longer rope than usual. He started with an expansion team, though.

You get the point about the expansion team, right?
I mean, you must. But you said he needed a longer rope than usual.

Well, yeah ...

 

[Riptide]

What was Noll like on the practice field?

Never saw much about his coaching style. But he didn't strike me as a screamer.

Or was he?

 

[Mark2010]

The longevity of all of those, as well as others of that era like Bud Grant, George Allen and Chuck Knox, is remarkable.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

When I think of Noll the first thing I think of is him jabbing a finger into Jerry Glanville's chest after a typically physical old AFC Central game at the Astrodome.
He did not seem like a guy who suffered fools gladly.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The other amazing thing is that he went 1-13 in his first season. No matter how used to losing that ther Steelers were back then, the fact that he managed to survive that first season and go on Tao do what he did is even more remarkable. Winning one game in a season today would get almost everyone fired, even if they were a rookie coach. Everyone would be saying the coach didn't have a clue.

 

[Batman]

Of those three, only Landry (sub-.500 records each of his first five seasons, then .500 in Year 5 and back-to-back NFL championship game losses in 1965 and '66) seems like he needed a longer rope than usual. He started with an expansion team, though.

You get the point about the expansion team, right?
I mean, you must. But you said he needed a longer rope than usual.

Well, yeah ...

I meant his success came in year 6, where most franchises -- even expansion franchises -- would get antsy after four or five seasons like he had in the early 60s. The Cowboys made the turn just outside that "normal" window so, yeah, he needed a bit more leeway than most coaches get. They gave him a 10-year constract extension in 1964, though, so he obviously was never in any real danger of being fired.

 

[outofplace]

When I think of Noll the first thing I think of is him jabbing a finger into Jerry Glanville's chest after a typically physical old AFC Central game at the Astrodome.
He did not seem like a guy who suffered fools gladly.

That was certainly his reputation. Very intelligent man who had little patience for people wasting his time with stupidity.

Somebody asked if he was a screamer. From everything I read, he wasn't one to raise his voice. He was able to do more with a glare than many coaches could do screaming their heads off.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I also seem to remember him guest-conducting the Pittsburgh symphony.

 

[outofplace]

I also seem to remember him guest-conducting the Pittsburgh symphony.

I have no idea if that photo was from his actual guest appearance, but yes, he did.

Gene Collier's column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a mention of it as well as telling a story in which Collier ended up on the receiving end of a glare from Noll.

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/2014/06/15/Gene-Collier-Noll-left-superbly-quietly-into-night/stories/201406150203

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Good piece.
I think Noll was a lot smarter than folks gave him credit for, with an interesting mind.
He was into a lot of different things.