Best Pittsburgh Steeler of all time: “Mean Joe” Greene (Part 2)
This is the second part of a three-part series of articles discussing why Charles Edward Greene, more famously known as “Mean Joe” Greene, is the best player in the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In that incident, he kicked Browns lineman Bob McKay in the groin several times while McKay was on the ground. After punching the lineman in the groin, Mean Joe taunted the crowd at the Cleveland Browns Stadium saying “Hey Cleveland! How you like us now?”
Another time, his anger caused him to snatch the ball away from the opposing team’s center as they were lining up for play.
But Mean Joe’s tactics of intimidation paid off. Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, running back for the Steelers form 1996 to 2005, said that “You had to do so many things to block him that everyone else became freed up.” Without him, would former linebackers Jack
Ham and Jack Lambert have ever gotten free to go tackle a ball carrier?
Simply said, everyone would have loved to have played behind him on the defensive line. Even if you weren't an amazing player, he would have made you look like one. The presence of Mean Joe in the middle, taking up so much attention and wreaking so much
havoc, all of those guys seemed like, and ultimately became, much better players.
But what about Greene’s playing? Even in his rookie year, he became such an amazing player that he was often double teamed, and even triple teamed throughout his career. His intensity, strength and quickness quickly established him as a dominant defender.
Even though the Steelers finished with a 1-13 record in Greene’s and Noll’s first year in Pittsburgh, Greene was named the NFL Rookie of the Year for the 1969 season. Greene said later that he was upset about being drafted by the Steelers because they were
a losing team but he turned the team around in a few short years.
Greene did not tolerate losing and rallied the rest of his team around this main focus: win at any cost. He is widely considered the most important player in franchise history and was the foundation for the Steelers’ dynasty. He led the Steelers’ famed Steel
Curtain to four Super Bowl wins and won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award twice, as well as appearing on the cover of Time magazine.
Mean Joe missed the first five games of the 1976 season with a back injury and the Steelers won only one of those five games. Hope seemed lost and nobody believed that they would reach the playoffs, seeing as quarterback Terry Bradshaw was also injured and
replaced by Mike Kruczek, a rookie. However, Greene came back and led the defense to win the next nine games in succession and went to the playoff in what is arguably the best defense in modern football history.
During those nine games, the Steelers’ defense allowed only 138 points in 14 games, an average of 9.8 points per game.
The remaining article will be discussed in the third and final part of this series. Take a look!
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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