Best Pittsburgh Steeler of all time: “Mean Joe” Greene (Part 3)
This is the third and final 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.
While doing so, they were also shut teams out five times, a league record, and allowed 28 points in those games, only two of which were touchdowns. It seemed as though the Steelers knew that Greene could never be replaced because, technically, he wasn’t.
The Steelers adapted to a 3-4 defensive scheme, which eliminates Mean Joe’s position, and has been using the said position since Greene retired at the end of the 1981 season.
In his 13 incredible years with the Steelers, Greene accumulated 16 fumble recoveries, one interception and 78.5 unofficial sacks in 181 games, since sacks were not counted until the 1982 season. In just 1978, Greene recorded an astounding 190 tackles. These
stats are irrelevant if you want to know how good Greene was since the league did officially record tackles, sacks, safeties, deflected passes and forced fumbles during the days of Mean Joe Green.
It is really hard to pick the best Steeler of all time. It was hard to not go for many other Hall of Famers and multiple Super Bowl champions, such as current Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but it’s a very tough decision. There are so many great
Steelers that it is hard to pick the best of them all.
It is a mind-boggling decision to make when you narrow down your list to former quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls and was named Most Valuable Player in two of them, and Mean Joe, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and
has also won four Super Bowls, but the ultimate victor was Mean Joe.
But Bradshaw is not the only one that could have been the best. Nine-time Pro Bowler and four-time Super Bowl winner Lambert was a contender. We can’t forget about former defensive back and six-time All-Pro Mel Blount. And what about nine-time Pro Bowler
and four-time Super Bowl champ Franco Harris and five-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl winner Troy Polamalu?
There’s also eleven-time Pro Bowler Rod Woodson and Hines Ward, the Steelers’ all-time leader in receptions. The list just goes on and on. I think the only safe way to correctly identify the best Steeler of all time is to say that there is none. Every single
one is amazing in their own way.
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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