Their Life's Work: The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, Then and Now Author: Gary M. Pomerantz | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BHGXTAO | Format: PDF
Their Life's Work: The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, Then and Now Description
ONE TEAM. FOUR SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIPS. TWELVE HALL OF FAMERS. TWO HUNDRED INTERVIEWS.They were the best to ever play the game: the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s. Three decades later their names echo in popular memory—Mean Joe, Bradshaw, Webster, Lambert, Ham, Blount, Franco, Swann, and Stallworth. They define not only the brotherhood and camaraderie of football, but what Americans love about their most popular sport: its artistry and its brutality. From the team’s origins in a horseplayer’s winnings to the young armored gods who immaculately beat the Raiders in 1972 to the grandfathers with hobbles in their gait,
Their Life’s Work tells the full, intimate story of the Steeler dynasty. But this book does much more than that: it tells football’s story. What the game gives, what it takes, and why, to a man, every Steeler, full well knowing the costs, unhesitatingly states, “I’d do it again.”
- File Size: 25885 KB
- Print Length: 481 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: B00BNFFF9C
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 29, 2013)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BHGXTAO
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,429 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #32
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > History of Sports - #35
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Football (American)
- #32
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Miscellaneous > History of Sports - #35
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Football (American)
Let me begin by noting that i cannot be objective in reviewing this book: I grew up in Pittsburgh. Done with college in the fall of 1972 and awaiting word from the draft board, i joined my best friend, Lee Lazar, as we stood outside the relatively new Three Rivers Stadium in the freezing cold from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. to buy tickets to the Steelers' first playoff games in our lifetimes. I was there in Three Rivers, watching Ken Stabler bring 50,000 fans to a dead quiet with a broken play scramble to give the Raiders the lead 7-6 with 73 seconds to play. My heart sunk further as Bradshaw's pass to Frenchy Fuqua was broken up by Jack Tatum. Then, thinking the game was over, I heard a roar and from high up in the endzone behind Bradsahw, looked up to see Franco Harris running into the far endzone. I had no idea what had happened; how Franco had gotten the ball. When the scoreboard announced the score of 12-7, the delirium amid the confusion was one of the most wondrous experiences of my life.
Two years later, in the fall of 1974, i had moved to San Francisco. When Oakland beat Miami in the famous sea-of-hands game, it meant that the Steelers would be playing across the Bay from my new home for the AFC Championship. I took the new BART train under the Bay and stood in line in much nicer weather than two years earlier to buy a ticket for the next weekend's game. And there in the Oakland Coliseum -- treated extremely graciously by the Oakland fans (truly) -- I sat in my Steelers hat and watched them win their first AFC Championship game.
I've read that a third of the women in Pittsburgh consider themselves Steelers fans and that fraction is twice as large as that of Green Bay, the NFL city with the next largest fraction of female fans.
The 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years. San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh called them "the greatest team ever." And, there's certainly a lot of evidence to back that up. Nine players, including Coach Chuck Noll and two of the Rooneys (Art Sr. and Dan) were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When the NFL's 75th anniversary team was announced, it featured five players from the 1970s Steelers, more than any other dynasty.
Author Gary Pomerantz writes that with free agency and salary cap, there will never be another team like the 1970s Steelers. The names roll over any die-hard football fan's tongue--Mean Joe Greene, Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth, Mike Webster and the Steel Curtain (Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Dwight White and Ernie Holmes).
As a young journalist, Pomerantz wrote about the 1970s Steelers. Now, 30 years later he revisits them and their legacy. The book's title "Their Life's Work" comes from Coach Chuck Noll's belief that all football players eventually had to get on to their life's work. He preached that playing football was not anyone's life's work. Sometimes, players had to start to pursue their life's work sooner than they anticipated. Dwight White said, "The ultimate test is not making the playoffs, but to be something after football."
Pomerantz recounts how the Steelers built a dynasty after going 35 years without a playoff win. In 1969, the first year under Coach Chuck Noll, the Steelers went 1-13. But that year, they drafted Mean Joe Greene, "the most important player we ever drafted, according to Art Rooney Jr. In 1970, they drafted Terry Bradshaw and in 1971, the Steelers drafted seven future starters. The team ended its playoff drought in 1972.
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