Your favorite, underrated Steeler of modern era

I can introduce you to dozens of people who are not Steelers fans who know about Frank Pollard. I am a collector of football cards and football autographs, and belong to online communities with many people of similar interest. Frank Pollard, within those collecting circles, is well known for two reasons. For the 1980's card collectors, he has quite a few cards- about a half dozen Topps cards (one of which he is paired with Todd Blackledge) as well as a number of Steelers "police"/McDonalds' issue. For football autograph collectors, he is known as one of the significantly tougher living players to find examples from that time period- at least until he did a very rare public signing a couple of years, at which I got about 10 items done for my own collection. Pollard did do a fantasy camp a few years ago but had to leave due to illness, and has otherwise kept an extremely low profile since he retired. I know of one collector who was friendly with Abercrombie- who is a very generous and accessible signer- and of course was Pollard's teammate in college and the Steelers. Abercrombie told him that he couldn't help, because Pollard did not even talk to him any more.

 

OK, I am nowhere near the card collecting world. So.....obviously I know nothing about it.

So...how many "non card collectors," non-Steeler fans would remember him? I think if I asked my local gang of Steeler fans here at the beaches, made up of 20-50 something year olds, less than half would know who he was if I asked.

On a side, we were tailgating at a Steeler-Jags game in J ville, and this small group of Steeler fans approached our gang (an obvious collection of Steeler fans representing) and a dude had an "87" jersey and they asked who wore this jersey in the 80's. I knew, and they said out of over 30 Steeler gangs (30 groups, not people) they asked, no one knew it before I did; I was the 1st one. Now, obviously you can cheat and find out who it was, but how many know without cheating?

And, by the way, I don't consider him to fit in the "most underrated" category. He was a fan favorite for his name and height, but he was never all that good other than for a few endzone shots.

 

Weegie Thompson

 

Calvin Sweeney
Dwayne Woodruff
Robin Cole
Earnest Jackson

 

My brother drops some Earnest Jackson rhymes. I was going to mention him, but thought virtually no one would recall him. We got him from the Eagles, at which time Buddy Ryan said he would trade him for a 6-pack, and it didn't even have to be cold, IIRC. lol

I thought Jackson was a decent back, and injuries had us depleted and we were a bad team.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JackEa00.htm

He had over 900 yards his first season with Pgh and avg over 4.1 yard per carry his 3 seasons with the Steelers.

And those were bad Steeler teams, unlike most of us have ever lived through. They were 6-10, 8-7 and 5-11. I mean, even for the lowly 1980's Steeler standards, those were really bad seasons. We had 6 non-losing season in the 80's and 5 winning seasons, so those years were especially bad.

If Jackson played on even a so so team, he'd probably have put up strong production.

 

Ike Taylor. Many fans would get on Ike for his inability to catch the ball but was a good consistent corner for us. One Steeler fan once called him "Stone Hands Ike" to me.

 

Ike helped a lot especially for a 4th rounder. And, yes, his hands were terrible although he did make a key pick in the Super Bowl v. Seattle.

 

And unlike some of the stat monsters, Heath was a willing and solid blocker. Ben just loved the guy; he was so unselfish, hard working and just genuine. I know Ben misses him.

 

Merrily Hoge for me... Loved the dude as a kid

 

Yeah and dont think they played 16 games then did they. I remember when 1000 yards was impressive. Use to get those football cards. 1000 yard club lol

 

Chris Hoke, Antwaan Randle El, Mewelde Moore, Matt Spaeth... would Ryan Clark be considered underrated?

Steelers have so many "underrated" players.

 

Hoke is a good one, as is El, but Spaeth?

 

DIRT WINSTON!

 

It’s already posted, but I’m going to repeat Aaron Smith.

Then I’ll throw in Mark Bruener because he was a neighbor, friend and good guy.

 

Merrill Hoge on offense. I can still remember his big playoff game at Denver.

Carnell Lake on defense. He never complained when bounced from position to position. He just did whatever the team needed. His time as DB coach wasn't great, but he was a great Steeler player.

 

That was a good game against the Broncs!thought we was gonna pull off the upset after I thought they broke Elways neck but alas, it wasn't meant to be hahaha

 

Hoge was a hell of a player. Leaving for more money in Chicago ended up being a disaster for him. Their medical staff failed to properly treat a concussion, allowed him to return too soon and he nearly died from another blow to the head. (Actually, his heart did stop after he had been brought back to the locker room, but he was revived and eventually recovered.)

I remember first reading about Hoge in one of Mel Kiper, Jr.'s draft prep books. The book mentioned that he was a tailback in college, but would be a great fit as a fullback in the Pittsburgh offense. It was fun to actually know who he was and how he might fit when they drafted him. He really was a complete package at fullback.

 

Weegie Thompson and Gordie Lockbaum, nuff said.

 

Aaron Smith and Tim Lester, aka "The bus driver".

 

Smith was such a great player. He could teach many of the guys on the current defense how to be disruptive without being out of position. Maybe he didn't have the speed or burst to rack up sacks, but he always seemed to apply pressure.

He was part of an interesting draft class in 1999. Top pick Troy Edwards was a bust and No. 2 Scott Shields was even worse, but they did get Joey Porter in the third and Smith in the fourth.

 

Somebody also mentioned Pollard early on in the thread. That was a great call. He definitely seemed to be underappreciated, though if I remember correctly, he had a bit of a fumbling problem during his days as the team's top rusher.

 

Antwaan Randle El... one of the few Steelers who actually showed up for Super Bowl XLV vs. Packers. That game is a blur to me now, but I remember him making a few plays with good effort.

Randle El, Burress and Ward was one of my favorite all time Steelers WR corps.

 

Aaron had great production most of his career 44 sacks 408 tackles, his last 3 years he was injured and missed 11 games in 09, missed 10 games in 0-10 and 12 games in 0-11 he kept trying to make a comeback but his body just wouldn't cooperate....

 

That's because you were supposed to be yelling "Go Walter Go!"

But then some might think you were formally rooting for Mr. Brister.

 

Larry Anderson (a very gifted KO returner during part of the 70's Dynasty) and Bam "Bong" Morris who almost single-handedly won the '95 SB over the Girls in spite of he whose name shall not be ever mentioned again.