Bradshaw & Noll

Clearly Bradshaw didn’t like Noll

 

I still do. I think he's great for FoxNFL and is very entertaining with good insight. It's no secret that he had some personal issues in the past that rub people the wrong way but so be it. I have no beef against him.

 

I like Bradshaw but I take him for the bull **** artist he is. I learned that 40 plus years ago.

What I can’t get past is the movie failure to launch, which I saw on the big screen, and I saw a wide angle view of his old flabby butt. That I’m having trouble with.

 

Happily, I heard about that scene ahead of time and knew to steer clear of that movie. :

This is probably the best take on Bradshaw. I like him, too, but realize he is full of crap. I don't take what he says about Noll very seriously. Bradshaw wanted to be coddled and Noll was not that guy.

I got to interview both guys at one point or another. The first time I covered a game Noll coached, I couldn't even bring myself to ask a question at the post-game presser, but he did mellow after he retired. He was a hell of a lot smarter, but Bradshaw was a hell of a lot more fun to talk with.

 

Just for my own need for detail, I felt compelled to find the quote, so I just watched part of the episode on Game Pass. Chris Noll was asked about Bradshaw saying that he wished Noll had hugged him and he responded by saying, "I didn't get many. He wasn't demonstrative with his affection. It was there, but he wasn't going to show it. You had to kinda perceive it."

One other thing I noticed in the video was that Noll won the final game of his coaching career against the Browns in the final contest of the 1991 season. The Browns coach that day was Bill Belichick.

 

I think they were just two different types of people.

Terry admits he didn’t like him, but Noll made him tough and he admits that.

Terry wanted Noll to be a friend, but I don’t think Noll was that way with players. Fellow 70s Steelers all say that Noll was harder on Terry than anybody else

 

I had the privilege of sitting with Chuck Noll and his wife for dinner at a Divine Providence Hospital fundraiser once. I didn’t want to bug him with lame questions so I asked him about other things we had in common. We talked about anything but football and I think we both enjoyed the evening. We are both licensed pilots so we talked a lot about that. It was a nice evening.

I also met Steelers tackle John Jackson that night when he was playing waiter serving appetizers and he turn around and whacked me in the mouth with his right elbow.

 

I have seen the A Football Life on coach Noll and I thought it was very fair and showed exactly what type of person and coach he was. I think he loved his family and he coached his players.
Maybe TB needed or wanted a hug but Chuck Noll wasn't the type for that and you can't argue with his success.

Reminds me of hearing a former Montreal Canadian talk about playing under Scotty Bowman who was also known to be a tough no nonsense type coach, who had some success.

Sorry it isn't word for word but it was something like " Oh yeah we all hated him from Sept. to May then we got to lift the Stanley Cup and skate around the rink as Champions ".

 

Can I ask what year that was, you having dinner with the Nolls?

 

TMI

 

1989 or 1990?

Hard to remember. It was at Divine Providence Hospital and the Steelers/Rooneys hosted the event. I just wound up sitting next to them by coincidence. My wife and I sat down for dinner and the guest speaker and they sat down next to us.

 

That's awesome.

One of my chance meetings with a Steelers player was back in about 92 or 93 when the Steelers were in Cincinnati and me and my girlfriend went out to a bar restaurant and Darren Perry along with several other players were there and I was walking by and recognized him and only said Hi Darren. The girlfriend and I got a couple of drinks and were passing by his table again about 5 minutes later and he invited us to sit with him. We sat there for about 2 hours until his curfew and just talked everything except for football. I think he appreciated all that small talk. One of the nicest professional people I've ever met.

 

Nice. I was mainly wondering if he was still coaching when you met him.

 

Yes

 

We are imperfect human beings....all teams and families don't always get along.....everyone has a job to do....
Noll was like a Zen Master. Mean Joe, who is considered #1 Steeler...walked out and wanted to quit and had to get it together. One thing I have learned as a coach, you nip all BS asap like unsportsmanlike crap. Mean Joe and many other players needed to grow up and get more disciplined like it or not.

Lombardi's guys didn't like him, but appreciated him later. TB understands that now according to most interviews....much like Jerry Kramer and Billy Curry with Lombardi.....Jim Brown didn't like Paul Brown and got him let go.....how many championships did Jim win with Blanton Collier???

Leading a football team is no different than any other type of organization.
Tough principals probably have a very organized group of teachers in a school.
Adults aren't much different than kids. Everyone wants things easy and generally pushed along easy where progress comes gradual. Most leaders and coaches don't have much of an open window to show success. Most great leaders, coaches, executives are much appreciated later by their players and or employees. Honestly, being a parent requires the same type of leadership. Plain and simple....Are you your kid's best friend or their parent while they are living in your house? In the long run, good parents main goal is to be a great example for their kids....same for coaches....or any other type of leader....

Dick Vermeil once said at a football clinic at the University of Missouri in 2007......."coache them hard.....they are gonna b*tch, they are football players...

 

Mason, is that you?

 

....or LB and AB would have sat out years earlier than they did.

 

Of course they did - probably since you were wearing the same jersey as you are in your avatar, right?

 

Black Tie Event

 

Bottom line, Noll and TB wouldn’t have been what they were, without each other. TB wouldn’t have won 4 SB’s with Bum Phillips, and Noll wouldn’t have won 4 with any other QB.

 

He kept Arrowhead though, even after he got into all that trouble up in Ygstown.

 

I remember that day. I was the last to get an autograph from Chuck before he went inside to coach that game. I still have the black&gold brigade hat that he signed that day. Pretty cool memory.

 

He did get rid of Ernie in the 77-78 purge.

 

Yes he did but only after Arrowhead produced. I love the Emperor, he forgot
more about football than most people will ever know.