Bradshaw & Noll

I know this is old news however yesterday on my ride home I had on Mad Dog radio and Russo had TB on. First let me say Russo is a dink but I will say he does ask the tough questions. Him and TB must be pretty close cause they talked like they were buddies. Now I know there was dislike between TB and Noll however I was fairly young when all that was going on. Without social media and living in small town USA I didn't get a lot of the info out there until much later.

I was shocked to hear TB say not one time did Noll after a game shake his hand and say good game. I was shocked to hear this, he also said one time before a clown game Noll walked up to him in the tunnel and said if you don't play well in the first quarter I will bench you. TB said he was playing well and was shocked Noll said that to him. He also mentioned how Noll didn't want to draft him and that Mr. Rooney made him draft him. He did go on and say he didn't want to talk much more about it with Noll passing away.

Just wondering if anyone else heard this yesterday or if there was a podcast thingy to link here. I am not all technical like that, I know many here have sirius so I was just wondering. I am not trying to talk bad of Noll or take TB's side I just thought it was a great interview. One which I really didn't know a lot about.

 

Noll was a very stern astute coach who didn't care about players feelings. That's what made him so successful. He wouldn't put up with today's players and their social media outbursts. If anything, he helped TB more than Bradshaw will ever admit. Talent alone didn't win Terry 4 Superbowls, toughness did which Chuck instilled in him and his entire surrounding cast.

As much as I hate to say it, the only coach in the NFL today that is successful with that same approach is the guy in NE.

 

Terry is a bull ****ter. He holds himself out as a victim. I reality he is simply a guy who seeks attention by asserting baseless claims that Noll and teammates didn’t love him. Watch end of game highlights of Super Bowl years and you will see repeated instances of Noll and others hugging Terry after games. Terry’s career ( football and post football) is owed to the discipline that Noll imposed on him. He has always been bitter at Noll's insistence that he play a disciplined game. Without Noll Terry was simply Ryan Leaf— forgotten and working in an auto parts store.
Recall Terry professed great love for Art Rooney senior. Yet after Art Sr died he didn’t bother to attend the wake or funeral ( in fact Terry was in Pittsburgh the night before Art’s funeral to give a speech to a local organization and did not bother to stick around to show his respects to the man he had such great respect for).
Terry is a phony hypocrite who has a constant and weird need to portray himself as the man who overcame his mean coach and fellow players.
If you attend games at Heinz you will See many fans wearing jersey’s of former 1970’s Steelers greats— but very few of them are no. 12. Pittsburgh fans know he is a phony.

 

TB did say that in college he was the kind of guy that needed the love and when he came here he didn't get any. I am not taking sides I just heard the interview and found it very interesting. I had always thought there was a riff with the Steelers as a whole and TB not mostly Noll. Interesting point about the funeral.......

 

Not true. There are countless episodes of players having issues with Noll, not just Bradshaw. Hell, Mel Blount sued Noll for his comments that Mel Blount was part of a criminal element.. I loved Noll as a coach, but he was a jerk as a person.

 

Bradshaw loves the saints and cowboys over Steelers lol. Cowher is still a Steelers homer I love it

 

I like TB but he is a bit of a goof. I don't put a lot of weight into anything he would say in the matter as there are two sides to every story. If it were possible to go back in time and have Noll and TB at a table to hash over things, my money would be that you'd hear a different story from TB. Just because Noll treated others as TB said he was treated doesn't make what James One posted above untrue. The fact is no one will ever know what really went down and I really don't care. Move on to beating the Stains.

 

Terry was young and sensitive.... I’ve heard all these interviews and such before where he himself said when things got tough he just needed a hug or positive words of encouragement and Coach Noll wasn’t that kind of guy..... he was a straight up no nonsense kind of man... he said what thought and meant what he said...

Early on TB Sucked, at times was lost and Struggled terribly and the other QB, Gilliam, was a much better athlete and Passer. If not for his personal demons HE would be the first Great Black NFL QB that Moon, Vick, would have grown up watching.

Noll and TB found a way to make it work and won together But TB never got over his hurt feelings...... the Steelers Fans were also brutal to him so when his career was over he left wanting to never to return!!!!

Cajun

 

This sounds a lot like how Steeler fans and board members here are treating Mason.

 

Having become a Steeler fan in 1972, I saw it all. Noll was a very tough coach who was demanding you do your job at a high level or you will get cut.

I notice there is another coach like that nowadays and things worked out real well for him.

TB should be grateful he had Noll as a head coach. TB was not very good when he first started. He had a prolonged learning curve that eventually topped out at a high level. He does not grasp how fortunate he was to be on a great team that played defense first and run the ball instead of being dependent on the QB to throw it when he first started. IMO if a TB like QB came out of college nowadays he would fail and not be given the years needed to develop like TB did.

 

Bradshaw has said that he wishes he had played for a players coach like Bum Phillips. Fine and good but without the Super Bowl resume he would have been another Archie Manning, a good player whose name is brought up for nostalgia's sake and that's about it. Really, everything he has is because of the Steelers and Chuck Noll.

 

To be clear Noll was taking up for Swann who had been repeatedly assaulted by Raiders George Atkinson taking him out.... carried off the field unconscious.... called him a criminal element in the NFL and George sued him and under oath and responding to questions he included Blount into that category..... let’s remember there is a “ Mel Blount rule “‘ for a reason!!!!

Noll also pulled Greene aside and had a conversation with him about his brutal actions saying the game is tough and physical enough and kicking & punching had no place in the game!!!!

Noll was honest, straight forward and helped clean up the league ..... Blount sues because he was mentioned by Noll while under oath..... what was Noll to do? Lie??

He wasn’t a jerk as a person, he was a coach who didn’t motivate players but taught technique and fundamentals and led men, But also loved life outside football and always encouraged his players to go live life!!! Do your life’s work!!! Noll has his pilots license and loved flying his son to Florida , listening to fine music and fine wines.....

Cajun

 

I apologize! Calling Noll a jerk was wrong.

 

Here is a question that just popped into my head reading all of the above. What if we had Noll in his prime coaching the Steelers during the past 10 years with all of the talent on hand? I usually don't like to do "what ifs" questions but what the hell..

 

Noll wasnt raised by parents who were huggy feely, so he wasnt exposed to that kind of affection, parents from the late 1800s early 1900s never said I love you or even hugged you, I never had any huggy feely growing up because those people didnt show it because they never had it themselves....

 

Can you imagine today, like what Noll did when he first came and told his player "I have watched tape on all of you, and frankly you shouldn't even be here".
As bad as TB didn't like him because he didn't give him that touchy, hugy he wanted, a lot of that was on TB being so sensitive and immature, hell everytime he split up with his girlfriends he struggled for a couple of weeks. This happen with more then one girlfriend.

Noll was stand up guy in person and a strict discipline type of coach. He was a teacher type of coach and he didn't think he had to motivate them at a pro level. In the long term he was good for TB and TB was good for Noll, as either one would not have 4 super bowl wins without the other.

 

Hey 86WardsWay.

This is just a "Coaching/Administrative" issue. Like I have compared before, there is the Captain (coach) and the Sailors (players). The Captain is not here to make friends. If that happens great but after the business at hand has been accomplished. I worked at a school that had ten Principals in twelve years. That is ten times the staff had to adjust to philosophical changes. Not easy. In the end, most of us just adjusted and became numb to the process. Except for one, or maybe two, the rest were "Duds". However, we all had a job to do and we just did it.

IMO, one common characteristic of a "Good Administrator" is when to admit to your subordinates that you made a mistake. Unfortunately, rarely does this happen. What makes it worse is when the staff can see right through the lies. I think that some administrators do this because they feel that it makes them look weak, imperfect or have a chink in one's armor when actually they would gain more respect from their staff.

I do not know fact/fiction with Coach Noll. I know this much though, he was very, very successful at his job. I feel privileged to have experienced the 70's Steelers.

STEELWINDS AKA The East Side Kid

 

I saw that one, too. I forget the exact quote, but I believe Noll’s son said that there weren’t many hugs at home, not that he never got a hug from his father.

 

We would be playing for #9 this season.

 

One of the few announcers or reporters left on the air that covered the Steelers is Ron Cook and he says that Bradshaw was absolutely the biggest phony he has ever covered or interviewed.

 

I doubt he ever shook the hand of Joe Greene or Jack Lambert.

They also did fairly well.

Vince Lombardi sure as didn’t walk around coddling players. Art Donovan said when walked into Lombardi’s Office, if he was told to take a seat, he didn’t even look for a chair.

 

Ok

 

Noll got rid of people who caused trouble, even little bits of trouble. There were significant purges of the team prior to the 1974 and 1978 seasons, and it worked out ok... Btw he got rid of my avatar/buddy Jimmy Allen for being a big PITA, but Jimmy never held it against him, saying that Noll did him a favor by trading him to a place he could start. Noll had no hard feelings, and via a common acquaintance I got Noll to sign a photo for Jimmy with a nice inscription shortly before he passed.

 

I liked Terry Bradshaw......