Steelers To Retire Mean Joe Greene’s Jersey Number

The Steelers annouced today that the team will retire Joe Greene’s number 75 this year. During a press conference in Latrobe this afternoon, Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II told the crowded room of reporters that the hall of famer’s number will be retired in a ceremony on November 2nd. The Steelers host the Ravens on primetime that night, and Joe Greene picked the date personally. About choosing that date Greene said, “Probably because they have emerged as the No. 1 antagonist,” Greene said, laughing. “During my days it was Cleveland and then it was Cincinnati and then Houston. It’s been the Ravens for a while. I did it knowing that it’s going to be a hotly contested game.”

Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney said that Greene was the cornerstone of the Steel Curtain. “Joe was the cornerstone of the Steel Curtain. He was the first (player) that we drafted (with) our first pick after Chuck Noll was there so it was Chuck Noll’s first pick. He made it what it meant to be a Steeler. He made sure as he got older that people stayed in line (and) that they weren’t going to cause trouble, and he took care of that. When we went to the first Super Bowl in 1975, he just made sure everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

The last and only time the Steelers retired a jersey was in 1964 when they retired number 70- Ernie Stautner. Just over 50 years later, they’ll be honoring one of the greatest Steelers of all time in front of a sold out audience. The Steelers have so many players who are deserving of a number retiring, that it can become tricky business. Art Rooney II addressed that notion during the press conference. “The question of retiring a number, we’ve talked about for a number of years. I think we always had the feeling that, well it would be nice but where do you draw the line, and are there too many guys that you would wind up having too many numbers retired.

“Really coming into this year with Joe retiring and coming up on the 40th anniversary of the first Super Bowl (victory), we felt it was a perfect time. We talked about it and came to the decision that it was the right thing to do (and) the right time to do it. When you look at the 1970s there are a lot of different words that have been used to describe what Joe meant to that team – cornerstone, heart of the team. It just really got to the point where it was the right time to do it and Joe obviously is the right, first person from that team to have his number retired.”