The Steelers have been in existence since 1933, which makes them the oldest team in the AFC and the fifth oldest team in the entire league. With a history that long, change is inevitable. The recent stability by the Steelers wasn’t always the norm.
With the departure of Ray Horton to Arizona (“Pittsburgh West”) and the hiring of Carnell Lake as the new defensive backs coach, I got to thinking about the coaching carousel other teams have spinning away like out-of-control washing machines. I also got to thinking how lucky the Nation is to have a family of owners who know and understand that stability and success begin at the top.
It was a very long and hard lesson to learn, however.
Mike Tomlin became the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 22, 2007. He is the sixteenth head coach in the franchise’s history, but only the third since Chuck Noll was named head coach in 1969. That’s an average career of 14 years coaching the Steelers, which makes 42 years of stability at the head coaching position going into this season. And this season will only be Tomlin’s fifth.
But that also means that in the the previous 36 years, the Steelers had 13 head coaches, or new head coach every 2.8 years. There is no research kept for such things, but I bet that is some kind of record.
During that span, when seemingly anyone had a chance to be the head coach, the Steelers made exactly one post-season appearance. In 1947, in their first playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Steelers lost 21-0. It would be the last time the Steelers would be in the playoffs until the dynastic nucleus came together in the 1970s.
It is popular these days, to fire the head coach when the team is not performing well. It would seem that is a trend dating back to the earliest days of football. At least, it seemed that way where the Steelers were concerned.
It’s a vicious, and very unsuccessful, circle: The team plays poorly because there is no stability at the coaching position. Players are constantly having to learn a new system. But coaches keep getting fired because the team is playing poorly.
The Steelers’ record during those early years of incredible futility (1933-68) was 161-252-18 (38.2% winning percentage where a tie is counted as half a loss and half a win). This span of ineptitude included one season with no wins, two seasons with only one win, and that one playoff berth. There were only 13 seasons at or above .500 in that 35 year span. Six of those 13 were .500 seasons.
That’s a very long time to be that bad, and most of the time the heat fell on the head coach.
In addition to the revolving door that was installed to the head coach’s office was the astonishing amount of talent the Steelers either passed over or let go during that time.
Western Pennsylvania is known as the Cradle of Quarterbacks. Everyone knows that John Unitas, arguably one of the best ever to play the game, was cut from the Steelers having never even touched a ball in practice while in a Steelers uniform. He was a Pittsburgh native.
But what a lot of people don’t know is that George Blanda, Babe Parilli, and Joe Namath are all from western PA and the Steelers never signed any of them.
They did sign Ohio-native Len Dawson, and then released him. He would go on to have a Hall of Fame career in Kansas city. The same goes for Jack Kemp, who was from Los Angeles and went on to stardom in Buffalo.
As an aside, western PA would also produce guys named Joe Montana, Dan Marino, and Jim Kelly. You’ve heard of them, right? By the time they came out, however, Chuck Noll had stopped the carousel, started finding and keeping good talent, and ended the culture of losing.
So give thanks, my fellow Citizens of The Nation, that our ownership has learned the lesson that teams like the Browns, Lions, and Raiders are currently struggling with. It wasn’t always easy, but few things worth having ever are.
The departure of Ray Horton and signing of Carnell Lake to coach the defensive backs may not send shock-waves through the NFL, but it is indicative of how the Steelers do things. They fill a need only when there is an actual need to be filled.
There is no change for change’s sake in Pittsburgh.