Why the Steelers of 2022 resemble the Steelers of the ’80s

The number of people who grew up in the 70s watching the Steelers dynasty decimate teams is growing smaller daily. That’s how life progresses.

At some point, no one who remembers precisely how great that ’70s Steelers dynasty was will be alive. It was possibly the most talented team ever assembled. You know the names of the greats from that era Greene, Lambert, Harris, Rocky, Webster, Swann, Stallworth, Greenwood, White, Holmes, Blount, Shell, Ham, and Kolb. Then the others, perhaps not as great but still dang good, their names are Woodruff, Towes, Wagner, Winston, Brown, Davis, Cunningham, Banaszak, Furness, and Grossman, to name a few.

In Pittsburgh in the 1970s, all we knew were championships. Many of us hand no memory of the dark days of the previous decades. All we knew was that Chuck Noll assembled a team that won titles. Four Superbowl titles in 6 years, a record that still to this day has not been matched

While coming close in 1972, the black and gold struck paydirt in 1974 once Noll had found the remaining players he needed in the amazing draft of 1974. They beat the Vikings in 1974 they knocked off “America’s Team” in 1975.

In 1976 despite losing the AFC championship game to the Raiders when they did not have Franco Harris or Rocky Bleier, some have speculated they were the uncrowned champions that season. 1977 was just an off year, but they returned in 1978, beating Dallas a second time and then the Rams in 1979.

But like all good things, a dynasty finally ends. Sadly, the Pittsburgh Steelers team that we are witnessing today much more closely resembles the team of the 80s; not the 70s dynasty.