THE Four Essential Steelers

So, as I watched last Friday night's abdominal 17-0 loss to the Jets, I knew that there wasn't much to be said about that game, other than it seemed to secure Mason Rudolph's spot on the roster as QB2, I decided that I would write about an idea that I had been kicking around in my cranium for a  few weeks, and that was who were the four most important Steelers vis a vis  the 1970's era Steelers.  You know, the Super Steelers, the team that won four Super Bowls in six seasons (1974-1979).

This is not meant to be a "Mt. Rushmore" of the Steelers.  I had played with that idea eleven years ago and produced THIS POST on July 26, 2015 when I made my nominations for the Steelers "Franchise Four". (This was something that Major League Baseball had done in conjunction with the All-Star Game that year.)  For the record, if you don't feel like clicking on the link, the four that I chose then were Joe Greene, Ernie Stautner, Jack Ham, and Terry Bradshaw.  It generated a lot (well, some) of comments at the time.

This list today, though, is a bit different.  I had asked myself who were the key men, the most important men, who contributed to those four Super Bowl Championships.  In my mind, I had to feel that these were the four Essential  Steelers of that era.  So essential that if there were only three of them, if you took even one of them away from that Seventies mixture, the four Lombardi Trophies would not have found their way to Pittsburgh. 

Here they are:

Chuck Noll

Joe Greene

Terry Bradshaw

Franco Harris

I didn't really have to identify them under their photos for you, did I?

Yes, I know that there were seven other guys on those teams who are currently in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Blount, Ham, Lambert, Shell, Stallworth, Swann, and Webster; and Greenwood should be in there!), yet I maintain that if any one of either Noll, Greene, Bradshaw, or Harris were NOT in that mix, then those four Championships would not have happened.  Maybe they'd have eked out a Super Bowl win if Noll was coaching those other players, but without Greene and Bradshaw and Harris, then those four Lombardis would not be sitting in the Steelers front office.  Maybe this makes the case that Chuck Noll was the most important cog in that Steelers' Machine.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this.