My friends, THE GURU is primed for tonight’s matchup between archrivals that go together like oil and water, like sandals and tuxedos, like DISCO KOSKO and fresh fruit.
Indeed, host Cleveland (2-1, 1-0 home) and visiting Pittsburgh (2-1, 0-1 away) have been bitter enemies since their first matchup on October 7, 1950. The then-dynastic Browns laid the wood to the hapless Steelers that day, 30-17, and continued to roll their neighbors to the east, winning the first eight games of the series1.
Cleveland dominated Pittsburgh for two decades, but the worm turned like TIMMY THE BROWN under police questioning when owner Art Rooney made the biggest move in Steelers history. In 1969, he hired Baltimore Colts defensive assistant Chuck Noll as head coach, tapping a man who knew C-town well.
Turns out a young Charles Henry Noll had joined Cleveland in 1953 via the University of Dayton as an offensive lineman and linebacker, selected in the 20th round - you read that right - of the draft2. He would eventually become one of eight Pro Football Hall of Famers picked that year3.
Indeed, it was a different era and, while the draft did not resemble what we have today, the game on the field was just as dissimilar. One great example of that: Noll himself.
First, given football’s financial picture at the time, the young athlete made only about $5,000 per year with Cleveland, supplementing his income as a substitute teacher and insurance salesman. Chuck Noll: athlete, teacher, insurer. A true triple threat.
Second, while splitting time between offense and defense, he got additional exercise as one of Cleveland coach Paul Brown’s “messenger guards,” ferrying the play calls from the sideline to the huddle. Yep, in the ‘50s, Brown, considered by many the single most innovative figure in NFL history, believed that coaches, not quarterbacks should call offensive plays, thinking that was unconventional at the time.
Jack Clary of The Pro Football Researchers Association put it like this:
“(Brown) chose guards to bring in plays because they did not handle the ball…In his typical thorough method of preparation, his guards used the system in each of their daily practices so that everything would be as close as possible to game conditions. While this was revolutionary -- and it also worked better than anyone had ever imagined -- it also brought forth a deluge of sour grapes, based primarily on an ignorance of the system that unfairly subjected his quarterbacks, particularly (HOF QB Otto) Graham, to needless criticism. PB always insisted that it was never disparaging to the intelligence of his QBs, and indeed, many of the calls were predicated on what the defense would do. Hence, the call going into the game would be a ‘check with me,’ call, whereby the quarterback knew what his options would be when he saw the defensive alignment, and then he called the correct option at the line of scrimmage.”
One thing Brown may not have considered: a big fella gets tired jogging back and forth to the huddle and the Cleveland guards did this on every single play. Heck, if that system was in place at Lehigh in the 1990s, guys like the late, great HAIRMAN KEN would’ve staged a mutiny.
After seven years with the Browns – winning two NFL titles and finishing second three times – Noll probably tired of jogging and decided to enter the coaching ranks as a defensive assistant. Fortuitously, he began with the American Football League’s Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (1960-65) before moving to the NFL’s Colts (1966-68).
At those two stops, Noll’s head coaches were a pair of legends, Sid Gillman, and Don Shula, respectively. That means the future Steelers employee spent his first 16 pro seasons learning from three of the most successful men in the history of the sport:
—Brown, the most important individual in NFL history;
—Shula, the winningest coach ever and a former Cleveland player under Brown;
—Gillman, a man whose remarkable vision made deep throws a part of professional football, leading to the modern passing game.
It’s no wonder Noll was so well prepared when the sad-sack Steelers tapped him as their fourth head coach in six years in 1969, joining a team that was the laughingstock of the NFL.
Founded in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team played in one – 1! – postseason game in 36 seasons until Noll arrived while registering eight winning seasons4. He, of course, flipped the script as Pittsburgh posted 25 winning records and won 24 playoff games in the ensuing 36 years, including four Super Bowls.
All told, in his 23 seasons at the helm, Noll won 209 games, including playoffs, and took the team on a run that has never been matched by any franchise: those four Bowl titles in just six years. Plus, 11 of his players made it to the Hall.
How well did Noll set the organization on its course? Well, since he joined in 1969, the team has had only four head coaches: Chuck (1969-91), Bill Cowher (1992-2006), Mike Tomlin (2007-2026) and now Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy. By comparison, the Cardinals franchise has had 17 coaches work at least one full season during that timeframe.
Chuck Noll, truly remarkable.
As for tonight, it’ll be a good one to watch if you’re shelling out an ever-increasing monthly nut to Bezos & Co. The guy takes a bigger financial chunk out of me than DUCK & CHIPS, beloved pugs of THE FAIR CLAUDINE.
Catch the action at 8:15 pm ET on Amazon Prime with Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung on the mike. Call it Steelers, 23-20, as Rodgers comes up big.
Enjoy the evening, all! God bless!5
The Browns and Steelers have met 149 times, including the postseason, with Pittsburgh holding an 83-65-1 lead.
No, the process was not a seven-round affair in those days though there were fewer teams so only 360 players were picked. Still, that’s a lot of choices compared to today as just 257 players were taken in the 2022 draft.
Why the disparity in the number of selections? Well, a few things come to mind beginning with the fact that football wasn’t our national sport in the early 1950s. Baseball was far more popular and the salaries in football weren’t great either so there was no guarantee that you’d want to play, even if you were drafted.
As you’d guess, scouting players was not nearly the science that it is today and guys were often selected because a scout read about them in a popular sports magazine, without having seen them play in person. You know, kind of how dating works today.
The one HOFer selected even later than Noll was Roosevelt “Rosey” Brown, the great offensive tackle, chosen by the New York Giants in the 27th round, the 321st selection. Brown was from Morgan State, a school we now call a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and was followed to the NFL by fellow Morgan alumni Leroy Kelly and Willie Lanier.
And one of those successful campaigns was when the team combined forces with the Eagles in 1943 to form the Steagles.
A year later, with World War II continuing, the Steelers reverted to form by going 0-10 while combined with the Cardinals. The team was called Card-Pitt and got absolutely tattooed to the tune of 328 points to 108, losing each game by at least 14 points.
LE GURU’s Week Three record was 8-8 (.500), dropping the season mark to 29-19 (.604).