Every Sunday during the offseason I plan on recapping for you seven items related to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the NFL that may have fallen through the cracks the past week that should be worth your time to read or watch. This weekly feature will be entitled “Steelers’ Seven Shots.”
Shot #1 – One of my fathers passed away nearly two years ago and he was the one that took me to my first Steelers game. That game was the Steelers 1980 preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium on Friday, August 15, 1980 and I was 12 and a half at the time. The Steelers won that game 17-14 and it was even televised live by the Monday Night Football crew, Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Fran Tarkenton. That entire game is available to watch on Youtube and you can see it below.
Shot #2 – Former Steelers tight end and tackle Larry Brown turns 70 today. Brown, who was selected by the Steelers as a tight end in the fifth-round of the 1971 NFL draft out of Kansas, played 14 seasons in the NFL and all with Pittsburgh. His first six seasons with the Steelers he wore No. 87 as a tight end and caught 47 passes for 635 yards and 4 touchdowns during that span of years. A knee injury resulted in Brown being asked to switch to tackle in 1977 and he did just that. That position switch included a number switch as he then wore No. 79. He would go on to make three Pro Bowls as a tackle. A four-time Super Bowl champion with the Steelers, Brown caught 3 passes for 49 yards and a touchdown in Super Bowl IX against the Minnesota Vikings and below are two of his receptions in that game.
Shot #3 – Call me crazy, but I have always been a fan of the all-white uniforms that the Steelers wore during the 1970 season, which was the rookie season of quarterback Terry Bradshaw. It’s hard to find a lot footage of games from that season with the Steelers wearing white but some recently surfaced on Twitter from their contest against the Philadelphia Eagles and the final one to be played at Franklin Field. While the Steelers lost that game to the Eagles 30-20, the highlights are still fun to watch.
Week 14, 1970#Eagles host the #Steelers in the final game at Franklin Field.
John “Frenchy” Fuqua has a great day going 20-218-2 and 3-38
Hanratty 7-15-105
Terry Bradshaw punts the 🏈 3-52-17.3
One is blocked and recovered in the end zone for a TD by Mike Dirks#FinalGameThread pic.twitter.com/zCn4iryx7X— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) June 14, 2019
Shot #4 – The Madden NFL 20 – Superstar X-Factor – trailer was release a few days ago and it includes Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. You can watch the whole thing below.
Shot #5 – Rivers McCown of Football Outsiders has a great article on 2018 passing plus-minus stats and the associated quarterback rankings. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger ranked 19th overall.
Shot #6 – Steelers cornerback Joe Haden was back in Cleveland on Saturday participating in a celebrity softball game put on by Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry. While in town, Haden held a media session and below is a video from cleveland.com of the question and answer session.
Shot #7 – June 13 marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Steelers Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll at the age of 82. In honor of that, below is Noll’s 1993 Hall of Fame enshrinement speech.
