The Pittsburgh Steelers report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe tomorrow. Here is one of our final series to bridge the gap between the end of offseason practices and the start of training camp. This is the last of five parts.
This has been fun to write, so let’s finished how it started: with a practice story from the late, great Tunch Ilkin. It is not about Jack Lambert, like the first post, but it involves a hit that would have made Lambert proud.
A hit so literally teeth rattling that Tunch remembered after it as the only time he saw Chuck Noll speechless.
As Tunch wrote in “In The Locker Room,” which we authored together, it happened during a field-goal attempt by Gary Anderson. Punter Harry Newsome, who was also the team’s holder, fumbled the snap.
Then things got really got ugly.
Anderson had slipped out to the flat and Newsome threw him a pass. Has the holder throwing to a kicker after a botched snapped ever worked? It’s like the first hour of a slasher flick. You know when someone is getting chased they are dead meat.
Sure enough Anderson ended up as roadkill after linebacker Tyronne Stowe drilled him. Stowe hit him so hard that he knocked out Anderson’s two front teeth.
“Chuck stopped and didn’t say anything,” Tunch wrote. “Everybody was standing around and nobody was saying anything because all of their jaws had dropped. Chuck was really affected by Tyronne’s hit.”
So was Stowe.
He started saying his goodbyes to teammates, figuring he was as good as gone.
“He didn’t actually get cut nor should he have because he was just reacting like a football player,” Tunch wrote. “As for Gary, he spit out two Chicklets but he didn’t miss any time. You can kick with no teeth.”
