Former Pittsburgh Steelers WR Louis Lipps was one of the standouts of the team in the 1980’s. In one of the team’s worst era’s since the 1970 NFL merger, Lipps was a consistent bright spot for the Steelers as he was electric with the ball in his hand. Lipps is a Steeler through and through and was at Pittsburgh’s Monday night win against the Cleveland Browns as he spoke with another former Steeler, Arthur Moats.
Lipps had many highs as a Steeler, including winning Rookie of the Year and being named to the Pro Bowl in 1984, and breaking 1,000 receiving yards in 1985. On Monday night, Lipps walked through his favorite play as a Steeler, his first ever punt return against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“When I stepped foot on Three Rivers [Stadium], and you guys welcomed me with the loudest ovation that I’ve ever heard and I’ve ever seen because we didn’t have a big screen at Southern Mississippi, but we had one here in Three Rivers,” Lipps said in his interview at Acrisure Stadium which was posted to Moats’ YouTube channel.
“And when I went back to return my first punt, it said ‘LOUUUUUU’ and I had happened to be facing the big screen and the first thing that I said to myself was that ‘You better not fair catch this ball.’ And that’s the only thing that came to mind so I said, ‘I’m gonna catch it and I gotta make something happen ’cause these people want to see me do something.'”
Here is the return of Lipps “doing something” though it was well-covered by the Chiefs.
“When you guys said it again, ‘LOUUUUU,’ man I had goosebumps as big as plums on my arms, and I wanted to have that feeling every time I stepped back there to return punts.”
On Lipps’ first return he didn’t pick up many yards, probably only around five, but that didn’t change the ovation that he got from the fans. Lipps talked about how even after the small return he was still showered with love from Steelers Nation.
Although his favorite play was a punt return, Lipps stole the show in Pittsburgh’s Week One 37-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the passing game. He ended the day with six catches for 183 yards and two touchdowns, one of which was an 80-yard strike from QB David Woodley in which Lipps made an incredible leaping grab and then a nice move to get away from the defensive back for the score.
It was this big play prior to his punt return that led tot he cheers from the Steelers’ crowd.
In the return game, Lipps always put on a show. He finished his Steelers’ career with 1,212 punt return yards and three touchdowns. Those 1,212 yards are good for fifth all time in Steelers history behind Rod Woodson (2,362), Antonio Brown (1,759), Antwaan Randle El (1,650), and Theo Bell (1,259). Lipps could have been even higher on the list, but most of his returns came in his first two season where he tallied 656 return yards and 437 respectively. After his 1985 season, he never returned more than seven punts in a year.
Lipps was also part of head coach Chuck Noll’s last playoff team as he played a part in helping the 1989 Steelers battle back from an 0-2 start which included blowouts against the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals to make the playoffs and take the John Elway-led Denver Broncos down to the wire in the Divisional Round.
Although not a Hall-of-Famer, Lipps is a Steelers legend and in 2021 was inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Honor. Lipps finished his career with 6,019 receiving yards and 39 touchdowns; not bad in an era which was very run-heavy. He made a lot of fans happy during Pittsburgh’s lean years of the 1980’s, and Steelers fans made him happy as they showered him with love, especially when he was retuning punts.
