Throughout his Hall of Fame career, former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Mel Blount was as tough as they come at his position, a guy who could physically and mentally dominant an opponent snap after snap.
It helped that the rules back then allowed the cornerbacks to truly be physical with receivers before the implementation of the “Mel Blount Rule” to give receivers a bit more time and space to operate.
Even that that didn’t stop Blount from being one of the best ever at the position, as receivers across the NFL learned time and time against with that No. 47 in the Black and Gold lined up across from them.
That included his Hall of Fame wide receiver teammates in Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, too.
In a funny story told by Steelers Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell on the “All Things Covered” podcast with former Steelers cornerback Bryant McFadden and current Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson, Shell said that Blount once held Swann and Stallworth without a catch in a practice, just to meet a challenge he set for himself.
“Quick story about Mel Blount with training camp and Stallworth and Swann, they were killing everybody. He walked over to me and he said, ‘Hey, Donnie. Neither of these guys will catch a pass on me today in one-on-one,'” Shell said earlier this week to McFadden and Peterson, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “I said, ‘No. Man, come on, man. You know Swann can jump out of the sky, Stallworth can lean back and catch all of these incredible passes. You mean neither one of them is going to catch a pass in our one-on-one drills?’ He said, ‘None. Nobody.’
“He shut ’em down! He then looked over at me and said, ‘I told you so!'”
Few corners ever really, truly shut down Swann and Stallworth. The two were instrumental in the Steelers winning four Super Bowls in the 70s, making big plays from bombs thrown by Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.
But, according to Shell, Blount got the best of them in practice.
That’s that “iron sharpens iron” mantra. The Steelers personified that in the 70s. Sometimes, practices were harder than games as everyone was challenging and pushing each other. That led to the Steelers becoming a dominant force during the decade, rolling through the league, lifting those four Lombardis, even if they weren’t “America’s Team.”
It’s not at all a surprise that Blount challenged himself to not allow a catch in one-on-ones against Swann and Stallworth. The fact that he supposedly did it, especially after stating what he would do, is quite remarkable.
Special cornerback, special talent. The Steelers were lucky to have a guy like him in the secondary for all those years.
