When the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s went to the Super Bowl, they didn’t come away empty-handed. Perhaps the only feeling more intense than winning a Super Bowl is losing one. For Mel Blount and the Steel Curtain, it’s something they never had to grapple with. Four Super Bowl appearances, four Super Bowl victories.
Last week, Blount sat down with Wheeling’s WTRF 7News to discuss his memories of playing in those big games.
“The one thing about the teams that I played on is everybody wanted to be the guy who made the big play,” Blount said. “I think that’s what really made us special. When you got to the Super Bowl, I couldn’t even fathom the fact that we would lose the Super Bowl. It’s gotta be the most devastating thing to happen to you in sports. When you get to the biggest game the game has to offer and all of a sudden come up short.
“When I look back at my career, and all the Super Bowls we played in, that’s one thing I’m very grateful for. We walked away winners.”
A decade before cementing its dynasty, Pittsburgh was anything but a winner. For the first 35 years of their existence, few did more losing than the Steelers. It wasn’t until Chuck Noll arrived in 1969 that he turned the franchise around, first by gutting most of its roster to make room for new talent like Blount. Hailing from Southern University, Blount was the team’s third-round pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, one of several HBCU gems uncovered by Bill Nunn and the Steelers’ organization.
Pittsburgh won its first playoff game in 1972, the Immaculate Reception over the Oakland Raiders. But it took until 1974 for the Steelers to hoist their first trophy, knocking off Fran Tarkenton’s Minnesota Vikings, 16-6. The Steelers’ defense was an elite bunch with Blount their top corner. Bigger than almost anyone else and with a mean streak, he was one of the game’s first press-coverage corners, so much so the “Mel Blount Rule” was eventually adopted to limit cornerbacks to only five yards of contact. Blount dominated after the change, anyway.
The Steelers repeated as champs in 1975 before going back-to-back again in 1978 and 1979. It made Pittsburgh a perfect 4-0 in Super Bowls, a franchise now 6-2 in Big Games with its only defeats coming in the mid-90s to the Dallas Cowboys and early 2010s to the Green Bay Packers. Of teams that have appeared in at least three of them, only the New York Giants and Packers have a higher Super Bowl winning percentage. Pittsburgh remains tied with New England for the most Lombardis in their trophy case, six each.
The Steelers’ success wasn’t happenstance. It was a result of great coaching, strong roster building, and a close-knit team with one common goal. Win. And win they did.
