Former Pittsburgh Steelers CB Mel Blount was an integral part of the Steelers dynasty of the 1970s. A third-round pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, he went on to have a Hall of Fame career with 57 interceptions in 200 regular-season games. He was the Defensive Player of the Year in 1975 along with being a two-time first-team All-Pro. He was also second-team All-Pro twice and a five-time Pro Bowler.
However, Blount wasn’t thrilled with falling to the third round of the 1970 draft. He recently joined the TK Sports Talk podcast and talked about his career, including how he felt about his draft position.
“I was really disappointed,” Blount said about falling to the third round. “But when you’re young like that, you don’t never know God’s plan, you know what our plans are. But it turned out that that was the best thing that could have happened for me. Because Pittsburgh was at the bottom of the NFL. They were looking for players, and they had the time to give players a chance to develop.”
The 1970 NFL Draft was a legendary one for the Steelers. They took QB Terry Bradshaw with the first overall pick before taking Blount with the first pick in the third round. That means the Steelers drafted two Hall of Famers.
It’s also easy to understand Blount’s frustration. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a quality college career. He was first-team Southwestern Athletic Conference twice in his career. As a junior, he was named MVP of the SWAC. He also was named to the Pro Scouts All-American Team at two positions: cornerback and safety. Yet he slipped to the third round.
As Blount noted, that ended up being quite a good thing. The Steelers had the first overall pick in 1970 because they finished the 1969 season with a 1-13 record. It was going to take time for the Steelers to turn things around. So even though Blount felt he should have been drafted higher (and who can really argue against that?), he was drafted into a situation where he could take time to adapt to the NFL without the pressure of being a high draft pick.
And adapt Blount did. He never had a season where he failed to pick off an opposing quarterback and had a career-high 11 interceptions in 1975. He returned two interceptions for touchdowns in his career.
Blount even forced the NFL to adapt to him. Ahead of the 1978 NFL season, the league announced a rule change that became known as “The Mel Blount Rule.” It ended a defender’s ability to contact wide receivers farther than five yards downfield. It helped propel the NFL toward a more pass-friendly league.
What it didn’t do was stop Mel Blount. He still picked off 22 more passes in his career. Not bad for a third-round pick.
