Actor and celebrity Ed O’Neill wasn’t in the NFL for long. But he stuck around Pittsburgh Steelers training camp in 1969 long enough to have one takeaway. L.C. Greenwood wasn’t going to make it. Appearing on Julian Edelman’s “Games With Names’ podcast Tuesday, O’Neill remembers thinking Greenwood was destined to join him on the street someday.
“L.C. Greenwood. Now, he was a rookie when I was a rookie,” O’Neill told the show. “I would’ve bet my life they would’ve cut him. He played like he was on roller skates. He was 6-7. And he was long and thin. And I thought, he looks like a basketball player.”
Greenwood was quietly the Steelers’ tenth-round pick of the 1969 draft, one of Bill Nunn’s recommendations from HBCU Arkansas Pine-Bluff. O’Neill was invited to camp out of Youngstown State for a few weeks before being shown the door.
In a career arc similar to Cam Heyward, Greenwood spent his first two years as a backup, fighting for whatever playing time he could before becoming a starter in his third season. Of course, Heyward had far more pedigree and bided his time behind established veterans as opposed to Greenwood, a raw lump of clay the team had to develop.
Hiring Chuck Noll was instrumental in making the Steelers an organization that could turn potential into substance. Noll was a teacher who loved the game. No detail was too small, and everything was worth mentioning. Veterans like Andy Russell recalled Noll telling him to move three inches in one direction, an idea that seemed insignificant to a player like Russell at the time but helped him become an even better player, though he was one of the few core pieces Noll inherited.
“You’re wrong so much,” O’Neill admitted, looking back at Greenwood’s career. “They worked with him. He had potential…and he finally became a great player.”
O’Neill later compared Greenwood to Oakland Raiders LB Ted “The Mad Stork” Hendricks, a tall and lean linebacker who became an all-time great.
While Greenwood had already emerged, the Steelers’ hiring of DL Coach George Perles in 1972 was key. He furthered the development of Greenwood, Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes, and Dwight White to make up the Steel Curtain’s foundation. Perles implemented the “tilted nose” that placed Greene almost sideways in the A-gap, allowing him to penetrate and create backfield havoc.
Greenwood went on to make six Pro Bowls, two All-Pro teams, and record more sacks than Greene. He is one of the Hall of Fame’s biggest snubs, with his chances of ever being inducted looking slim. But those who appreciate the Steelers of that era know Greenwood played as big a role in the team’s success as anyone.
Of course, coaching only gets players so far. For O’Neill, an undersized player from a small school attempting to learn outside linebacker, his time in Pittsburgh and the NFL was up before the regular season began. Though he was only in Pittsburgh long enough to get a T-shirt and some grass stains, his perspective on Greenwood before anyone knew who he was is a really cool story.
Watch the whole interview below.
