The NFL is a realm of violence and physicality. Playing professional football is one of the greatest honors in the world, but it comes at a cost, as most player’s bodies suffer serious long-term consequences. That’s still true today, but even more so back in the 1970s when the Pittsburgh Steelers began their dynasty. Every team played dirtier back then, even the Steelers, so players’ bodies took a serious beating. However, as one former Steelers’ offensive lineman explains, it wasn’t the games that did the most damage to players in Pittsburgh.
Jon Kolb was an offensive lineman for the Steelers from 1969 to 1981, being named First-team All-Pro in 1979 and winning four Super Bowls. Kolb also spent time competing in the World’s Strongest Man competition, doing exceptionally well considering his size and profession. In a recent appearance on Sandra Burnett’s YouTube channel, Kolb spoke about football’s physical nature, explaining how it was practices that really affected his body rather than games.
”If you want to stay very long, you have to become a collision expert. I tell people, typically we had three games a week and one practice. We had a game on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday against Ernie Holmes, Joe Greene, Dwight White, L.C. Greenwood, and then I would have a practice on Sunday, maybe against the New York Jets or Cleveland Browns. Chuck Noll wasn’t a ‘Let’s put some shorts and shoulder pads on and go out and practice.’ They were physical practices.”
Kolb’s toughness is apparent based on his accolades, so when he says something was difficult or physical, it means something. It makes sense as well because those four players made up the Steel Curtain, the best defensive line in NFL history. They terrorized the entire league, including their own team, during practice. That might not sound good because it might leave players devoid of energy come game day, but it appears that the opposite happened. As a result of those tough practices, game days were like getting a break for offensive linemen.
Kolb was also inducted into the Steelers’ Hall of Honor a few years ago, showing how much the team respects his contributions. That includes those three games a week he says he played. There couldn’t have been many times that Kolb and the other offensive linemen got the better of the Steel Curtain, and it would be easy to let that hurt morale. Instead, it seems that iron sharpened iron, with the offensive line handling other defensive players much easier because of their training.
This also stands as another instance that shows why Noll is one of the greatest coaches of all time. Rather than chastise his defense for beating up on the offense, he continued to push for practices to be physical. He knew there was no better defense in the NFL, and if the offensive line could somehow hold up against the Steel Curtain, then they’d be prepared for anything. Now, that kind of practice certainly hasn’t done wonders for these players’ bodies today, but at the time, it molded them into one of the greatest teams ever.
