There might be no player who embodied the Pittsburgh Steelers way more than “Mean” Joe Greene. Greene is often lauded as the best player in the franchise’s history and the man to turn their fortunes around. Before Greene, the Steelers were losers. After they drafted him in 1969, they quickly became one of the best teams in the NFL. As a rookie, no one knew the career Greene would go on to have, but it sounds like Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton found out the hard way.
“I’m with the Giants, and we’re playing him, and he’s going after me,” Tarkenton said recently on the NFL Players Second Acts Podcast. “He’s a rookie, and I’m saying, ‘Hey Joe, you’re not quick enough. I’m a step ahead of you.’ I baited him, and I baited him, and I baited him. He’s chasing me, and I go out of bounds. I was a scrambler, but I didn’t get hit a lot. I’d get down, jump over, get out of bounds.
“Now, I’m in Yankee Stadium, he’s chasing me, he’s wanting to get a hold of me, and I just step out of bounds. He didn’t stop. He hit me, my shoulder pads went around, my helmet flew off.”
As he got older, Green became a real leader for the Steelers, shedding some of his more chaotic behavior. However, Greene’s aggression was probably off the charts as a rookie. The game Tarkenton recalls was likely only Greene’s fourth-ever NFL game. Tarkenton had been in the league since 1961, already building his Hall of Fame career. That veteran experience seemed to make him confident against Greene.
It doesn’t sound like Tarkenton came out as the winner of that exchange, but as he continues to tell the story, it sounds like he got the last laugh that day.
“Somehow, I had my wits, and he’s there on the ground. I said, ‘Hey, Mean Joe, they’re gonna kick your ass out of this game.’ And they did.”
It isn’t surprising to hear that Greene was ejected from the game. That happened to him multiple times during his career. The Steelers would go on to lose that game 10-7. Tarkenton put together a decent game, too, completing 16 of his 29 passes for 154 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed for 15 yards on six carries, one of which seemed to have ended with Greene getting ejected.
Greene’s era was more physical than today’s game, but that didn’t mean players could do whatever they wanted. This is just another example of how Greene earned the nickname “Mean.”
Tarkenton was one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks of his time, rushing for over 3,600 yards in his career, so it isn’t surprising that he frustrated Greene. However, Tarkenton didn’t get the last laugh in their rivalry. He would go on to rejoin the Minnesota Vikings in 1972, and then, a few years later, he would meet Greene’s Steelers in Super Bowl IX.
That game ended much differently for both men. It was the Steelers’ first trip to the Super Bowl, and their defense smothered Tarkenton’s Vikings, holding them to only six points. The Steelers’ defense dominated that day, putting the first points on the board by bringing Tarkenton down in his own end zone for a safety.
The Steelers also picked Tarkenton off three times. Funnily enough, Greene recorded one of those interceptions. Tarkenton may have won the battle, but ultimately, Greene won the war.
