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08-13-2008, 02:52 PM
Chuck Noll had bigger problems....
Loss to Broncos reflected tumultuous season<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
By BOB LABRIOLA<O:P></O:P>
Steelers.com<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
To characterize the 1977 season as one unending distraction is similar to referring to the <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:PLACE>Grand Canyon</ST1:PLACE> as a pretty big hole in the ground.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
There were holdouts, walkouts, lawsuits and counter-suits. Players demanded trades. Players and coaches faced off in court. Players were disciplined publicly and fined heavily by Commissioner Pete Rozelle. A rookie died in a car accident during training camp. Things started poorly and ended badly, and when it was time for the epilogue the 1977 Steelers were written off as a bunch of washed-up malcontents who made the trip from greatness to mediocrity in a few short months.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Here's a partial timeline of their tribulations:<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DFeb. 21: Ernie Holmes' trial for possession of 250 milligrams of cocaine ended in acquittal 75 minutes after it went to the jury in <ST1:PLACE><ST1:CITY>Amarillo</ST1:CITY>, <ST1:STATE>Texas</ST1:STATE></ST1:PLACE>.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
April 1977: Chuck Noll was summoned to <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>Oakland</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> for depositions in the defamation suit filed by George Atkinson over the famous "criminal element" remarks Noll made the day after the 1976 NFL season opener.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 11, : As a witness during the trial, Noll was forced to include Joe Greene, Mel Blount and Glen Edwards as players who also were part of the criminal element because of their own dirty play.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 16, </ST1:D: Blount reacted to this by threatening to quit the Steelers, and he also said he planned to sue Noll for $5 million.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 21, </ST1:DJack Lambert decided not to report to training camp, because he was unhappy with the salary he was to be paid in the option year of the contract he originally signed in 1974 as a rookie from <ST1:PLACE><ST1:PLACENAME>Kent</ST1:PLACENAME><ST1:PLACENAME>State</ST1:PLACENAME></ST1:PLACE>.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 22: Noll was cleared of the charges filed by Atkinson, but the day was ruined by Edwards' announcement that he also was unhappy with his contract.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
On July 28, Lambert's agent upped the ante a little bit, and this was the headline on the lead sports story in the Pittsburgh Press: "Agent tells Rooney: Jack wants traded."<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The preseason progressed the way one would expect of a team in turmoil. There were some evenings when the Steelers got by on their talent alone, but other times the lack of focus, the distractions, the carnival atmosphere that seemed to have engulfed the entire organization was too much to overcome. Six preseason games were common in the 1970s, and the Steelers were a respectable 3-3, but one of those losses was to a <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>Kansas City</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> team that would go on to finish 2-12, and the other was a 30-0 blowout at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Late in August, Noll named the team's captains for the upcoming season, and even this seemingly innocuous event became controversial. When word got to Lambert that he had been bypassed, he voiced his disappointment publicly. Noll fired back in the media that Lambert didn't deserve to be a captain because he held out all through training camp.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The 1977 regular season was at hand, and the chaos simply did not abate. After much détente from both camps, Blount dropped his lawsuit against Noll and rejoined the team after missing 56 days; Lambert finally reported on Sept. 1; but neither of those arrivals had much of an immediate effect on the on-field performance, as evidenced by that 30-0 debacle in Dallas, the worst loss for a Noll-coached team since 1969 when the Steelers finished 1-13.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Through most of the offseason, it had been team president Dan Rooney at the center of most every controversy, because he was the team's voice in contract negotiations. But three days before the start of the regular season, it was the Steelers founder who decided to speak. His words seemed to be a warning to all parties.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
"This isn't like baseball," said Art Rooney Sr. "Baseball is an individual game. You can have eight players who dislike each other and the management, and they can still go up to the plate and hit. But this is a team game. Everybody has to work together."<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The season opened with a 27-0 Monday night win over <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>San Francisco</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY>, but everyone understood the Steelers would find out much more about themselves in six days when they were to host the defending Super Bowl champion Raiders. That was the first meeting since the "criminal element" trial, the first meeting since the 1976 AFC Championship Game in which the Steelers had to face the Raiders without their starting backfield.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Revenge, or maybe it was redemption that was on the minds of Steelers fans as they packed Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 25, but it wasn't to be. The Raiders were dominant in a 16-7 win in which they forced five turnovers and controlled the game physically throughout. When it was over, there was no longer any doubt about the direction the AFC was going, and the Steelers woke up the following morning to this headline, "The End of a Dynasty."<O:P></O:P>
<!-- / message -->
Loss to Broncos reflected tumultuous season<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
By BOB LABRIOLA<O:P></O:P>
Steelers.com<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
To characterize the 1977 season as one unending distraction is similar to referring to the <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 /><ST1:PLACE>Grand Canyon</ST1:PLACE> as a pretty big hole in the ground.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
There were holdouts, walkouts, lawsuits and counter-suits. Players demanded trades. Players and coaches faced off in court. Players were disciplined publicly and fined heavily by Commissioner Pete Rozelle. A rookie died in a car accident during training camp. Things started poorly and ended badly, and when it was time for the epilogue the 1977 Steelers were written off as a bunch of washed-up malcontents who made the trip from greatness to mediocrity in a few short months.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Here's a partial timeline of their tribulations:<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DFeb. 21: Ernie Holmes' trial for possession of 250 milligrams of cocaine ended in acquittal 75 minutes after it went to the jury in <ST1:PLACE><ST1:CITY>Amarillo</ST1:CITY>, <ST1:STATE>Texas</ST1:STATE></ST1:PLACE>.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
April 1977: Chuck Noll was summoned to <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>Oakland</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> for depositions in the defamation suit filed by George Atkinson over the famous "criminal element" remarks Noll made the day after the 1976 NFL season opener.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 11, : As a witness during the trial, Noll was forced to include Joe Greene, Mel Blount and Glen Edwards as players who also were part of the criminal element because of their own dirty play.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 16, </ST1:D: Blount reacted to this by threatening to quit the Steelers, and he also said he planned to sue Noll for $5 million.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 21, </ST1:DJack Lambert decided not to report to training camp, because he was unhappy with the salary he was to be paid in the option year of the contract he originally signed in 1974 as a rookie from <ST1:PLACE><ST1:PLACENAME>Kent</ST1:PLACENAME><ST1:PLACENAME>State</ST1:PLACENAME></ST1:PLACE>.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
<ST1:DJuly 22: Noll was cleared of the charges filed by Atkinson, but the day was ruined by Edwards' announcement that he also was unhappy with his contract.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
On July 28, Lambert's agent upped the ante a little bit, and this was the headline on the lead sports story in the Pittsburgh Press: "Agent tells Rooney: Jack wants traded."<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The preseason progressed the way one would expect of a team in turmoil. There were some evenings when the Steelers got by on their talent alone, but other times the lack of focus, the distractions, the carnival atmosphere that seemed to have engulfed the entire organization was too much to overcome. Six preseason games were common in the 1970s, and the Steelers were a respectable 3-3, but one of those losses was to a <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>Kansas City</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY> team that would go on to finish 2-12, and the other was a 30-0 blowout at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Late in August, Noll named the team's captains for the upcoming season, and even this seemingly innocuous event became controversial. When word got to Lambert that he had been bypassed, he voiced his disappointment publicly. Noll fired back in the media that Lambert didn't deserve to be a captain because he held out all through training camp.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The 1977 regular season was at hand, and the chaos simply did not abate. After much détente from both camps, Blount dropped his lawsuit against Noll and rejoined the team after missing 56 days; Lambert finally reported on Sept. 1; but neither of those arrivals had much of an immediate effect on the on-field performance, as evidenced by that 30-0 debacle in Dallas, the worst loss for a Noll-coached team since 1969 when the Steelers finished 1-13.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Through most of the offseason, it had been team president Dan Rooney at the center of most every controversy, because he was the team's voice in contract negotiations. But three days before the start of the regular season, it was the Steelers founder who decided to speak. His words seemed to be a warning to all parties.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
"This isn't like baseball," said Art Rooney Sr. "Baseball is an individual game. You can have eight players who dislike each other and the management, and they can still go up to the plate and hit. But this is a team game. Everybody has to work together."<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
The season opened with a 27-0 Monday night win over <ST1:CITY><ST1:PLACE>San Francisco</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY>, but everyone understood the Steelers would find out much more about themselves in six days when they were to host the defending Super Bowl champion Raiders. That was the first meeting since the "criminal element" trial, the first meeting since the 1976 AFC Championship Game in which the Steelers had to face the Raiders without their starting backfield.<O:P></O:P>
<O:P></O:P>
Revenge, or maybe it was redemption that was on the minds of Steelers fans as they packed Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 25, but it wasn't to be. The Raiders were dominant in a 16-7 win in which they forced five turnovers and controlled the game physically throughout. When it was over, there was no longer any doubt about the direction the AFC was going, and the Steelers woke up the following morning to this headline, "The End of a Dynasty."<O:P></O:P>
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