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What If There Had
Been Free Agency in the '70s?
Monday,
February 23, 1998
By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
The discussion began with an exclamation point, then a
question: Nose tackle Joel Steed, the highest-paid Steeler ever at
$3.85 million a year! What would Joe Greene have made?
Or this one: The Tennessee Oilers make Yancey Thigpen the richest
receiver in NFL history at $4.2 million annually! What would Lynn
Swann and John Stallworth have made?
There are more, plenty of them: Several cornerbacks, some you may
even have heard of, have gotten $4 million annual deals over the
past week! What about Mel Blount? Decent linebackers are getting way
over $3 million annually and none of them could carry the chinstraps
of Jack Ham or Jack Lambert.
And what about Terry Bradshaw? Mike Webster? Franco Harris? Donnie
Shell? Larry Brown?
The Joel Steed-Joe Greene comparison provoked a debate: If you could
beam the four-time Super Bowl champion Steelers of the 1970s into
1998 with the NFL's $17.8 billion television deal and free agency,
what would they be worth? And how long could the Rooneys have kept
that dynasty together? Would they have won four Super Bowls? Two?
One?
They were good people, they were special guys, said Dan Rooney,
who believed few would have left. I can't say we wouldn't have won
four.
They were all good guys, no doubt about that, said Jim Boston, the
Steelers' chief negotiator until his retirement several years ago.
But I know John Jackson, and he's not a bad guy. There isn't a team
in football that would have been able to keep them together. They
would have gotten a cup of coffee as they passed through.
No way in the world could you have kept it together, said Ham.
Ernie Holmes would have been the first guy out the door.
Jackson, the Steelers' 33-year-old left tackle, received the highest
annual average of any lineman in NFL history when he signed last
week with San Diego for $4.43 million a year. Jackson is a good
tackle who never made the Pro Bowl. Webster, a center, made nine.
Steelers offensive linemen of the 1970s made well under $100,000
annually and the highest paid on the team, Bradshaw, made about
$400,000 in his best payday.
So, it's a two-fold debate - would the Steelers of the 1970s still
have been a dynasty and how much money would they have commanded
today under similar economic conditions? This article, moaned Ham, will make me sick. To determine their value, the Post-Gazette sought the expertise of
attorney Ralph Cindrich of Mt. Lebanon. Not only is Cindrich one of
the leading agents for NFL players, but he also became the foremost
authority among them on unrestricted free agency when it was first
introduced in 1993. He grew up here, wrestled and played football at
Pitt and played in the NFL in the 1970s with Houston and New
England, so he is an expert not only on active NFL players but also
the Super Bowl Steelers of the 1970s. What you would do if you were the head of personnel for another
club, Cindrich said, is analyze all the players out there and then
throw it away and just look at the Steelers. Lambert, Ham, Blount,
Swann, Webby, Stallworth, Franco, Bradshaw. God! All of those guys
would be super-blue chippers and then some. Seven of those players are in the Hall of Fame. No. 1, though, would
be Mean Joe Greene. Just as Chuck Noll built his team around Greene,
his first draft choice in 1969, so would other teams aim for him in
free agency. If you're looking from a raider's point of view, you target Mean
Joe, Cindrich said. You build your team around him. He's a leader
on the field, off the field and he's a great player. Joe would be the man. You'd go on Joe until you choke. If John
Randle [Vikings defensive tackle] is at $6.4 million a year, Greene
has to be at $8 million plus. Cindrich noted the caveats about this exercise: Normally, he would
put in hours of research on one client and call various teams, but
in this case he considered 22 starters and two kickers in less than
a day; the overall talent of the teams were better, he said, in the
1970s than now because there were fewer teams, fewer players and it
was more difficult to make a club; also, the system wasn't
prejudiced against older players as it is today. And who knows which
players might have agreed to stay with the Steelers for less money
or leave for more? Considering the 22 starters most closely linked with the Steelers of
the mid-1970s and assuming they were in their prime and free to sign
anywhere, Cindrich put a value on them. The NFL salary cap stands at
$51.5 million for the entire 53-man roster and injured players. The
value of just the 22 starters chosen from the 1970s would be $91.8
million on the low end, not counting the rest of the roster. The
starting 11 on defense, at $51.2 million, would have taken care of
the Steelers' salary cap. We would have lost some players, no question, said Dick Hoak, the
Steelers' running backs coach since 1972. Some of them would have
left, they would have gone for the big bucks. You would have kept
some, I'm sure, but there were a bunch of great players on those
teams.
Dan Rooney points out that the World Football League, which operated
in 1974 and 1975, was unable to lure one Steeler away. That's only
because L.C. Greenwood signed with the fledgling league but it
crumbled before his Steelers contract ended. The WFL helped break up
the budding Miami Dolphins dynasty when it signed stars Larry
Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield after the 1974 NFL season. That
is a small example of what might have happened with those Steelers
in free agency, particularly in the latter half of the 1970s. The Steelers, though, did have the highest payroll in the NFL in the
late 1970s. Dan has said that he can't pay all these guys [in the 1990s], Ham
noted. There's no way in the world he would have kept that team
together.
And how many Super Bowls might they have won under today's market
conditions? Two, maybe, Ham said. Maybe just one. We would have won the first one, no doubt about that, Boston said.
It depends on the length of the contracts at that time. You'd be
fortunate enough that some of the guys would have been on their
second contract. You might have gotten a break, depending on when
you started the system. For Cindrich's purposes, the system was assumed as it is today with
each player in his prime. The 22 starters chosen did not all start
at the same time, but a consensus was formed. For example, Andy
Russell started at outside linebacker for the first two Super Bowls,
then retired after the 1976 season. Because he was at the end of his
career, Loren Toews was chosen even though Russell was a much better
player in his prime. The same for Webster at center instead of Ray
Mansfield.
Keep in mind that Lambert held out the entire training camp in 1977
and earned a new contract of $200,000 annually and that Harris
earned $250,000. Here, are some of Cindrich's observations and reasoning: Bradshaw - He's the easiest to mark a value on because there are
comparables, a Steve Young and Brett Favre. Wherever the market is
for those players, plug in Bradshaw and an enhancement for him to
leave. $8 million. Lambert - You have to love a guy like Lambert. If Bryce Paup is at
$4.3 million right now, then you have to put Lambert at $6 million
plus. Ham - Lambert's leadership and ferociousness motivates everyone and
is an enhancement, but for the shorter term. Ham gets a little less
on gross dollars, but you guarantee his contract and you sleep like
a baby. His contract is one that the structure is more favorable
than a Lambert. $5.8 million. Blount - The value of a corner that big, strong, quick and a cover
guy? $5.8 million. Greenwood - Tell me how much more John Randle offers over
Greenwood. $6.4 million. Shell - A guy like him is invaluable on defense. He intimidates
your receivers, punishes your runners and can cover. Put him in a
cornerback-type range. $4.5 million. Franco - Wooooo! Franco has more versatility than Barry Sanders and
he plays in that role so well. But I think teams would be more apt
to go for a Sanders; the market's going to be set by him. $5.5 to
$6.5 million. Swann - Who would argue him vs. Thigpen? If Yancey's at $4.2
million, it would be hard to argue anything less than $5.5 to $6
million for him. Stallworth - He'd get a little less than Swann because you think of
Swann, you think of that big-time catch, that unbelievable catch and
in my opinion that excites NFL people a little more. $4.8 to $5.3
million. Webster - If Todd Steussie or Jackson get $4.4 million a year . . .
You downgrade a little bit because center is not tackle and you put
him over $5 million. Cindrich also did not think the Steelers could have kept their
dynasty together. With all due respect, I see a number of these guys on the highway.
With the salary cap, there's no way you can keep them all. Which brings the final question to Ham. Knowing that if there were
free agency the Steelers almost surely would not have won four or
even three Super Bowls, would he have preferred to make the millions
he might have commanded or to have those four Super Bowl rings
today?
There's something to be said that you played on what was considered
the best team ever in the NFL, Ham said. There's a fine line
there. But I'm content with what we did. I played on the best
football team ever. That's enough right now for me.
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