"He's the
greatest defensive tackle to ever play this game. It's an honor and a
privilege and all that other stuff to have my locker next to his for
five years. My rookie year, he was supposed to be finished and now he's
the number one defensive tackle in the game again. When he's inducted
into the Hall of Fame, I'm gonna be there. How Joe Greene plays is how
the Steelers play."(John Banaszak)
"The Steelers did
it again. They had a shot at every college player in the country except
three and managed to come up with a guy nobody ever heard
of."(Disgruntled fan after Joe Greene was drafted)
"We knew the fans
might complain, but all the reports we had on Joe indicated that he was
not only the finest defensive lineman of that year, but maybe the best
in a decade. Next to O.J., we had Joe figured as the surest bet in the
whole draft."(Art Rooney Jr.)
"That first day
[in Training Camp, 1969] he looked like the baddest thing that ever
walked on two legs. When it was my turn [against him in the blocking
drill], I made up my mind that this kid was not going to beat me. After
all, I had been in the league a helluva lot longer than he was. I dug in
and went to work, just like I was down on the goal line in a
championship game. I figured if this kid's playing it for all the
marbles the way he is I better do the same thing or else they'll be
sweeping me off the field with a whisk broom."(John Brown)
"Joe got kicked
out of three games that year [1969] as I recall. He got kicked out of a
game in New York for taking a late shot on Fran Tarkenton; he got kicked
out of a game in Minnesota for punching a lineman [Jim Vellone]; he got
kicked out a game in Philadelphia for picking up the football and
throwing it into the upper deck. Hell, I don't know why they put him out
of a game for that. They should have given him some kind of award. It
might have been the best pass a guy on our club threw all year."(Andy
Russell)
"I never saw a
defensive man so totally dominate a game. Joe was like a one-man army.
It was almost boring for the rest of us because we had nothing to do but
watch. I caught myself applauding a couple times."(Andy Russell) "I know
that I was part of something very unique in the history of the game...
We were the baddest dudes who ever did it on defense. Everyone else
patterned themselves after us, and because of the way we played they had
to change the rules. That tells you something about how bad we
were."(Dwight White)
"The hardest I've
ever been hit in my life, both times were by Dwight. He's just rough,
like a bull in a china shop, and he'll tear up anything that's in his
way. It's like he's got tunnel vision and he zeros in on that one thing
and anything that gets in his way, too bad."(Joe Greene) "The four of us
together were something else. I don't think there was ever a team like
us, or any who could beat us. We had a sense about where we were, what
we did, how we could run plays with just a nod of the head. We just
complemented each other. We got on the cover of Time. That was
quite an achivement."(Ernie Holmes) "We put a lot of pressure on our
linebackers at that time, a lot of one-on-one coverage. We asked him to
cover running backs, and sometimes wide receivers, all over the field.
Jack handled it very well. There was a general consensus that when a
linebacker covered a running back, it was a mismatch. Jack Ham disproved
that theory."(Chuck Noll) "Of all the teammates I played with, Jack Ham
is the most deserving of being in the Hall of Fame. He was the most
consistently great player we had. He did it week after week and year
after year. Until he broke his foot he was the outside linebacker that
all others were measured by."(Jack Lambert)
""My heavens,
yes, Jack Ham belongs in the Hall of Fame. The thing I remember about
Jack? You couldn't block him. You just couldn't block him. In a way, he
made it easy for us to come up with a game plan. We'd just run the other
way. We wanted no parts of him."(Bum Phillips) "He knew every time we
were going to pass because he was always looking in our backfield. You
teach your linebackers to play off the tight end's eyes because the
tight end will give the play away, but Jack was too good for that. He'd
look directly into the backfield and read the play and still not be
hooked by the tight end."(Bum Phillips) "I never felt the individual
honors measured up to the team stuff. If you're asking how I'd like to
be remembered, it's as a team player who helped the Steelers win a few
championships."(Jack Ham)
"When you watch
Jack(Ham) on film, you feel like standing up and applauding."(Andy
Russell)
"It wasn't
difficult making plays on those teams. I had a Hall of Famer Joe in
front of me at left tackle and a guy who should be considered for the
Hall of Fame
L.C. Greenwood at left end. I didn't need a uniform with
those guys in front of me. I could have played in basketball
shorts."(Jack Ham) "Of all the players I coached he's(Ham) the one I
mention most when I'm out recruiting. He's what every player in high
school, college or the pros should strive to become - a mean son of a
buck on the field and a perfect gentleman off the field. He is the
epitome of the perfect football player."(George Perles)
John Elway on Jack
Lambert.."He had no teethe,and he was slobbering all over himself.I'm
thinking,you can have your money back,just get me out of here.Let me go
be an accountant.I cant tell you how badly I wanted out of
here"...Elways first play from scrimmage in the NFL
Joe Geene..."They
say that when you're the champs,everybody will try to beat you.Well I am
glad we are the champs, so bring them on,bring them all on.If we die.we
aint gonna die running. Its going to be a fght"
Jack Lambert.."Yes
I get satisfaction out of hitting a guy and seeing him lay there a whil
