Chuck Noll's WORST Moment | The Day The Steelers Turned on Chuck Noll 

I remember Gary's goodbye news conference. He was reduced to years. And so was everyone watching. We loved Gary and he had 10 good years left by any standards and he played more than that.

This seems like a case of the changing of the times to me. A grown man upset about a remark, that is ambiguous at best, regarding poor performance of player/team. That's essentially the start of today's weak minded culture, allowing words to hurt you. Hilarious

@@TonyTheBassPlayer1 I told Tom Donahoe "do not sign Dean Biasucci, he's terrible". He signed him, and then he cut him during preseason. Fucking guy was a glorified high school football coach and he only had his job because his grandfather was David L. Lawrence and he was a friend of the Chief's. Picking Bill Cowher over Tom Donahoe before the 2000 season was the best move the Steelers ever made, not that Cowher was a genius mind you, but Donohoe had to go. He treated players like shit.

I agree with you completely. The video was interesting but taken a bit out of context. What some people forget is that Noll took basically the same roster in 1989, lost the first two games 92-10 and then finished the season 9-5. That team upset the Oilers in the playoffs in the Astrodome and could have beaten the Broncos in Denver the week after. That might have been Noll's best coaching job

@Artemias Rivers Still crying the race card again, dumb little boy?

@Artemias Rivers Yet Cowher kept trying to hope Kordell was real QB instead of drafting one. He didn't even want a QB in the 04 draft. The Roonies made him take one. Cowher thought Maddox was still the future and wanted an O lineman. Then he wanted Rivers over Ben

@Artemias Rivers I'm with you on the owners being dirtbags. That's why I have no problem with players getting paid right and getting more guaranteed money

@Artemias Rivers Chuck Noll played Barry Foster in 1991 and it was among the afc's leading rushers. Then he got hurt, and his season was ruined at the end. And your racist crap will never change the facts.

And then coached the Steelers for four more seasons.

Conveniently overlooked that fact

I remember the start of the 89 season looked like a microcosm of the 88 season

Yeah almost but didn't ! Bottom line

i was thinking that its cause they dont cover the dude fr you have to be from here to know about him only head coach besides bill to win 4 so that will answer a lot right their

I think it was Dan Rooney that was drafting then

No matter, They should have drafted Marino.

Can you imagine how many more Super Bowls Pittsburgh could’ve possibly won? One of the greatest players to never get a ring

@@Chris-il7xi There's no guarantee - Noll didn't implement the shotgun until 1989

@@1983jblack That’s why I said possibly. But I still think with Marino’s attitude and willing to do what it takes to win, playing in his hometown, etc I think they would’ve had a great chance. And great coaches are supposed to adapt to the players the draft. That’s why Shula went from a run oriented offense to a pass offense, knowing Dan was the man 👍🏼

That and 1984

That year was probably his best coaching effort.

This video left out the 1989 season where the Steelers made the playoffs in spite of starting the season losing to the Browns and the Bengals 51-0 and 42-10. Beating the Oilers in the playoffs was Chuck Bill’s last hurrah. Making the playoffs that year was his finest coaching job since he last won the Super Bowl.

He didn't lose the team - just someone's opinion is all

@@davester1970 but that is not clickbait

But You got to remember some of the stupid things that he did in the 1980s Not just him but the Steelers as a Team. They had a chance to Draft Dan Marino but didn't do it because they thought they would have Bradshaw for a few more seasons at least but turns out during practice Bradshaw slipped during practice and fell and injured his elbow which ended his career. Also in the late 1980s they had a good team with Brister at QB and Hodge at RB but Noll decided to bring in Joe Walton as Offensive coordinator because he liked what he brought to the table offensively but he made the offense so difficult to run it confused Brister and made him suck as a player.

He's a little boy from the social media era. He's not a real reporter.

I think you're right.

It was a bigger issue when Noll called out Sidney Thornton -- "He has many problems and they are great"

Yeah this channel has been nothing but superb but this vid might have been stretching just a bit.

Actually this video helps the case for 89. The meltdown came against the eventual AFC champion Bengals. Just a few weeks after that, their was the inspirational Sunday night upset in Houston. Then, in 89 they lost the first two games 92-10 and still made the playoffs

More like one less memorable, John Elway-led come-from-behind tense, close postseason victory is probably the most appropriate reason why Steelers didnt advance to their 1st AFCCG in 5 years vs. Denver. I still think, if you're a honest, realistic Steelers fan over the age of 45-50 from that era, you'd have to admit the game had past Noll by by the end of 1980's. Cowher, maybe deserves some mild criticism for not winning some of those early AFCCG's in the 1990's, particularly the San Diego game where even if Steelers win, they likely get blown out by the 49ers 2 weeks later like the Chargers did. But Bill Cowher was the perfect, Steel City molded, highly-energetic, focused, hard-working, dutiful new, fresh face sort of HC Pittsburgh needed to guide them into the 1990's and beyond.

Yeah, I think even though the Steelers weren't real championship contenders yet, he left the team in good shape for Bill Cowher.

@@davidroberts7282 No doubt Noll left the cupboard full for Cowher to succeed immediately. And yeah, nobody was beating the '94 Niners.

Was 1989 the year Pitt started with 51-0,41-10 losses and STILL made the playoffs?

@@davidrivera9743 yes

this year will mark 53 seasons with 3 HC's

Most NFL organizations are fickle. Some barley give a guy a chance to get started.

And they’ve all won Super Bowls

There has been more Popes than Steelers coaches

@@mattpomara1967 when you consider the average age of a pope is 70 when they take office that's not that impressive of a stat.

Joe Gibbs also won 2 Super Bowls during strike seasons.

@K W neither do politicians. They only care about themselves and the rich people who fund their campaigns

The Steelers were also very successful in the 2000s.

We?? What position did you play?

i wasn't ever a cowboys fan but i respected coach landry more then many of his peers. he was class and the way he was treated was just shameful and has me hatin' the cowgirls to this day.🤬 with knoll, i lose respect because he should have been the bigger man and take blame and move on but those who live in glass houses love chuckin' rocks.😁 steelers fan.🤪✌😎

and how Belichick's going out now.

Noll went out on his own terms, he was never fired

Denver

Exactly he was still coach for three more years after this just wasted 12 minites lol

@@js-hk6xs And the comments weren't even that bad. He just said that the whole team sucked.

I agree, but learning about Woodruff saved it from being a wasted 12 minutes

@@andressalazarwildlife ye lol

Luke Dwyer conspiracy theory: JaguarGator9 is Woodruff

I know, because Dan has so many rings.😆

Because Dan was a coke head , Raiders were great in late 70's and early 80's. Then Dolphins was good in mid 80's. , Broncos. took over AFC in late 80's , and with Bengles , and rise of the Bills . It was hard for Steelers to get back to Super Bowls 80's . Aging teams and drafting late in draft. It was harder rebuild no free agency . Mark Malone and Buddy Blister did not help either.

Of course they should have. Everyone in the Steelers organization has been on record regretting that decision. Gabe Rivera did show flashes of being a good defensive lineman in 83’ before becoming paralyzed in a car accident.

That last quarter of that Steelers 88 season would be a preview of what would be to come for Steelers 89, especially after being drubbed by a combined score of 92-10 against Cleveland and Cincinnati in the first 2 weeks of the 89 season.

​@@russellpavlov1343I was at that game against the Eagles with my dad and grandpap. A very fond memory.

Well, ok... Paul Brown is ON the Mt Rushmore, but it STARTS with George "Papa Bear" Halas

Chuck Noll should be on mount rushmore before those 2 clowns.

@@1USACitizen192 Halas has more Championships than Chuck "the Lockeroom Cancer" noll, was a Charter member of the NFL, Was a Player, Coach, GM, AND OWNER, and won Championships in MULTIPLE decades. Noll won, and then the game had passed him by in less than a Decade. He was embarrassed throughout the 80s. Now give the phone back to your wife's boyfriend and stop using up all of his minutes.

@@1USACitizen192 ROTFLMAO Noll was a PB protégée.

@@Mottleydude1 I think Noll taught Brown. Brown wanted to name his team the Cleveland Nolls, but Chuck said name it after Jim Brown, he is a much better player.

Exactly LettermanFanMan.

This dude is a drama fest

I not believe they turned on Him!!

I'm not a Steelers Fan but a Football fan. I love(sarcastically) When Fans and media cant wait to bury A coach!! Noll is a Mt Rushmore Coach! When Players all get old at once like those Steeler Teams, let's blame the coach! Steelers werent good when Noll took over(1969)Did they turn on Him for the next 10 years? Great Coaches are Leaders!! Any player turning on Noll I I Guarantee is not in the HOF!

26-23 over the Oilers, and the Oilers lost 2 regular season games at home earlier that year.

Amen!

I should check but off the top of my head I think Brown had one losing season with Cleveland

Chuck Noll seemed to always have a hate boner for the Oilers. Especially when they were coached by Jerry Granville.

Much respect for your comment

Th rest of the league had caught up with the Steelers draft process, while the Steelers scouting department went daft. I forget the numbers, but beyond Robin Cole drafted in '76 they went years before drafting another all pro...this coming from a staff who found how many HOF'er and all pros previously. Drafting later every year due to their success did not help, and passing Marino was utterly stupid (as did 23 other teams). One former exec said deciding who to cut in the 70's was always a challenge, in the 80's it was deciding when to stop cutting that was the challenge. Hard to coach when you do not have the talent, but when you are basically making all the decisions hard not to put the blame on Noll as well.

I was wondering if somebody would bring this up! Everyone loves to rag and bag on Shula but he had more playoff wins in his final four years than Noll in his last seven.

Typical football coach mentality, break the rules and get mad at others when you are caught. Hooray competition!

Bubba fug00gle In those days a Coach didn’t have to let media newr the practice field. Noll didn’t want reports of certain plays going out to spies but he let some local media in so he felt betrayed. It was media that got revenge on Noll by taking his comment way out of context. Noll didn’t mean it as a cut against Woodruff but the media portrayed it that way until Woodruff later realized that the media twisted it. Noll was proud of Woodruff and all of his players who did well. Some coaches, not Noll paid security to run ppl away from practice. The late 1960s early 1970s were much different. Fast forward to 2001 & one team had employees wear press passes & film plays & signals to make a catalog of plays.

@@r.williamcomm7693 I totally agree that any attention given to the story was unwarranted (as was this video). Clearly not a knock on the individual but the whole team including himself. I stand by my criticism of Noll being upset at anyone but himself when he got caught breaking rules. This is a standard kindergarten level moral issue... in the words of Jesus himself (as interpreted by Sammy Davis Jr.): "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time"

Bubba fug00gle I don’t know how much you know about Chuck Noll but you would enjoy his football life on RU-vid. He wasn’t a typical meathead jock. I think I gave you the wrong impression with my one sentence to describe how he started with media but it’s not even close to the 18 years he had served as coach to that point so I shouldn’t assume that ppl know the rest of the story. Noll was sophisticated & appreciated culture. Terry Bradshaw said that while he (Terry) was into horses & fishing that Chuck was Russian literature & fine wine. Noll conducted on occasion at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Noll famously threw away the play book of another other team that was found in the visitors locker room & given to him even though the team was playing the Steelers again. The one practice incident I described was an oversight not a swindle. Ravens just had a violation 2 years ago. This was 1969 so the collective bargaining agreement wasn’t studied as closely. Noll was a man of few words & he desired to give short quotes & not expound nor write the media’s stories for them. When Belichick did that less than a decade later he was run out of Cleveland because he didn’t win. Noll won 4 Super Bowls & that year the media was pushing “now that he’s losing Noll should be fired” sentiment. They used their usual “it doesn’t read if it doesn’t bleed approach.” This was media’s chance to finally condemn Chuck & twist his words. Anyway you might want to check out his life story because he never had an immature kindergarten approach to anything. Media was just scrambling for negative scoop so I’m not sayin that they are bad ppl either. Noll learned the hard way as a young head coach that trusting them could get him burned. He was Belichick before Belichick where he prepared his team to play & didn’t give away his game plan to media. He learned under Paul Brown & Don Shula & coaches the defense on the Colts team that lost Super Bowl 3 to Namath’s Jets. Anyway, Noll’s life & character were always impeccable. That’s why this video is spun as his low point. If he had given long, colorful quotes that helped the reporters write their stories & off field drama then they would’ve loved him. But he was more stately, reserved & way too smart to let hacks put words in his mouth. He was one of the true good guys in the world & I guarantee you if you like NFL football & appreciate history, & take the time to watch “Chuck Noll: A Football Life” then you will have nothing but respect for him. If you like it then watch Paul Brown & Don Shula’s football life episodes. Paul Brown is especially impressive. Although every man has flaws, these men had passion & they had brains. I don’t know if you share my belief that there was once a time when a high school education equipped an American for living his or her life fully & capable of independent thought. Sadly that has declined with each generation. But these men had college degrees when it meant something & seeing their lives in an era in history when things were being built in America, when ordinary jobs provided a living wage, & how they lived their lives & impacted other lives, including making opportunities for minorities is inspiring to may of us. Good luck & enjoy.

That is how I took it as well. And losing the team? I dont know, he coached for 3 more seasons. Seems like a stretch to say he lost the team. Losing a team usually ends in the coach being out of work quicker than 3 more seasons.

Yeah, this video is total garbage.

It was more because they thought that Bradshaw could play a couple more years.

@@fammithommproductions if you watch the 30 for 30 about that draft the expert analyst that covered it said most teams were scared off of Marino after the marijuana story about him came out!! They said for the Steelers it was a perfect fit- Marino was a star at Pitt and Bradshaw had already seen his best years and that old regime was crumbling. I believe the quote from Ernie Ocorsi” Marino was the perfect bridge from Bradshaw to Marino” and it would have kept the Steelers relevant in the mid to late 80’s. So I’m not saying it- the analyst from that time said it.

People sleep on Gibbs so hard

A Rushmore is more of a founding fathers type thing. So to me it’s Halas, Brown, and Lombardi and no one else.

Its strange, how old rivalries die down and fade away but new ones sort of bubble up, simmer, and then explode into real, visual on-field animosity but some of the same factors that surround the antagonisms between new rivals are eerily similar to older ones. Essentially, the Oakland Raiders were THE premier villain, primary antagonist for the Steelers throughout the 1970's with a notable exception perhaps to the Cowboys. By the mid-late 80's, Pittsburgh's main rival was Jerry Glanville's Houston Oilers and for Noll and Steelers franchise, their lack of respect, disdain for Oilers hard-hitting, nasty mentality seem to be taken more personally because they were positioning themselves as "new Raiders", when they were just wannabe upstarts.

AS A Washingtonian, I'm still happy they beat those Cowboys in the 2 nd Super Bowl appearance. Cowboys fans couldn't deal with the loss. lol

Only if it's crybaby Tom Brady. Brady wouldn't survive if he played in the 1970s and 80s. When defenders were allowed to hit the QB.

@@rhettrissmiller4909 You forgot about the in the grasp rule which occured in the 1970s. Jack Lambert said that QBs should be wearing dresses.

@@dallasbrubaker6054 Funny story, Dallas. Boomer Esiason took jab at his quote, a few years ago. He said, you'd think for such a tough guy he wouldn't have retired over a dislocated big left toe.

Most likely Noll’s comments were due to the onset of Alzheimers. Perhaps the team resented his uncharacteristic words at the time (Which I highly doubt), but to attack his intellect after his fate is uncool man.

I don't know about this, I'm a Steelers fan and my fandom basically began as Noll retired and Cowher took over. A lot of the players that were important in Cowher's early success were drafted during Noll's final years. The game didn't change as much from the 80s to the 90s as much as it did from, say, 2000 to the 2010s.

Nope... those guys were both GREAT coaches... The core of the teams got old and they needed to re-load on talent. It’s a cycle... What happened is they both got older and wore out their welcome... Same thing even happened to Paul Brown in Cleveland where the team is named after him....

@@williamhicks7736 Not everything has to do with the talent. Some coaches just refuse to adapt to the changing times. The same things that Landry and Noll did in the 60s and 70s were not working in the 80s. It took them years to realize it, but it was too late then.