March 08, 2004
Joe Greene is back with the Steelers
Q. How many Steelers fans does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Four. One to change the bulb and three to stand around and talk about how much better light bulbs were during the 1970s.
Maybe it's foolish for fans to live in the past, but for an organization to do that it's downright dangerous. And when a team hires its greatest player ostensibly to do a job he's never done before, well, it sounds a whole lot like the Miami Dolphins hiring Dan Marino to be team president, and it figures to work out just as well. The Steelers hiring Joe Greene to a front office position currently defined loosely as special assistant/player personnel may appear to be similar, but it's not.
Joe Greene was a great player, a commanding presence in a locker room full of other great players, and that combination made him the cornerstone upon which Chuck Noll constructed a dynasty that won four championships in six seasons. Great players often have trouble as coaches, because they cannot relate to players with lesser skills than their own, but Greene isn't here to coach. He's here because he knows what great players look like. He can recognize toughness, or a glaring lack of it. He knows what it takes to be a winner and can recognize which players have those qualities. He understands the importance of intanigbles and how they complement talent. He respects the Rooney family and loves the Steelers. He understands the relationship between this franchise and its fans.
Greene was asked if his experience as a great among other greats will help him be a part of finding the great players of tomorrow. His answer reflected the exact kind of experience, the understanding of the whole process, that the Steelers may need.
"If I go back and think about our group, we were allowed to be together and have some difficult times and lose ball games that we thought we should have won. Through those difficult times we developed the courage, the stamina, and the mentality to push through. When you look at players you always like to look and see how they react when they are having difficult times. Or after a difficult play, how do they bounce back, how do they respond to negative situations. Sometimes, how do they respond even to positive situations."
"Sometimes a good play is just a routine play, it is one you should have made; how do you respond to that? There is a difference between a great play and just a routine play. They are all plays that need to be made, but how do you respond to those things? That is just a part of what goes into it. That is something that is not always easy to detect. Those are the little things that anyone who looks at players is trying to decipher. What makes this player tick? What makes them do what they do? Not always the fastest, the strongest, players are the best players. There is a litany of things that you look for and those are just some of them."
Joe Greene has a rare perspective on what it takes to win championships, and when that's coupled with his love for the Steelers, he becomes a valuable component in the ongoing process to construct a championship team.
The Steelers are not living in the past by hiring Joe Greene. They're using it to create a better future.
Posted by Ron at March 8, 2004 08:11 PM