Few teams can match aura that surrounds Steelers and Packers
Both with rich traditions, enormous fan bases and most memorable dynasties in league history
Sunday, November 06, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Leave it to the Packers and Steelers, perhaps the most beloved franchises that produced the most memorable dynasties in NFL history, to each have their own stories about Johnny (Blood) McNally, former NFL player, coach and carouser.
Before there were the Steelers, McNally played for the Pottsville Maroons of the NFL in 1928. Packers coach Curly Lambeau coveted Blood's services and wrote him a letter.
Let Lee Remmel, a Packers employee for 60 years, explain the contents.
"Dear Johnny, if you will join the Packers after the 1928 season, I will pay you $100."
Added Remmel, "Johnny was a bit of a lush, a ladies man, so Curly Lambeau added, 'If you don't drink after Wednesday night before each game, I'll pay you $110.' "
Lambeau waited for a reply and one finally came from Blood: "I'll take the $100."
The Steelers listed him as John Blood when he was their player-coach in '37, '38 and part of '39. He took that name when he was still playing college ball at St. John's in Minnesota as John McNally so he could pick up extra cash playing in the pros.
As the Steelers coach, Blood was in Chicago scouting the Bears one Sunday, according to Dan Rooney.
"Someone in the press box said to him, 'Johnny, how come you're not with your team?' He said, 'They're not playing today, we have a bye.' And the guy said, 'Look at the scoreboard, you're team's down 7 points!' "
There may be no such colorful player as Blood when the Steelers kick off in Green Bay at 4:15 p.m. today, but the lore and aura that cloak these two old-line NFL franchises persist. The Packers may be 1-6, but they will sell out Lambeau Field, something they've done every game since 1960.
There are 16,000 people on the waiting list for Packers tickets. The Steelers, who have sold out every non-strike game since 1972, have 14,000 on theirs.
The Steelers have not played in Green Bay in 10 years, which is the previous time they made it to a Super Bowl. They last won a Super Bowl in the 1970s, when they took home four Vince Lombardi trophies in six years. The Packers won the first two Super Bowls, and eventually the winner's trophy was named after their coach. But the Packers also won NFL titles in '61, '62 and '65 before claiming the first Super Bowls after the '66 and '67 seasons.
So, who had the better dynasty, Green Bay's five titles in seven years or Pittsburgh's four Super Bowl wins in six years?
"Us," said Rooney.
"My answer is Green Bay, but I certainly give due credit to the Steelers' domination of the '70s," said Remmel, long the team's public relations man and now their official historian. "I was a great admirer of Art Rooney as there have been many before me. But the Packers won five championships in seven years, which no other team has ever done. On that basis, numerical superiority, I'd vote for the Packers, in addition to being a homer."
Each team wears a traditional uniform with the striped sleeves they've sported for years, and each consistently is among the top five in jersey sales in the NFL. The Packers go farther back, to the day in 1919 that Lambeau organized a team in the news room of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. They won three NFL championships before Art Rooney plunked down $2,500 to enter his team into the NFL in 1933. The Packers have 12 NFL titles, more than any other team and most recently when they won Super Bowl XXXI.
It took Art Rooney's team 42 seasons before it won its first championship.
"He was such a likeable guy," said Arthur Daley, 89, who covered the Packers for years and still writes a weekly column for Packers Report. "But they were losing for so damn long. Then Terry Bradshaw came along and they won. I said to Art, 'What are you going to do with yourself now that you're winning?' "
They won some more and, even though the Steelers haven't won another Super Bowl in 25 years, they have one of the largest fan bases in the country, right up there next to the Packers.
Charlie Batch grew up in Homestead and has played in Lambeau Field as the starting quarterback for the Detroit Lions. He will make his first start for the Steelers today and knows what the allure of the Packers and Steelers means -- a rich tradition without the bling.
"Nothing too fancy, you know what you get: always great defense, run the ball and the uniforms stayed the same for years.
"Before you even get here, you know what the Steelers are about. You hear a lot of stories, then you see guys coming back -- you stand on the sideline and go 'Wow!' You've always seen the name, but now you're seeing the person. And once you're here, you're considered a part of the family."
Steelers linebacker Clint Kriewaldt grew up not far from Green Bay in the tiny town of Shiocton, Wis. Not a Packers fan, Kriewaldt nevertheless appreciates what the Packers mean to the people of Wisconsin; they mean the same as do the Steelers here.
"I go back home and everyone asks me how it is around here," Kriewaldt said. "The easiest way to explain it is like being in Green Bay playing for the Packers.
"Our fans are diehards and live and die football around here, and that's the way it is in Green Bay."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)
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