Grimm: His knowledge of game makes him logical pick

Thursday, January 11, 2007
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Russ Grimm, star quarterback and linebacker in high school, fumed that day Jackie Sherrill told him he would join the ranks of those nameless football players, offensive linemen.

Grimm, a sophomore at Pitt who passed up his dream to go to Linebacker U at Penn State over a perceived snub, was no offensive lineman. He was Dick Butkus, Jack Lambert, Mike Curtis. He punished offensive linemen; now, Sherrill wanted to convert him into one, and a center at that? No way.

"He was ticked off," said Foge Fazio, the assistant coach who recruited Grimm for the Panthers. "He was going to transfer to West Virginia. He was mad and didn't come around to our workouts."

Grimm called Joe Pendry, the assistant coach who recruited him for the Mountaineers. Two days later, Fazio convinced Grimm to attend the Panthers' workout. There, standing before him, was Pendry.

"I talked Jackie into hiring Joe as our offensive line coach," said Fazio, laughing about the scene this week while driving to his winter home in Florida.

Grimm reluctantly accepted the new assignment, something Sherrill says today that he advised him was coming.

"He had growth potential," Sherrill said. "I kept kidding him, 'Russ, you're going from fullback to quarterback to linebacker; you keep eating, you're going to go down' [to offensive line]. Sure enough, he went down."

And up, and up, in weight and stature. Grimm was the center on one of Pitt's great lines in 1979-80 that included tackles Mark May and Jim Covert and guards Emil Boures and Paul Dunn, Grimm's roommate. He then moved to guard after the Redskins drafted him in the third round and became one of the famous Hogs that helped forge three Super Bowl victories in Washington.
Grimm made the NFL's all-1980s team as its first-string guard. Among his Redskins linemates were May and Joe Jacoby.

Today, he's a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Steelers' head-coaching job. It could be a good month for Grimm, 47.

"I hope he gets both, he deserves it," said Joe Bugel, his line coach and mentor in Washington, where Bugel has returned as an assistant. "I always felt he'd be one heck of a football coach. He's super smart -- the guy can make a difference on the sideline with the best of them. He's a leader; guys will follow, and he can kick your butt in a lot of different ways. He'd be good for that football team."

Grimm, a native of Scottdale, Pa., who played at Southmoreland High School, began his coaching career under Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs with the Redskins in 1992, first as tight ends coach and later as offensive line coach under Norv Turner. He joined the Steelers as their offensive line coach in 2001 and added the title of assistant head coach in '04.

He revels in the Hogs image, a down-and-dirty guard who bulldozed the way for Hall of Fame running back John Riggins. Yet, his reputation among those who know him is as a sharp former quarterback who knew every player's assignment and could analyze a defense and what it was trying to do.

"He was probably one of the smartest players I ever played with," said Boures, who also played for the Steelers in the 1980s. "That's saying a lot because I played with a lot of great guys. He was probably the smartest player as far as recognizing film work and the whole bit."

Said Sherrill: "He was very intelligent as a player and very aware because he's played all those positions. The game came easy to him. He moved to offensive line and it was easy for him."

His former teammates and coaches believe his training as a quarterback and linebacker in high school probably helped develop that awareness. When the Redskins once were down to two healthy quarterbacks, Gibbs was asked who his emergency No. 3 would be and he pointed to Grimm.

"Everything he ever tried, he was successful at," said John Bacha, his football coach at Southmoreland, where they named the field after Grimm last year. "He was my best athlete and he was a good quarterback. He was good on rollouts, he'd get on the corner with that 210 pounds and had the option to run or throw."

Grimm also played center on the Southmoreland basketball team and threw the javelin.
"He could have been a four-sport star," Bacha said. "He could have left the track, walked over and hit a baseball out of the park. He was an exceptionally good athlete."

Grimm's reputation as a coach grew quickly once the Steelers hired him. The Chicago Bears were ready to hire him as their head coach in 2004 but Grimm balked when told management would help him pick his staff. Gibbs wanted to hire him as his offensive coordinator when he returned to the Redskins in '04, but Grimm was under contract to the Steelers, who did not want to lose him. They promoted him to assistant head coach.

"He's been our little hidden secret for many years now," Steelers All-Pro guard Alan Faneca said. "He'll make a great head coach."

Grimm, who coached from the sideline with the Steelers, presented the halftime adjustments to the players in the locker room for their offense and worked closely with coordinator Ken Whisenhunt on the game plan.

"When he talks, they'll listen," said Fazio, who coached the 2000 season with Grimm with the Redskins. "A lot of people in the league go to Russ for advice on pass protection. You have to be a bright guy to know all the defenses."

"I know of no better football man," said Dunn, now an assistant on Dave Wannstedt's staff at Pitt. "He's a guy who knows the X's and O's of the game, a guy who can discuss coverages and blitzes and footwork from a technique standpoint of the defensive backs and linebackers, too. His knowledge of the game is superior."

Grimm is known as a teacher, a prankster and someone who can be demanding.

"He's going to teach all day and let you go out and do what you have to do," Faneca said. "He's not the kind of guy to say something just to say something. He's not going to beat a dead horse on the sideline. But he'll let you know when you mess up and he's going to correct it.

"When he first got here, I thought I knew a lot and we were doing complicated things before. But when he got here, that completely changed. Our learning of the game up front just grew tremendously."

Can he crack the whip?

"Are you kidding me?" Boures said. "I know I wouldn't want to be on the other end of it."

Yet after almost every game, Grimm is host to a tailgate party in the Steelers' parking lot for everyone who wants to attend, coaches and players. Many of them did, win or lose.

"That's a good thing for team camaraderie," Faneca said. "Besides being together on the practice field, it was good hanging out time."

Dunn noted that while Bill Cowher was a competitive person, he never met anyone as competitive as Grimm.

"He wants to win in everything he does."

Pitt played in the 1980 Gator Bowl against South Carolina, where Grimm would go up against a good nose tackle, Emanuel Weaver. The late Joe Moore, who coached Grimm at Pitt after Pendry and became close with him the rest of his life, used the kind of psychology that Grimm would later adopt as a coach.

In practices leading up to the Gator Bowl, Moore told both Pitt guards to remind Grimm that they would help him block Weaver on every play.

"That just ticked Russ off," said Boures, one of those guards. "He came to us and said, 'Don't come near me.' "

Pitt mauled South Carolina, 37-9, in no small part because Grimm smothered Weaver -- without help from his guards.

It's that kind of sense of purpose that Grimm brought to coaching.

"He's from the area, grew up in the area, played ball at Pitt," Mark May said. "He's blue-collar. He was hard-nosed and physical and that's the way he's going to coach."