Product Description

The "Immaculate Reception" may have started it all, but the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers put the stamp on the modern era’s greatest sports dynasty. It’s not even a debate. No other National Football League team in the modern sports era—as defined by Nielson—won so much in so little time. The tag is sure to stay with the Steelers for a long, long time. Fans in Pittsburgh can thank NFL free agency, but only in part. They should really thank the ’79 Steelers for winning a fourth title when, really, the team should not have done so.

The 1979 Steelers were not supposed to win a championship. The Steel Curtain was in decline, and the Houston Oilers were pounding on the door of the AFC. By the end of the season, of course, the banged-up Oilers were not to be feared, not with the San Diego Chargers gathering steam. In the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys could taste revenge, particularly after Steelers coach Chuck Noll had mocked them unmercifully following the previous yearÂ’s Super Bowl. However, the Steelers persevered.

"We probably won it more on desire, football intellect," said Steelers defensive superstar "Mean" Joe Greene. Greene admitted that the defense was in decline. He even admitted his great career was in decline, but he never thought the end of the dynasty was near. Star quarterback Terry Bradshaw, on the other hand, with his career just taking off, knew the end was at hand, and after his greatest season, after his second of back-to-back Super Bowl Most Valuable Player awards, Bradshaw hinted at retirement. "I probably should have," he admits 25 years later.

The 1979 season had exhausted Bradshaw, a topic he talks about in Tales from Behind the Steel Curtain. Greene also has plenty to say. So do their teammates and their coaches, not to mention the scouts, front office and support personnel, media, and fans. They all have tales to tell about the key season of one of the greatest dynasties the sports world has ever seen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539385 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 200 pages

About the Author
Jim Wexell is a journalist who has contributed to publications like Pro Football Weekly, Game Day Magazine, Steelers Digest, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and is a lead writer for SteelCitySports.com. He also handles the Steelers beat for the Uniontown Herald-Standard and the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat and is a member of the Steelers Radio Network in a pregame, postgame, and draft-season capacity.

Customer Reviews

Glory days revisited
Tales from the behind the Steel Curtain is a must read for Steelers fans who still bask in the glory of the 1970s as well younger fans who are interested in learning how the dynasty was built. Jim Wexell's book is written in short stories that makes it easy to read and thoroughly traces the 1979 season - the team's fourth Super Bowl title in an amazing six-year stretch - and the years prior. Some nuggets are how some Steelers scouts believed receiver Frank Lewis was better than Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, but was too shy to tell quarterback Terry Bradshaw to throw him the ball. Steelers coach Chuck Noll wanted to draft Stallworth - a small-college no name whom the team's scouts uncovered - in the first round of the 1974 draft, a draft landed the Steelers four Hall of Famers. It also focuses on the many unique personalities of the team's number of colorful characters, including Dwight White, L.C. Greenwood, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, etc. It's truly a book that will put a smile on the face of any Steelers fan.

Must-Have for 70s Steeler Fans
The author has a fast paced style in which he covers topics quickly and includes events and observations not strictly limited to the 79 Steelers. Not much depth on most subjects, however the Steelers poor drafting after the 74 bonanza is covered well (the 79 first round pick, Greg Hawthorne, had to resort to wearing pantyhose to avoid leg injuries later in his career w/Patriots, Wexell didn't metnion this). I like his writing style, covering so many players and topics make this a great book to reread in a couple of years.
Offensive lineman Steve Courson died when a tree fell on him in Nov 2005, his struggles with steriods-caused heart failure is mentioned here.
Chuck Noll's poor overall handling of Bradshaw is briefly mentioned, has been speculated they might have squeezed out one more Super Bowl win if Noll had been more responsive to the clinically depressed Bradshaw (his depression discussed in book). During the last half of the 80s Bradshaw said if he had been treated better he would not have retired after 83. Was surprised Lambert and others smoked.
Homeless, punch-drunk from football-related injuries to the head and dead from heart attack in his early 50s, Mike Webster,the workaholic center, barely mentioned. Defensive lineman Steve Furness also dead from a heart attack in his early 50s after being fired (and blacklisted?) by current Steeler Head Coach Cowher back in 94.
Even casual football fans, esp. in their 50s, will delight in this needed book.

Fitting tribute to the end of the Curtain
The Steelers made their Curtain call on the NFL in 1979, and Jim Wexell's impressive, fast-moving chronicle of that season recalls the anecdotes (L.C. Greenwood's disdain for weight-lifting among the more interesting) while delivering a healthy amount of background on players you've long since forgotten about. Strengths are the candid interviews with the anonymous faces who ran the hugely successful drafts of the early 70s, explaining how they found guys like Stallworth and missed guys like Montana and Marino. Also, the quick-read vignette format is a big plus. Many players and coaches tell it like it was, but some obviously have been interviewed many times before and offer little here beyond cliched coachspeak. Weekly accounts of the games could be a bit beefier. But because it's such a fast read and contains so much background on long-forgotten role players, it belongs on the coffee table of anyone who lived and died with this team every Sunday in the '70s. Merits a 4.5-star rating, rounding up here.