Thursday, 21 November 2024

Joe Greene

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Athletes 2024
Embed from Getty Images
Sport(s): Football
Statistics: 4 Super Bowl Champion (IX, X, XIII & XIV)
2 Defensive Player of the Year Awards (1972 & 1974)
4 First Team All-Pro Selections (1972, 1973, 1974 & 1977)
10 Pro Bowls (1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978 & 1979)
1 Man of the Year Award (1979)
1-Time All-American (1968)
Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Member of the College Football Hall of Fame
Number retired by the Pittsburgh Steelers
Number retired by North Texas University
Named to the 1970s All-Decade Team
Named to the NFL 75th Anniversary Team
Named to the NFL 100th Anniversary Team
There was no more loaded football team in the 1970s than the Pittsburgh Steelers, who yielded double-digit numbers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As legendary as they were, someone has to be considered the best. That man was "Mean" Joe Greene.

The Steelers had been around for decades, but they were never contenders. The arrival of Greene in 1969 was the piece they built the team around, and the defensive tackle would be the centerpiece of Pittsburgh's famed "Steel Curtain," the defense that was the best in football.

Greene won two defensive player of the year awards, but more importantly, he was the anchor of a dynasty that won four Super Bowls in the decade. This decade of dominance never happens if the Steelers did not draft Greene.

We are proud to nominate Joe Greene for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.

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