Jack Lambert

[Don Wassall]

Since it's Super Bowl Day, I'd like to harken back to those fabled days of yore and post Jack Lambert highlights.

Lambert was 6'5" and just 218 pounds but hit like a freight train. He was fearless and ferocious, and missing his front teeth made him look even more menacing on the field. In the locker room before games his legs would be going up and down like pistons as he had so much energy and couldn't wait to start hitting opponents. Joe Greene usually gets the most accolades when it comes to the Steelers' Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s teams, but Lambert was just as much its heart and soul. He played just 10 full seasons and made the Pro Bowl in 9 of them, 6 times on the first team. He retired early in the '84 season after being unable to shake a severe and recurring case of turf toe.

Lambert was born and raised in Ohio and went to Kent State, but after his NFL career he bought some land in rural Armstrong County some 60 miles north of Pittsburgh and keeps to himself, hunting and fishing and rarely making any public appearances. Back when he was playing, he reported to training camp one year with a bumpersticker on his pickup truck that read "This vehicle doesn't brake for liberals."

Jack Lambert always appears on the lists of all-time best linebackers. I'd put him behind only Dick Butkus while admitting I have Steelers bias from watching those great teams of the '70s.

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[Carolina Speed]

Don, that's great information on Lambert. Those 70's Steeler teams were great! At one time I could name the starters on those 70's Steeler teams that won 4 Super Bowls beating my Cowboys twice in 76/79.
Dallas went to five Super Bowls in the 70's, but won only two. 72/78. although Roger Staubach is my favorite player, Dallas DT Randy White is probably my second favorite player. Did you know he was born in Pittsburgh? He played college at Maryland of all places. His nickname was Manster. Part man part monster. He shared the Super Bowl MVP with Harvey Martin in the 1978 Super Bowl. White is also in The Pro Football HOF.

 

[Don Wassall]

Randy White certainly was a Manster all right. Lots of great players on the Cowboys during the '70s, same as the Steelers. In fact, the Cowboys had great players by the time they began making the playoffs after starting off as an expansion team. They gave the Packers a run for their money in the '60s before starting to win Super Bowls in the '70s. They had a long, long run of success before the current prolonged drought.

Another team with no shortage of great players in the 1970s was the Oakland Raiders when John Madden was their coach. The rivalry they had with the Steelers was something else, lots of genuine hatred and knockouts on the field. And I knew that even when the Steelers got by the Raiders only to face the Cowboys in the Super Bowl it was going to be another big time battle, as Roger Staubach was a great QB and clutch as they came.

I'm sure there's bias in my opinion, being young at the time and watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl four times in six years, but I'll always believe the NFL was at its best during the 1970s, led by the Steelers, Cowboys and Raiders. It was still fairly racially balanced, too, with Whites still playing all positions and often times starring at them.