The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s have eight players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And some of them say that’s not enough.
There’s a movement afoot to get L.C. Greenwood, a member of the Steel Curtain defensive line who played in Pittsburgh from 1969 to 1981, enshrined in Canton as a seniors committee candidate. Greenwood’s Hall of Fame teammate Mean Joe Greene feels strongly that Greenwood belongs in the Hall.
“I don’t know what my career would have been without him,” Greene told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “He should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame. Bottom line, he’s being cheated.”
Former Steelers linebacker Jack Ham said he thinks there’s a bias against the Steelers among Hall of Fame voters who think they’ve already inducted too many of them.
“I’ve . . . heard people say, ‘What are we gonna do, build a wing out here for all the Steelers from back then?’” Ham said. “I wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame without L.C. and the work he did on the field. The fact that he isn’t in there, too, has everything to do with politics.”
For his part, Greenwood isn’t campaigning for the Hall of Fame, other than saying, “It’s unfortunate.”
We’ve been critical of the Hall of Fame selection process around here, but Greenwood’s approach is the right one: It’s unfortunate that some deserving players haven’t been selected, but saying those players have been “cheated” or blaming “politics” takes us away from having an honest debate about the merits of players like Greenwood.