Steelers Center Ray Mansfield Called Rookie Joe Greene Fat In 1969 And The Brutal Beating That Followed Gave Birth To A Dynasty

The Pittsburgh Steelers franchise was a joke in 1969. They had only appeared in one playoff game in the history of the NFL and they were shut out 21-0 in that game by the Philadelphia Eagles. They were a physical bunch who had occasionally had above-average teams, but they could not get over the hump. Art Rooney turned to his son Dan Rooney and a Sid Gillman disciple Chuck Noll to transform the long-suffering franchise that year and things started to change.

Noll and Rooney were important figures in the transition of the Steelers into a powerhouse and one of the first moves they made was to hire future Hall of Fame scout Bill Nunn who was a journalist for the Pittsburgh Courier. The trio agreed on philosophy and worked closely together to begin assembling a football team that could compete for championships. They would add Dick Haley to the group in 1971 and the quartet would build a juggernaut together. 

The Steelers set out to build a dominant defensive line that would take the NFL by storm and become the foundation of the team of the 1970s. It began with Joe Greene as the first draft pick of the new regime from a small school in Texas, the North Texas Mean Green. Greene was a three-time All-American defensive tackle that had transformed the Missouri Valley Conference into the home of one of the best-rushing defenses in college football.

OJ Simpson garnered most of the attention in the upcoming NFL Draft, but that season saw the Steelers who had the fourth pick decided to select the three-time All-American Greene. Despite his credentials, the pick was met with skepticism in Pittsburgh. The city was accustomed to the Steelers bumbling and no one saw a defensive tackle from a small Texas college as the cornerstone of one of the greatest dynasties in sports history. The relationship started on a sour note when Greene held out, which was unheard of in 1969. The Rooney family eventually agreed to his terms, and he reported to Latrobe, PA.

The Steelers roster was about to undergo a massive change but the veterans in camp did not know it yet. Noll was at the beginning of his tenure and still had to field a team, despite his knowledge that most of the players in camp were not up to his standards. Very few players from that version of the Steelers made it to the first division title team in 1972, but one who did center Ray Mansfield was about to help change the culture in Pittsburgh forever.

Mansfield and the other veterans resented the upstart rookie who had held out for more money and they were eager to teach him a lesson. The Steelers may not have won many games before Noll arrived, but they did carry a bruising reputation around the NFL. The legendary head coach brought what would become a signature of the 1970s Steelers training camps, the Oklahoma drill to Pittsburgh and Mansfield saw it as an opportunity to teach Greene who had reported to camp overweight a lesson.

“To me, he is just another big fat butted defensive tackle,” Mansfield bragged to his teammates.

The whistle blew to begin the drill and Greene raised his left arm and sent Mansfield flying. It was a seminal moment in Steelers history. Greene stayed in the drill and repeated the performance against multiple offensive linemen who had snickered at Mansfield’s ill-timed comments. Dick Hoak who was a former Pro Bowl running back said that the other defensive linemen on the team began to discuss packing their bags because they knew that their days were numbered after the performance.

Mansfield was no slouch; he was the Steelers' starting center for ten seasons and one of the few incumbent players that Noll kept on the roster. The veteran center stuck around long enough for him to win the first of two Super Bowls for the Steelers. Mansfield started virtually every game for the Steelers until he retired after Super Bowl X. 

The brutal beating that Greene administered to Mansfield and the rest of the offensive line sent shockwaves to the very core of the men in black and gold. The Steelers' best defensive player at the time was Andy Russell who despite being on 4 All-Pro teams and making the Pro Bowl seven times in 12 seasons is not in the Hall of Fame, recalled how the performance affected the Steelers and his teammates.

“Everything changed,” Russell recalled about the moment. “Joe’s first year, I didn’t see how the emotionalism could be real. He’s the only guy I know, he can be playing a great game himself but if the team is losing, he gets into a terrible depression.”

The Cornerstone Of The Steelers Dynasty Joe Greene Snubbed On NFL List Of Greatest Players In Super Bowl History

The Steelers suffered in 1969 and went 1-13 during Greene’s rookie season but like any good dynasty, it was not built in a day. The 1969 draft had brought another piece of what would become the foundation of the greatest defense in NFL history, the Steel Curtain. A terrifying front four was assembled over the next three years that dominated football for a decade. LC Greenwood joined Greene in the 1969 draft class and after that the Steelers drafted Ernie Holmes in 1970 and Dwight White in 1971 and the transformation of the team was complete.

The Steelers won their first division title the next season in 1972 and their first playoff game. By the end of Greene’s career in 1981 the Steel Curtain had helped amass four Super Bowl titles and a place in history that will never be supplanted. The Steelers have only had seven losing seasons since they finally broke through and won a playoff game behind Greene and dropped the Steel Curtain on an unsuspecting NFL.

Decades later, they are the model of success that is unmatched in all of professional sports. It all started on a practice field in Latrobe with a young defensive lineman beating competitive fire into a moribund franchise thanks to a loud-mouthed teammate who lit the match.