The recent long overdue selection of Jerome Bettis to the NFL Hall of Fame brought me back to an old question? Why isn’t L.C. Greenwood in the Hall of Fame?
I’m not overlooking the fact that the Hall voters finally selected a player that should have been an automatic after his five years of retirement was up in Bettis. We all know that he deserves to be in the Hall. He earned the right as one of the greatest power backs in NFL history. But he suffered from the same problem that Greenwood suffered. The Hall voters are reluctant to vote in a Steeler because there’s so many already in the Hall. I would think that would be expected because of the fact the Steelers have more Super Bowl trophies (six) than any other team and they have been to the big dance (along with the Dallas Cowboys) more than any other team, eight times. So it stands to reason they should have more players selected to the Hall of Fame.
During the 1970s the Steelers put together the greatest defensive team in the history of the NFL, led by Mean Joe Greene, the greatest defensive player ever to played the game. And that team has several Hall of Famers; Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount and of course Joe Greene. But the second greatest player on that unit was not Jack Lambert, not Jack Ham, not Mel Blount, not Andy Russell. It was L.C. Greenwood.
Many of the things Greene was able to do he couldn’t have without the great L.C. next to him. They formed half of the greatest defensive line ever. The other two members of the Steel Curtain were Dwight White and Ernie Holmes.
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