An Equation That Explains the Steelers’ History with Quarterbacks

Quarterback is the most important position in all of sports, as the Steelers’ history can attest. The franchise won four Super Bowls with Terry Bradshaw but did not capture the elusive one for the thumb until 25 years and 13 different starting quarterbacks after winning it all in 1979.

Nothing better sums up the Steelers’ star-crossed history at the position than this equation: JC+DR–DM=BR. Its origins trace back to the spring of 1983 when Bradshaw was nearing retirement and, in fact, had just eight NFL passes left in his right arm. The Steelers were in a position to take his successor in the 1983 NFL draft, ballyhooed for its quarterbacks, especially after Dan Marino started to free fall.

Marino was already a Pittsburgh legend at that point, having starred at Central Catholic and then Pitt. A senior season that did not match the brilliance of his junior campaign, when Marino led the country with 34 touchdown passes and finished fourth in Heisman Trophy balloting, resulted in five quarterbacks getting drafted ahead of him.

The Steelers, in hindsight, should have sprinted their first pick to the podium at New York Sheraton Hotel with Marino still available at No. 21 overall. And they might have, had team president Dan Rooney not been so honest. Rooney, as he recalled in his eponymous autobiography, bumped into Pittsburgh Press sportswriter John Clayton at Three Rivers Stadium before the Steelers made their first pick. Clayton, now with ESPN, told Rooney that the Steelers should trade quarterback Cliff Stoudt for a second-round pick and use their first selection on Marino. Rooney loved the idea. So did Chuck Noll, Art Rooney Jr., and Dick Haley—until they asked how he had come up with it.

When Rooney told them the truth they waved him off. The Steelers taking draft advice from a sportswriter? Yeah, right. They instead drafted Texas Tech defensive tackle Gabe Rivera, whose career ended tragically his rookie season when a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. “We could have drafted Marino, and I believe if we had we would have won more Super Bowls in the 1980s,” Rooney wrote in Dan Rooney: My 75 Years With The Pittsburgh Steelers and The NFL.

Memories of what could have been led Rooney to be proactive two decades later when the Steelers found themselves at another critical juncture involving a quarterback. The Steelers were coming off a 6–10 season and picking 11th overall in the 2004 draft. Eli Manning and Philip Rivers went first and fourth—and were promptly swapped in a trade between the Giants and Chargers. That caused the Steelers to turn their focus to Arkansas offensive tackle Shawn Andrews a season after they had averaged just 3.3 yards per carry, still their lowest in a season since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

The Steelers were intrigued by Ben Roethlisberger, who had the size and arm that NFL teams covet, but not the polish of Manning and Rivers after starting just two seasons at Miami (Ohio). When final discussions started on whom the Steelers should take first in the draft Rooney said in his book that he helped “steer” the conversation to Roethlisberger. The Steelers ending up taking Roethlisberger over Andrews, a selection that proved to be a crucial for an organization that had played in just one Super Bowl since the 1970s.

What might have been after Clayton broached Rooney with his Marino idea played a significant part in the Steelers drafting Roethlisberger. Hence, the aforementioned equation.

The intrigue when it comes to quarterbacks and the Steelers goes back a lot farther than Roethlisberger and Marino.

The Steelers selected a flat-topped quarterback by the name of Johnny Unitas in the ninth round of the 1955 draft after Rooney pushed for it even though the team had a glut of quarterbacks. Rooney knew Unitas—or at least his game—well. The two had been star high school quarterbacks at the same time and Unitas had, in fact, beaten out Rooney for a spot on the Pittsburgh’s All-Catholic League first team in 1950. Rooney had always been intrigued with Unitas and he correctly surmised that the Steelers stole him in the draft following a productive career at Louisville.

Unitas never got much of a look from the Steelers in his only training camp with the team in large part because of coach Walt Kiesling.

Kiesling favored veterans over rookies and he scoffed at Unitas’ slight stature and also questioned whether he had the smarts to run an NFL offense. Kiesling’s stance left Dan Rooney in a delicate situation. He considered Kiesling a mentor who taught him more than anyone about the game at the pro level. He was also only 23 years old at the time the Steelers drafted Unitas, adding to the difficulty of challenging the well-established Kiesling. But Rooney and his four brothers, particularly Tim, felt so strongly about Unitas that they lobbied on his behalf to their father. The elder Rooney refused to undercut his head coach and the Steelers released Unitas after their final preseason game in 1955.

Unitas spent a year playing semi-pro football for a Pittsburgh team and working at a steel mill. A letter-writing campaign that Unitas started in hopes of getting a legitimate shot in the NFL finally paid off when the Baltimore Colts signed him as a backup. An injury to Colts starter George Shaw early in the 1956 season provided the only opening Unitas would need. He proceeded to author an epic career in which he made 10 Pro Bowls, won four NFL MVP Awards, and led the Colts to a world championship in 1958 and a Super Bowl title in 1971.

The 1958 overtime win over the Giants came in a nationally televised game and put pro football on a course to becoming a billion-dollar industry as well as the most popular sport in America. “In my mind, he’s by far the greatest quarterback in football history,” Rooney wrote in his autobiography.

Another QB Who Shined After Getting Overlooked by the Steelers

Johnny Unitas isn’t the only Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback that the Steelers let get away. Two years after drafting Unitas, the Steelers took Purdue star Len Dawson with the fifth overall pick of the 1957 NFL draft. He didn’t play much as a rookie and became expendable when the Steelers traded for Bobby Layne, another future Hall of Famer, in 1958. They dealt Dawson to the Browns after the 1959 season—he threw just 17 career passes for the Steelers—but he didn’t become a star until he signed with the Dallas Texans of the AFL in 1962. Dawson emerged as one of the game’s top quarterbacks in Dallas and became a legend in Kansas City after the team relocated there and changed its nickname to the Chiefs. He won MVP honors in Super Bowl IV after leading Kansas City to a 23–7 upset of Minnesota.