Second in an ongoing series looking back at Chuck Noll’s first season with the Steelers

Before the 1969 season, the Steelers welcomed two newbies to Pittsburgh who would go on to shape the franchise’s bright future.

Not only was that Chuck Noll’s first year as the Steelers’ head coach, but it also happened to be legendary defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene’s first season in Pittsburgh too. The two would eventually play major roles in four of the team’s six Super Bowl victories.

But there was a brief moment in the summer of ’69 when Greene and the Steelers were locked in a contract dispute that threatened to turn nasty.

Pittsburgh took Greene fourth overall out of North Texas in that year’s draft. That was the draft in which the Buffalo Bills used their No. 1 overall pick to take an ultra-talented running back out of USC named O.J. Simpson.

Training camp that year began on July 16. Almost two weeks into practices, Greene and the Steelers still hadn’t come to terms on his rookie deal.

Pittsburgh Press reporting from July 29, 1969, framed the standoff as a giant flex by Greene’s agent Bucky Woy.

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