Mean Joe Greene's Jersey No. 75 Officially Retired
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – With the drop of a curtain, Joe Greene's jersey number 75 was officially retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers line up.
A member of the Steel Curtain and inducted into the Hall of Fame years earlier, Greene was the anchor of the '70s team – a leader and a trailblazer of Steeler football.
"Joe was the building block and the first draft choice Chuck Noll ever drafted," said former teammate Mel Blount. "And he turned out to be a special guy."
"Joe's been our leader, he is our leader," added former teammate John Stallworth. "He's the guy who started it all. He's the inspiration for a lot of the things that we did."
"It means so much to us, means so much to Pittsburgh," said Franco Harris. "He really was the bedrock, the foundation of our '70s team."
The defensive tackle gained the nickname "Mean" Joe Greene for his moves on the field and the name stuck.
"Never did I see myself as mean," Greene said. "It just rhymes with Greene. Whatever action I took on the field was just protection."
It's something fans still appreciate today.
"Without him and Chuck Knoll, the Steelers would never have been a dynasty," said fan Paul Rosenthal of Pittsburgh.
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