The Pittsburgh Steelers will hold a press conference on Friday morning to announce Omar Khan as the Steelers new General Manager. Since the 'unofficial' news of his hiring, the Steelers have added two more pieces to their front office room. Pittsburgh native Andy Weidl, and former Detroit Lions executive Sheldon White are also reportedly joining his staff.
New Steelers' GM Omar Khan celebrates the Super Bowl XLIII victory with Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert, and Dan Rooney (photo via diez.hn)
There is a time in Steelers history that should be known as the time before Joe Greene, because during that time the Steelers were awful. They couldn't get out of their own way on the field. Then came Greene in 1969. The headlines of the local papers said 'Joe Who?' because many hadn't heard of him from North Texas University. Once he was in Pittsburgh, things changed. He wouldn't take losing and didn't allow it to continue. From there, Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert, Franco Harris, and Mel Blount would arrive.
After retiring from the NFL, Greene spent time as a coach, and a scout. Spending a lot of time helping the Steelers to rebuild in the 90's and then eventually win two Super Bowls in the 2000's before he finally retired. But his voice still carries a lot of power with the team even in retirement.
Today during an interview with Missi Matthews, she asked Khan what some of the lessons were that he had learned from outgoing General Manager Kevin Colbert. This is what he said:
"The approach here has always been you build around the draft, and that's not going to change here. Obviously, I have some ideas that I'm going to put in place, but that approach will never change. The other thing he always said is when Joe Green speaks, you listen, and I'm always going to remember that."
And last year, Greene spoke. And he didn't have anything good to say about his Steelers after watching them get shredded on national television by the Minnesota Vikings.
“In all the years that I’ve been watching my team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the black and gold, Thursday night, that first half, was probably the saddest day I’ve had in all my years playing and all of my years since my retirement of watching the Steelers play,” Greene said. “That was a poor, poor example of the black and gold.”
Then he called out Chase Claypool for costing the Steelers valuable seconds late in the game as they attempted a game winning drive. After catching a pass for a first down, Claypool got up slowly and celebrated his reception instead of handing the ball to the referee and getting back to the line.
“Hey man, I thought you were more educated — didn’t you go to Notre Dame?” Greene said. “Why are you playing this game: for you to show your butt, or to win the game?”
Hopefully Greene won't need to speak out in 2022. But it's a good thing that Khan understands that he needs to listen to the legends of the past. They know what it means to be a Pittsburgh Steeler.
