Steelers Surprised Greg Lloyd Over Thanksgiving Holiday In 1987 With A Reluctant Run In The Rain

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had some of the most fierce and intimidating players ever to walk onto a football field. Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Hines Ward and James Harrison all struck fear in their opponents at one time or another. It is not by a wide margin, but Greg Lloyd, the heart of the defense that found its way to Super Bowl XXX, might be the scariest of them all.

Lloyd played college football for the Fort Valley State Wildcats in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). Lloyd is one of the best players who ever suited up for a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) program. The former Steelers linebacker was a three-time All-SIAC player and a First Team SBN All-American in 1987. Lloyd was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2018.

The former All-Pro linebacker joined the most recent episode of The Eddie Mata Show. The host, Eddie Mata, had done his homework on the five-time Pro Bowl selection and asked about the Steelers' system for scouting HBCUs. Lloyd remembered fondly that Steelers Hall of Fame scout Bill Nunn was responsible for finding most of the Steelers' HBCU players.

“Bill Nunn is directly responsible for that because nobody was going to those black colleges,” Lloyd recalls. “Bill saw a niche there, and I think he kind of got, you know, he got in Coach Noll’s ear.”

Nunn did more than get in Chuck Noll and Dan Rooney’s ears. The organization hired the then-managing editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, who had been solely responsible for selecting the Black College All-American Football Team since 1950 as a scout. It was a huge catalyst for the foundation of one of the greatest football teams ever assembled. Nunn is personally responsible for assembling 3/4s of the Steel Curtain.

“I’ll tell you exactly what happened,” Lloyd continued. “Bill Nunn was the scout along with, at that time, Tom Donahoe, who came and worked me out. Back then, we played in the Black College All-Star Game. It was called the Freedom Bowl. I got the great Eddie Rob [Robinson] as my coach. Come game day, they put me in the middle. I led the team in tackles. Intercept the ball, should have scored, story of my life.”

Lloyd mistakenly remembers The Heritage Bowl. Somebody else should tell him because it should be called whatever Mr. Lloyd thinks it should be. Tom Donahoe later became the Steelers general manager, but at the time, he was one of Nunn's employees in the scouting department. Lloyd remembers that the Steelers sent their defensive coordinator to scout the game. 

"Who was at that game, Tony Dungy," Lloyd said. "Tony Dungy, at the time, was the Steelers defensive coordinator. He had already played for the Steelers. Tony probably said two or three words to me, and that was about it. I'm pretty sure Bill Nunn had sent him there. They weren't just looking at me."

In his Asked and Answered column on Steelers.com on April 29th, 2021, Bob Labriola relates that Donahoe got the tape of the Heritage Bowl and was blown away by Lloyd's performance. He would have conferred with his boss at the time, Nunn, about what he saw on tape. Lloyd remembers that viewing his tape led to an unusual visit from the Steelers soon after, during the Thanksgiving holiday. 

"Scout came down, and he is probably going to be mad at me if he sees this," Lloyd said while struggling to remember the name. "Coach called me, said there is a scout from the Steelers who wants you to run for him. I'm going, 'It's raining outside.' I thought I said it on the inside, but it came out. Coach said, 'Put your own spikes on,' but this a holiday. I'm going call his name Tom Donahoe. He comes out and says, 'You want to run in the rain?' I said, 'If you want me to run in the rain, I'll run in the rain."'

It is hard to believe that in the highly controlled NFL Combine and Pro Day era of 2023, a scout could appear out of the blue on Thanksgiving weekend to work out a prospect. Almost 40 years ago, that is precisely what happened. 

The request might have been unbelievable, but with prospects refusing to run in anything but the most controlled environments in 2023, the response is even more surprising. Lloyd agreed and put on a show for Donahoe that made a lasting impression. 

"I ran on grass. I think the first run was like 4.6 something," Lloyd recalls. "4.6, raining on grass. He goes, 'Has anybody else been here to run you?' No. 'Let's go in the gym.' So, I got to change shoes. Go in the gym, and I run again for him. He looks at me and says, 'Run it again.' I ran it again. I'm too afraid to ask what was my time. I knew at RFK [the Heritage Bowl] I had run like 4.5."

Donahoe reported the results when he returned to Pittsburgh, and in the sixth round of the 1987 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh selected Lloyd. Looking back, imagining him in any other uniform during his prime is hard. Lloyd's nasty streak was the widest on one of the most physical defenses to ever play in the NFL. They rarely get their due since they did not win a championship, but the 1995 Steelers defense carried a team quarterbacked by Neil O'Donnell to the Super Bowl. 

Chad Brown Absolutely Believes Steelers Great Greg Lloyd Should Be In The Hall Of Fame

It was an incredible achievement. The 1995 Steelers offense was not a juggernaut. It was not as impressive as the 1976 defense's run to the AFC Championship game against the then-Oakland Raiders, which saw the offense decimated by injury, but it was close. If you remove the 14 points that O'Donnell gifted to the Dallas Cowboys with terrible interceptions, the Steelers win Super Bowl XXX 17-13 and go down as one of the best defenses in NFL history, and Lloyd is probably already in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. 

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Are you surprised that Lloyd would agree to run in the rain on Thanksgiving for the future general manager of the Steelers? Let me know what you think. Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq. 

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