TVC 't Hoekske

yyys123 · Newbie Geregistreerd op: 08 Jul 2019 Berichten: 840

PITTSBURGH -- Chuck Noll, the Hall of Fame coach who won a record four Super Bowl titles with the Pittsburgh Steelers, died Friday night at his home. He was 82. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner said Noll died of natural causes. Noll transformed the Steelers from a long-standing joke into one of the NFLs pre-eminent powers, becoming the only coach to win four Super Bowls. He was a demanding figure who did not make close friends with his players, yet was a successful and motivating leader. The Steelers won the four Super Bowls over six seasons (1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979), an unprecedented run that made Pittsburgh one of the NFLs marquee franchises, one that breathed life into a struggling, blue-collar city. "He was one of the great coaches of the game," Steelers owner Dan Rooney once said. "He ranks up there with (George) Halas, (Tom) Landry and (Curly) Lambeau." Nolls 16-8 record in post-season play remains one of the best in league history. He retired in 1991 with a 209-156-1 record in 23 seasons, after inheriting a team that had never won a post-season game. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993. Noll worked so well with Steelers President Rooney that the team never felt the need to have a general manager. When he retired, and was replaced by Bill Cowher, only four other coaches or managers in modern U.S. pro sports history had run their teams longer than Noll had. "Chuck Noll is the best thing that happened to the Rooneys since they got on the boat (to America) in Ireland," Art Rooney II, the former Steelers personnel chief and the son of the team founder, once said. A former messenger guard for his hometown Cleveland Browns who earned the nicknamed Knute Knowledge -- as in Knute Rockne -- Noll was an assistant with the San Diego Chargers and Baltimore Colts for nine seasons. Then he accepted what seemed a dead-end job in January 1969 as coach of the NFLs least-successful organization. Art Rooney Sr. often hired friends and cronies as coaches, and only two of the Steelers first 13 coaches had winning records. At the time Noll took over, the franchise was 105 games below .500 in its history. Noll, hired only after Penn States Joe Paterno turned down a $350,000, five-year offer, was different from any Steelers coach before him. He immediately brought intelligence, toughness, stability, confidence, character and a can-do mindset to a franchise accustomed to constant upheaval and ever-changing personnel. Asked at his first news conference if his goal was to make the Steelers respectable, Noll said, "Respectability? Who wants to be respectable? Thats spoken like a true loser." Perhaps not the most colorful coach behind the microphone, Noll could often be counted on for memorable, motivational one-liners that became rallying cries. Phrases like "A life of frustration is inevitable for any coach whose main enjoyment is winning," and "Before you can win a game, you have to not lose it," and "The thrill isnt in the winning, its in the doing," spoke volumes about what Noll was trying to accomplish. They went over well in a football-crazed region of Pennsylvania. The day after Noll was hired, the Steelers drafted defensive lineman Joe Greene. He was the first of the nine Hall of Famers selected during the Noll era. Four of the others were drafted within Nolls first four seasons: Terry Bradshaw, Mel Blount, Jack Ham and Franco Harris. Four more arrived in the first five rounds of the 1974 draft: Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster. And the 1971 draft, though it produced only one Hall of Famer (Ham), generated seven starters. While the Steelers surprisingly won their opener under Noll in 1969, beating Detroit, they lost their final 13 games that season, and their first three in 1970. By then, some were questioning Nolls hiring. The Steelers turnaround began in earnest in 1970, the year they moved into the AFC after the NFL and AFL merged. They drafted Bradshaw with the No. 1 pick, moved into Three Rivers Stadium after years of being a secondhand tenant of Pitt Stadium and Forbes Field. They won five of eight during one stretch. By 1972, the year Harris arrived to give them the ground game Noll sought, they were championship contenders with an 11-3 record and a weve-turned-the-corner attitude. Noll had long since run off underachievers and pushed the Rooneys to bring in the players he wanted. "Hell argue a point with you and keep yelling, No, this is right, youre wrong," Dan Rooney said. "Sometimes you have to say, This is the way were going to do it." The first traditional playoff game in Steelers history on Dec. 23, 1972, also signalled what was to come. The Steelers were in control of the John Madden-coached Raiders most of the game, until quarterback Ken Stabler scored in the final two minutes to put Oakland up 7-6. With the Steelers down to fourth-and-10 on their side of the field, Bradshaw lofted a pass downfield intended for Frenchy Fuqua. As Fuqua and safety Jack Tatum converged on the ball, it bounded high in the air for what looked to be a certain incompletion. Instead, Harris, trailing on the play, caught the ball nearly at his shoe tops and raced into the end zone for an improbable touchdown. The play would quickly become known as the "Immaculate Reception." Nolls Steelers did not win the Super Bowl that season -- they lost to unbeaten Miami on a fake punt in the AFC title game. But, with their roster completed by their remarkable 1974 draft, they finally became NFL champions and did it three more times by January 1980. Still, Nolls best team might have been in 1976, when the Steelers rebounded from a 1-4 start to go 10-4 -- even with Bradshaw injured and out most of the season -- by playing the greatest stretch of defence in NFL history. The Steel Curtain shut out five of their final nine opponents while yielding only 28 points. At one point, they didnt allow a touchdown for 22 quarters. However, Harris and Rocky Bleier, 1,000-yard rushers that season, were injured in a playoff game against Baltimore. Without a running game, they lost the AFC title to Oakland. A year later, Noll wound up in a federal court trial. He accused Raiders defensive back George Atkinson, who had levelled Swann with a brutal hit the season before, of being part of the NFLs "criminal element." Noll prevailed, but there were hard feelings when, under oath, he included Blount as also being part of that criminal element. The Steelers went 9-5 that season, but rebounded to win the championship in the 1978 and 1979 seasons. When all the talent began to retire, the championships ended. Great drafts gave way to poor ones. The Steelers won only two playoff games and no conference championships in Nolls final 12 seasons, missing the post-season eight times. Noll never was much of a yeller or screamer, though he had his moments. He confronted Oilers coach Jerry Glanville at midfield and warned him about the teams borderline-legal blocking techniques. "He didnt feel like it was his job to motivate," Bleier said. "It was his job to take motivated people and give them a direction and get the job done." When he retired, Noll always said he would never coach another team and he didnt. In 2007, the football field at St. Vincent College, the Steelers longtime training camp home in Latrobe, was named for Noll, even though he played at and graduated from Dayton. Born in Cleveland, Noll attended Benedictine High School, where he played running back and tackle, winning All-State honours, before gaining a scholarship to play for the Flyers. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburghs biggest, most traditional rival, in 1953. At 27, he retired as a player from the Browns in 1959. Vincent Lecavalier Lightning Jersey . With a win tonight, Buehrle will match Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka for the most wins in the majors with 11. Buehrle is 10-4 with a 2.32 earned run average, but has lost his last three starts, including a 7-3 setback at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday. Nikita Kucherov Jersey . Al Horford said all he had to do was make the catch near the basket and then shoot a soft jumper. http://www.lightninghockeystore.us/Ryan-Callahan-Jersey/ .And although FIFAs investigators are preparing to release the findings of a World Cup corruption probe, Hassan Al Thawadi dismissed any chance of Qatar losing the showpiece event. Andrei Vasilevskiy Lightning Jersey . "Today was a very great day for me. It was always my dream to be good in GS," Wierather said. "I took quite a long time to get there. It feels awesome to have my first win (in GS)." Wierather leads overall with 595 points from Lara Gut (568), who finished second, and Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany (535). Nikita Kucherov Lightning Jersey . -- Even as Chris Paul remained evasive about his future, he did what team leaders are expected to do.After one of the greatest offensive halves in league history, the San Antonio Spurs will try to put a stranglehold on the NBA Finals when they visit AmericanAirlines Arena for Game 4 against the Miami Heat. You can watch the game live on TSN and TSN GO at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt. or listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1050 Toronto and TSN Radio 1260 Edmonton. The Spurs shot a Finals record 75.8 percent from the floor in the first half in Tuesdays Game 3. They blitzed the Heat during that first 24 minutes, building a 25-point lead at one point and posting a 111-92 victory. San Antonio registered 41 first-quarter points and led 71-50 after the first half. The Heat stormed back a bit in the third, but the Spurs were too much. They reclaimed homecourt advantage and snapped Miamis 11-game home winning streak in the postseason dating back to Game 1 of last years Finals. "We think we can win on every court. We have the best record on the road, and we love playing on the road. Sometimes I feel like we play better on the road than at home," Spurs guard Tony Parker said after practice on Wednesday. "So I dont think we had doubts that we can win in Miami. Now we realized it was a crazy game and were not going to play like that every night, thats for sure. But hopefully we can keep playing well." Kawhi Leonard was the hero for the Spurs on Tuesday with a career-high 29 points. Leonard, who had scored just 18 points over the first two games of the Finals, shot 10-of-13 from the floor and went 6-of-7 from the free throw line for the Spurs. "I was focused on both ends the first two games. I just got in some foul trouble. Wasnt really able to get into a rhythm, and Heat did a good job by playing aggressive on defense," said Leonard. "I just made shots last minute." In addition to his offensive output, Leonard served as the primary defender against LeBron James, who supplied 22 points, seven assists, five rebounds and five steals, but committed seven of Miamis 20 turnovers in the setback. Danny Greeen added 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor, while Parker and Tim Duncan contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively, in the victory.dddddddddddd Spurs coach Gregg Popovich made a change to the starting lineup prior to Game 3, inserting Boris Diaw for Tiago Splitter. The decision paid off as Diaw didnt post flashy numbers (nine points, three assists), but he helped facilitate the offense. For the Heat, the loss was bad and ruined a chance at a perfect home record during the postseason, but all is not lost. Miami is 13-0 following a loss in the playoffs dating back to 2012. "Youre always on edge in the postseason, but I dont want to be concerned at this point," James said after practice on Wednesday. "For us we have to make the adjustments. We owned what we had to do today in the film session and well come in with a better mindset tomorrow. But that doesnt mean it results in a win, too. But we have to play with a little bit more focus and a little bit more challenge." Dwyane Wade finished with 22 points, while Rashard Lewis went 4-of-5 from 3- point range en route to 14 points for the Heat. Wade, playing in his 150th career postseason game, surpassed Dirk Nowitzki (3,455) for 17th place on the NBAs all-time postseason scoring list. Chris Bosh had a slow night with only nine points thanks to just 12 touches. Mario Chalmers continued to struggle badly. He finished with just two points and has 10 for the whole series. "You want him to know we still have faith in him, trust in him and we need him," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on Wednesday. "And hes been able to play through tough times and been able to bounce back." Spoelstra indicated no lineup changes were forthcoming. The winner of Game 3 of a tied NBA Finals series has gone on to win the series 83 percent of the time (30-6). However, the Spurs won last years Game 3 with the set tied 1-1 and went on to lose in seven games to the Heat. Game 5 will be Sunday night back in San Antonio. ' ' '