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Joe Starkey: Introducing the 'Stackers' -- a combined team of Steelers and Green Bay Packers greats

Joe Starkey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on

Published in Football

PITTSBURGH — Two of the NFL's flagship franchises take the field Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium. Fittingly, both lead their divisions.

The Green Bay Packers have won more championships (13) and games (814) than any team in NFL history. The Steelers are tied for the most Super Bowl wins (six) and conference titles (11) and own the fourth-most wins (685).

Only the Chicago Bears have more Hall of Famers (41) than the Packers (36) and Steelers (32). Only the San Francisco 49ers have more playoff wins (39) than either — and that's with the Steelers mired in their longest playoff-win drought in some 60 years.

All of which got me to thinking: What if you combined the greatest of greats from each franchise's history and formed one team?

We had a combination Steelers/Eagles team in 1943, unfortunately called the "Steagles." Why can't we make another combo team and call it the Stackers — and believe me, this team is stacked.

We can, of course, and we will.

Let's get to it (if I forgot anyone, please email Brian Batko) ...

Coach: Curly Lambeau (Packers)

Here I was fretting between Vince Lombardi (there's a trophy named after him ) and Chuck Noll (4-0 in Super Bowls) when I realized there is quite unbelievably a better choice. Lambeau (there's a stadium named after him) won six championships and is basically the Packers' Mario Lemieux.

Which is to say, they wouldn't exist without him.

Yes, it took him 33 years to win those six titles, but that's still the tie-breaker here.

Lambeau also might have been the busiest man in NFL history. He co-founded the Packers in 1919, starred as a player (becoming the team's leading rusher and passer and part-time kicker), became a player/coach/GM, basically kept the franchise afloat, and somewhere in there found time to coach a local high school team (while he was playing) and get married three times. I hope they had energy drinks back then.

Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers (Packers/Steelers)

Was there a bad choice here? Among Rodgers, Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Brett Favre and Ben Roethlisberger, we have 13 championships and 10 league MVP awards, with Rodgers owning four of them. I have to believe, not having seen Starr play live, that Rodgers was simply the best player of the five.

I'm imagining it's sacrilege to choose Rodgers over Starr and maybe Favre in Green Bay, and I guess I apologize for that. I realize Rodgers only has one championship to his name, but he was pretty darn great against an elite Steelers defense that night. Plus, he has now played for both franchises. That has to count for something, as does withstanding a furious insult barrage from Bradshaw.

You might recall Bradshaw not being a fan of the Steelers' pursuit of Rodgers.

"That to me is just a joke," Bradshaw said in May. "What are you gonna do, bring him in for one year? Are you kidding me? That guy needs to stay in California. Go somewhere and chew on bark and whisper to the gods out there."

Rodgers calmly replied, a few months later: "I'd love to get to know Terry on a deeper level, if he's open to it. Maybe we can go chew some bark or whatever the hell he's talking about."

Running backs: Franco Harris (Steelers), Jim Taylor (Packers)

Apologies to Jerome Bettis, Paul Hornung and others, but Franco was maybe the best big-game back of all time, and Taylor was the league MVP in 1962. I'm also pleased to add that Packers star John Brockington was one of my first childhood heroes, not just because he was really good but because he absolutely craved contact on every carry.

Wide receivers: Antonio Brown (Steelers), Don Hutson (Packers)

OK, now we have set the internet aflame, but is this really all that controversial? After Jerry Rice and Randy Moss, who's honestly a better receiver than Antonio Brown? It wasn't ideal that he blatantly quit the team and lost his mind (not necessarily in that order) and never won a Super Bowl with the Steelers, but if I'm putting my best club on the field, he's playing, even over the likes of Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Sterling Sharpe, Davante Adams and Hines Ward (and that one really hurts).

All you need to know about Hutson is that he was named first-team All-Pro eight consecutive times. There are four players in league history with more such nominations: Rice and three offensive linemen — Jim Otto, Anthony Munoz and Ron Mix.

Tight end: Heath Miller (Steelers)/Paul Coffman (Packers)

Surprisingly, neither franchise has a Hall of Fame-caliber tight end. So like the team itself, we'll combine the tight ends — Heath Coffman, anyone? — since they were basically the same player. Miller caught 45 touchdown passes, Coffman 42.

Guards: Alan Faneca (Steelers), Jerry Kramer (Packers)

Oh my. Imagine being a cornerback seeing one of these two monsters turning the corner. Among their many accolades, each had a rather iconic block — Faneca sprung Willie Parker for the longest touchdown run (75 yards) in Super Bowl history; Kramer cleared the path for Starr's fabled sneak that won the "Ice Bowl."

Center: Mike Webster (Steelers)

This was hardly an easy choice. Packers great Jim Ringo and Steelers great Dermontti Dawson both had more first-team All-Pro appearances (six) than Webster (five). Webster, however, was a member of All-Decade teams from the 1970s and '80s — and the anchor of the Steelers dynasty.

 

Tackles: Forrest Gregg (Packers), Cal Hubbard (Packers)

Gregg needs no endorsement from me. Deacon Jones called him the best lineman he ever faced. Hubbard was the best of the rest, or so I'm told. Also of note, Hubbard played at Geneva College and played for the Steelers back when they were known as the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936 (accounting for inflation, he probably made more that year than Bob Nutting pays any of the current Pirates, too).

That's a pretty good offense, but now we get to the strength of our team — and please note that I'm going with three down linemen and four linebackers because I don't want to anger Jack Lambert and certainly would not have wanted to anger one of Lambert's all-time favorite players — Raymond Ernest Nitschke, whose nickname was "Wildman."

Defensive line: Joe Greene (Steelers), Reggie White (Packers), Henry Jordan (Packers)

Somebody call for help. Can you imagine Greene and White on the same line? If you're making a list of the 10 most destructive players in the history of the league, they're on it. Maybe a list of five. Maybe even a list of two.

Jordan, a member of the NFL's 75th anniversary team, emerged from a pack of other candidates, including Willie Davis, Ernie Stautner, Cam Heyward, Gilbert Brown and L.C. Greenwood — and he also authored an all-time NFL quote:

"Lombardi treats us all the same, like dogs."

Outside linebackers: Jack Ham (Steelers), T.J. Watt (Steelers)

Ham is an obvious choice. He's on everybody's list of top-five outside linebackers of all time. Watt is a four-time first-team All-Pro and should be at least a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year (he won it once).

Apologies to Dave Robinson — a Hall of Famer and a key piece of the Packers dynasty — James Harrison and others.

Inside linebackers: Jack Lambert (Steelers), Ray Nitschke (Packers)

I'm not sure an explanation is required here. On top of everything else, these are two of the great football game faces of all time.

Cornerbacks: Mel Blount (Steelers), Anybody Named Woodson (Steelers, Packers)

I am very sorry, Herb Adderley. All you did was rack up nine TD returns and make the Hall of Fame for the dynastic Packers. I'm also sorry to Steelers stalwart Jack Butler and his 52 career interceptions.

But look at this group: Rod Woodson (Steelers) and Charles Woodson (Packers), in their combined 17 years with those teams, combined for 14 pick-sixes, 29 forced fumbles, a slew of first-team All-Pro nominations and two DPOY Awards.

All Blount did was change pro football forever. His physical dominance compelled the league to make it illegal to touch a receiver beyond five yards.

Safeties: Willie Wood (Packers), Troy Polamalu (Steelers)

Polamalu is one of the most incredible football players who has ever walked the planet. Wood was a five-time champion and five-time first-team All-Pro.

Kicker: Chris Boswell (Steelers)

I'm a big Chester Marcol guy, especially the time he ran for a touchdown after his own kick got blocked. Gary Anderson was good, too, but Boswell is the sixth most-accurate kicker of all time.

Punter: Josh Miller (Steelers)

Neither franchise has an especially distinguished punting history. Therefore, I'll go with the ex-Steeler Miller since I did a radio show with him for five years. He also has a perfect 158.3 career passer rating, based off a beauty of a fake against the Ravens.

Return man: Travis Williams (Packers)

Yes, I know, Desmond Howard was awesome. He won Super Bowl MVP, for goodness sake, because of a 99-yard kickoff return. He also returned three punts for touchdowns for the Packers that season (1996).

I also know that Steelers game-changers Rod Woodson, Antwaan Randle El and Antonio Brown all returned at least one kickoff and one punt for touchdowns in their career.

But let's give Williams his respect. Dude averaged a ridiculous 41.1 yards per kickoff return in 1967 — still an NFL record — including four touchdowns. Oh, and that included two in one quarter against the Cleveland Browns.

Williams also delivered one of the greatest performances in NFL history on Nov. 2, 1969, against the Steelers at Pitt Stadium, rolling up 314 combined yards.

That's a pretty good day.


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