Chuck Noll: "Your Team is Doing Well"

Great piece at espn.com about legendary coach Chuck Noll.

History, at least in these parts, is consistent. Snow falls; Steelers flags flutter in preparation for another Super Bowl; and Chuck Noll, black-and-gold legend, is somewhere far away. He will not give an oral dissertation this week on how these Pittsburgh Steelers remind him of his Steel Curtain defenses in the 1970s. Noll doesn't even watch a whole game of football anymore. It is believed that he talked to Pittsburgh's front office about his thoughts on the Steelers once this season.

"Your team is doing well," he told chairman Dan Rooney.

He won't be on TV, unless it's a grainy old video of one of his unprecedented four Super Bowl titles, won't be mentioned among the all-time NFL coaching greats. His friends will say the snub is borne out of his desire for privacy. Noll didn't put himself out there, didn't parlay his success into a broadcasting career, and hence, the world carried on without him.

Who is Chuck Noll? A generation of football fans doesn't, really, know.