Joe Greene
Joe Greene
Charles Edward Greene, known as "Mean Joe Greene,"is a former all-pro American football defensive tackle who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League. Throughout the early 1970s, Greene was one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL. Winning two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, as well as earning five first-team All-Pro selections, Greene is widely considered one of the greatest defensive linemen to ever play in the NFL. He was the cornerstone of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAthlete
Date of Birth24 September 1946
CountryUnited States of America
I believe in being positive.
It brought Pittsburgh into the picture of football teams in the National Football League that, ‘OK, you have to deal with us now.’
When you win and you don't have anyone to share it with, why win? You have someone to share it with you.
I never had a desire to hurt anybody.
For a football coach, there's nothing that matches the pain of a team not playing up to its capabilities.
I do play football no-holds-barred. Any edge I can get, I'll take. I'd grab a face mask only in a fit of anger. Uncontrolled anger is damn near insane.
They say that when you're the champs, everybody will try to beat you. Well, I'm glad we're champs, so bring'em on, bring'em all on. If we die, we ain't gonna die running. It's gonna be a fight.
When you think of me as a football player, I would like for people to think that I put it on the line every time. Good or bad, win or lose, I put it on the line.
The scary thing is that players have a one-upsmanship about money; they sign a contract and they like it until someone signs a bigger one and now they don't like it. I don't like that. I don't begrudge anyone money, but it disrupts the football team.
The Steelers have influenced everything I've done as an adult.
I came to the Steelers after four years of high school and four years of college, and now I look on my stay here as 13 years of postgraduate work; I think I'm ready for the world.
My first season with Pittsburgh was 1969. We were still in the old NFL. My second year, we moved to the AFC when the leagues merged. I went to the Pro Bowl that season, and there must have been nine Raiders and nine Chiefs. I got to know all those guys.
When you win and you don't have anyone to share it with, why win? You have to have someone to share it with.
A black man - I say a black man, we got no corner on the market, but every day in some form or fashion you got to prove you're a man. But you want to keep the life-and-death situations down. I can get beat. But there's getting beat and there's getting stomped.