I was watching NFLN and saw that in 1974 the Pittsburg Steelers drafted Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster and then added Donnie Shell as a UDFA. Come on Irish, how hard could it be?
I believe Dick Haley was the architect of that draft class. Certainly a legend in his own right. On a sidenote, man I miss NFLN.
Yes it was Haley. It was pretty funny. Noll wanted Stallworth so bad he was willing to take him in 1st, but Haley felt strongly that he would still be around later. So he took Swann and then when he selected Lambert in the 2nd, Noll was losing his mind.
Haha Haley was a genius, eh? His son, Todd, ain't so bad either with coaching. Perhaps not HC material but he's still very good.
In that show they also discussed the rumor that the Steelers were the only ones who had any game film on Stallworth. Apparently there was only one copy and the Steelers were the first to get it from the school with the agreement that they would share it with other teams who wanted to see it. Allegedly, when other teams came asking for it, there was always some excuse, like not being able to find it, etc. In the end nobody else got to see it.
I remember hearing an old story where the Dolphins wanted to work out a WR and were flying him in rather than visiting the school. It may have been Cliff Branch, but I'm not sure. It may have been some other guy that ended sucking anyways. I thought this was sometime between 1970 and 1975. Anyway, the Raiders wanted him so they paid some other guy to impersonate the player. The Dolphins worked out the other guy and weren't impressed so they passed on him. IIRC the player was at a workout with the Raiders when the Dolphins called and the whole thing was scheduled by somebody who said he was the agent or maybe a family member but was really a Raider's employee.
