1970 Pittsburgh Steelers season
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| • Oilers |
7 |
7 |
2 |
3 |
19 |
| Steelers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Steelers |
0 |
10 |
3 |
0 |
13 |
| • Broncos |
7 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
16 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Steelers |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| • Browns |
2 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
15 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Bills |
3 |
0 |
7 |
0 |
10 |
| • Steelers |
3 |
7 |
3 |
10 |
23 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| • Steelers |
0 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
| Oilers |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
-
Date: October 18
-
Location: Houston Astrodome
-
Game attendance: 42,799
-
Referee: Bob Finley
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Steelers |
0 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
14 |
| • Raiders |
7 |
17 |
7 |
0 |
31 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Bengals |
0 |
7 |
3 |
0 |
10 |
| • Steelers |
0 |
7 |
0 |
14 |
21 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| Jets |
3 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
17 |
| • Steelers |
7 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
21 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
| • Chiefs |
3 |
7 |
7 |
14 |
31 |
| Steelers |
0 |
0 |
7 |
7 |
14 |
|
The 1970 Pittsburgh Steelers improved from a league-worst 1–13 record the previous year, finishing with a 5–9 record and third place in the newly formed AFC Central. The Steelers began the decade in a new conference and a new stadium with a new quarterback. After nearly 40 years in the NFL in which they shifted to the AFC, to complete the merger between the NFL and AFL. It was the NFL's weakest division that season, as the Steelers finished three games behind the division-winning Cincinnati Bengals—a team that was only in its third year of existence that season.
Coach Chuck Noll's reshaping of the squad from the year before continued for 1970.
Undoubtedly the greatest change that took place was Chuck Noll's trade of the team's lone superstar, Roy Jefferson. Although Jefferson was among the league leaders in receiving in 1968 and 1969, despite playing for the worst team in football with mediocre quarterbacks, he was sent packing after being publicly vocal in criticizing team management. The trade sent Jefferson to Baltimore, where he earned a Super Bowl ring. Years later, Jefferson pinpointed what he had done to get traded.
"I was [in Baltimore] to make a statement. I wanted to show Pittsburgh they'd made a mistake in getting rid of me. I mean, I wasn't a 'yes' man for coach Chuck Noll. If you cursed me, I cursed you back. I messed over the curfew rules a lot and, in training camp, I'd park my car in the coaches' spaces."
Hence, 1970 brought change with Ron Shanklin emerging as a steady receiver for the next few years until John Stallworth and Lynn Swann joined the team in 1974.
As a result of the NFL-AFL merger being finalized for the 1970 season, three teams from the "old" NFL were moved to the newly formed AFC alongside the former AFL teams. The Steelers agreed to be one of them after their archrivals, the Cleveland Browns, volunteered to join the AFL franchises in the AFC. The Browns mainly joined because of the possibility of an intrastate rivalry with the AFL's Cincinnati Bengals (now known as the Battle of Ohio), largely due to the animosity at the time between Browns owner Art Modell and Bengals owner & coach Paul Brown, who was fired from the Browns by Modell after the 1962 season. The Steelers joined the AFC in order to keep the Browns-Steelers rivalry alive on a regular basis, due to the proximity of the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
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