{"id":926661,"date":"2026-06-23T13:15:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/926661\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:15:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:15:20","slug":"steelers-mount-rushmore-4-greatest-to-ever-wear-black-and-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/926661\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Mount Rushmore: 4 Greatest to Ever Wear Black and Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SteelersNFL FILE: Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers boast a long and illustrious history of legendary players. 32 Steelers are forever enshrined at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, and the franchise has seen tons of all-time greats since becoming nationally relevant in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

That said, on a sports Mount Rushmore, there is only room for four players. So, in no particular order, here are the four greatest Steelers of all time.<\/p>\n

A quick note: \u2018greatest\u2019 is not necessarily analogous to \u2018most talented\u2019 or \u2018best\u2019; greatness is largely viewed within the lens of what a specific player contributed to a franchise.<\/p>\n

Ben Roethlisberger<\/a><\/p>\n

It is hard not to add Big Ben to this list, for multiple reasons. First, the stats: Roethlisberger is 7th all-time in passing yards, 9th in passing touchdowns, and 8th in completed passes. In his 17 seasons as a pro (all spent in Pittsburgh), Roethliberger never experienced a losing season; he never finished worse than 8-8. <\/p>\n

Not only that, but Roethlisberger\u2019s dominance against divisional opponents is hard to overstate. Including playoffs, he finished with a 19-11 record against Baltimore; a 26-10 record against Cincinnati; and a 26-3-1 record against Cleveland. <\/p>\n

At age 23 in 2006, he became the youngest QB to win a Super Bowl after defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. He went on to appear in two more Super Bowls, winning one. <\/p>\n

One could argue that Roethlisberger hit his physical prime after winning his two rings, and in the 2010s, he led the \u201cKiller B\u2019s\u201d offense, putting up video-game numbers alongside Le\u2019Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. While their peak was brief, the Killer B\u2019s were arguably the most lethal QB-WR-RB trio since the Cowboys\u2019 \u201cTriplets\u201d in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Everything about Roethlisberger \u2014 the rings, the Hall of Fame numbers, and his role in defining an era of Steelers football \u2014 makes him a shoo-in here.<\/p>\n

Joe Greene<\/a><\/p>\n

Another relative sho0-in on this list, Joe Greene was the heart and soul of the 1970s \u201cSteel Curtain\u201d defense.<\/p>\n

The native Texan was integral to bringing the Steelers to relevance during the decade, as his physicality, toughness, and consistency laid the groundwork for an era-defining defensive unit. Greene racked up 77.5 sacks in his career, which, while a low number in the modern all-time rankings, was a massive feat for his era.<\/p>\n

Even beyond the X\u2019s and O\u2019s, Greene was arguably the first Pittsburgh athlete, along with Roberto Clemente, to become nationally famous. Greene became nationally beloved for his style of play on the field, and his iconic 1979 Coca-Cola commercial helped solidify his forever status as a household name.<\/p>\n

Few players in NFL history are perfectly aligned with one team and one era. Greene, a Steeler from 1969 to 1981, is exactly that kind of player, and his place on the Steelers Mount Rushmore is a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

Jack Lambert<\/a><\/p>\n

Even for a franchise historically built around dominant defense, few players rank in the same legendary airs as Jack Lambert. Initially considered under-sized for a middle linebacker, Lambert proved scouts wrong by becoming one of the most physical, intense, and (strictly on the field) nasty defensive players ever. <\/p>\n

Lambert embodied physicality and relentlessness; his missing teeth and edgy appearance gave him a distinctive brand, a brand that he embraced. In 11 seasons, Lambert won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors as well as six first-team All-Pro selections and the 1976 Defensive Player of the Year award, during a season in which Pittsburgh secured five shutouts.<\/p>\n

Whereas Greene set the tone for the defensive line, Lambert set the culture of the linebacker room. Similar to Greene, many of his career stats have been dwarfed with time; but his centrality to everything that made the 1970s Steelers legendary makes him a deserving member of this Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

Terry Bradshaw<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradshaw is far from being one of the more statistically dominant quarterbacks in NFL history. He finished with nearly the same amount of interceptions (210) as touchdowns (212). He ranks just 69th in NFL history in passing yards, behind players like Mark Brunell, Phil Simms<\/a>, and Tony Romo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That being said, \u2018best\u2019 is not the same as \u2018greatest.\u2019 And if \u2018greatest\u2019 is judged by what a player contributed to a franchise, it is impossible to exclude Bradshaw from the Steelers Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

Bradshaw\u2019s first season was in 1970. In the nearly four decades of Steelers history leading up to that, the quarterback position had been a woeful weakness for Pittsburgh. Arguably Pittsburgh\u2019s most impressive quarterback up until that point had been Bobby Layne<\/a>, and the team had made the infamous decision of cutting Johnny Unitas before the 1955 season.<\/p>\n

But when Bradshaw and the \u2018Super Steelers\u2019 got hot, none of that mattered. Bradshaw led a stacked team, but he led it with toughness, confidence, and an insatiable will to win. And win he did: the team secured four titles in six years, becoming the first real dynasty of the Super Bowl era (excluding perhaps the Vince Lombardi Packers).<\/p>\n

Wins are often seen as a quarterback stat, as are championships. Bradshaw delivered four, and the only NFL quarterbacks who can rival that achievement are Otto Graham, Joe Montana, Bart Starr, Earl Morrall, Unitas, Sid Luckman and Tom Brady.<\/p>\n

Bradshaw led the Steelers on one of the most dominant half-decade runs of any team in American professional sports, and for that he deserves the final spot on the Steelers Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Ben Roethlisberger<\/a> Jack Lambert<\/a> Joe Greene<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> Steelers News<\/a> Terry Bradshaw<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News NFL FILE: Joe Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers boast a long and illustrious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":826628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[6594,7,23940,7176,6,520,57,2360,426,2395,11718],"class_list":["post-926661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-ben-roethlisberger","tag-football","tag-jack-lambert","tag-joe-greene","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-steelers-news","tag-terry-bradshaw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116799611058245704","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}