Andy Russell, a superb linebacker who helped the Pittsburgh Steelers go from serial losers to champions, has died.
He was 82.
On Saturday, the team confirmed Russell’s death. There was no immediate information on the cause or location of
death.
Russell, a 16th-round draft pick in 1963, won two Super Bowls during his 12-year NFL career, which was cut short by
a two-year tour in the military. Russell was a team captain for ten years and made seven Pro Bowl appearances. In
1971, Russell was selected the club’s Most Valuable Player by his teammates, who included future Hall of Famers Joe
Greene, Mel Blount, Jack Ham, and Terry Bradshaw.
“Andy was part of the foundation of the great Steelers teams of the 1970s,” Steelers president Art Rooney II stated.
“He was one of the few players that Coach Chuck Noll kept on the club after taking over as head coach in 1969. Andy
was the team captain, and his leadership was vital to Coach Noll’s development of the 1970s Steelers, who went on to
win four Super Bowl championships.”
Russell and his No. 34 were one of the few bright lights on a string of Steeler teams that finished at the bottom of the
league during the first half of his career.
“(Noll) stated, ‘You’re excellent people. You are going to be decent citizens. “Unfortunately, you can’t run fast enough
or jump high enough, and I’ll have to replace the majority of you,” Russell told Pittsburgh Quarterly in 2006.
Just not Russell, who became a key member of a defense that helped the team win four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
Russell worked in complete secrecy to build a resume that his teammates believe is worthy of the Hall of Fame.
“It would have been easy for (Andy) to give up or be sucked into the mediocrity that he saw all around him, but he
refused to do so,” wrote Ham, who played with Russell for six years. “That attitude was clear to me from my first day
of training camp to Andy’s last game with the Steelers.”
