Football is a dirty job, and plenty of people have to do it.
If Steelers linebacker Greg Lloyd isn’t “the meanest man in football,” as former coach Jerry Glanville tagged him, then Cowboys defensive end Charles Haley is.
Or maybe it’s Haley’s teammate, offensive tackle Erik Williams, whose reputation got an unwelcome boost from Packers defensive end Reggie White after Williams’ legal but wicked cut block knocked Packers tackle John Jurkovic out of the NFC title game.
It is a reputation none of them wants and each has tried to avoid during Super Bowl week when the spotlight magnifies and distorts a sport that long ago lost the charm of nicknames like Freddy “The Hammer” Williamson, Mike “The Animal” Curtis and “Mean” Joe Greene.
“We play on the edge of being wrong and right,” Haley said. “He (Lloyd) could be called a dirty player and I could be called a dirty player.”
“They (fans) come to watch somebody get knocked out,” Lloyd said.
“I’m not a dirty player,” Williams said.
The more the game is scrutinized and replayed, the finer the line becomes. And the more obvious it is that players such as Haley and Lloyd play as viciously as the great ones such as Butkus and Nitschke and “Big Daddy” Lipscomb did but without the accolades. Instead of exploiting their nasty dispositions, Haley and Lloyd find themselves explaining. Instead of lionized, they are exposed, as if a country has just discovered football isn’t a contact sport at all–it’s a collision sport.
Lloyd was fined $12,000 for knocking out Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre in a preseason game with the crown of his helmet, a no-no this year that has infuriated defensive players who charge the league is unfairly protecting quarterbacks only.
“If he has a family, so do the rest of us,” Lloyd said. “Do not give him priority over us. That’s prejudice.”
Here is Lloyd’s own job description: “If I get a chance to hit him, you try to put him out of the game. No offense, but that’s part of it. That’s the risk you take for making $7 million a year. When those guys are going through double teams and all the other stuff, when you get a shot on the quarterback, you’re going to take it.”
For this, America takes its Great Winter Time Out this Sunday.
“If they wanted a bunch of women, they would have made us all quarterbacks, wouldn’t they?” Haley mused.
Williams was criticized by White for illegally punching through the face mask. Explained Williams: “I’ve unintentionally been putting my hands in face masks for years. There’s just so much attention on it, I have to really be conscious of it. But it won’t take away from my game.”
Steelers linebacker Kevin Greene, who goes against Williams Sunday, called him one of the best he’s seen.
“He will do anything he can to keep you from hurting his quarterback,” Greene said. “I’m reluctant to say people play dirty because that’s a fine line because this game is so violent. It’s meant to be played that way.”
After winning two Super Bowls with the 49ers, Haley was traded largely because he had difficulty telling when he was on or off the field. In teammate Ronnie Lott’s book, “Total Impact,” Lott recalls Haley hoisting Jerry Rice over his head in a locker room and Rice begging him to let him down. When he did, Rice yanked a fire extinguisher off a wall and went after Haley.
Lott said Haley took up football at 13 to get back at the kids who made fun of him for being overweight. “I used to just like hurting people,” Haley said.
Haley said he was a big fan of the Steelers and Joe Greene.
“It’s when I learned to play with devotion and a little bit of violence,” Haley said.
Today, Cowboys tackle Leon Lett calls Haley his mentor.
“Leon has taken football to another level because he’s developed the killer instinct and doesn’t take any trash from anybody else,” Haley said. “When you go out to play football, you’ve got to play violent. They are trying to hurt you, so you’ve got to go after them before they go after you. If a guy goes in with the attitude to destroy before he gets destroyed, then he’s going to always have success.”
Kevin Greene visited Hulk Hogan with World Championship Wrestling in Las Vegas on his day off Tuesday, but refused to talk about it on Wednesday, leaving no confusion between the sports.
“Greg Lloyd is not a mean man,” Steelers defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau said. “I think Greg Lloyd is a warrior. He is a consummate professional. He’s a wonderful man. He’s a family man, involved in community projects. He does a tremendous job with underprivileged youth. He is very, very focused on football on Sunday afternoon and I guess that’s the side the public sees. He doesn’t even talk to me on Sunday and I consider that to be a good sign.”
Haley and Lloyd play virtually the same pass-rushing linebacker position in different defenses. They are the Lawrence Taylors of their teams. When psychiatrist Arnold J. Mandell spent the 1972 season with the San Diego Chargers, he analyzed linebackers this way: “The linebacker in particular struggles with this balance of aggression and inhibition. Often he achieves a public image as a solid citizen; yet simultaneously he’s a killer. When I asked a number of NFL scouts whom they would send behind the lines in wartime to assassinate an important enemy, they said a linebacker: His cleverness and air of legitimacy would get him into the country and let him pass as a good citizen, and his brutality would let him kill when the time came.”
Limited by rules, Lloyd and Haley bristle.
“What’s that head coach at Miami who just retired? Shula? The Dolphins threw the ball a lot and he wanted to protect (Dan) Marino,” Haley said, referring to the perception that Competition Committee chairman Don Shula made the rules that favor offense.
“What they’re teaching there is to hit ’em low. Now they go for reconstruction of the knees when they could get hit and go out for a couple plays. If they have any sense, they’ll throw that rule away,” Haley said.
“Every time I get close to the quarterback, the ref comes up and says, `OK Lloyd, that was good,’ or `OK Lloyd, that was close.’ I don’t want to hear that. They don’t tell the offensive linemen they’re punching you in the face,” Lloyd said.
Linemen and defensive players aren’t the only “physical” players. Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin has been accused of getting away with illegal pushes and shoves. Irvin said he will send complaint boxes to all 29 teams, but expects officials to let everybody “just play” in a championship game.
Steelers coach Bill Cowher offered the only guarantee in this Super Bowl: “I can assure you the Steelers will play just as physical as Dallas.”
It promises to be a game defined by two of the fiercest players in football.
“People don’t know who Greg Lloyd is; they know who No. 95 is,” Lloyd said. “My kids, when they see me, don’t see No. 95. They don’t see all that nasty stuff; they just see Daddy.”
Said Lloyd: “If we have to bite, we’ll bite. If we have to spit, we’ll spit. If we have to scratch, we’ll do that.”
Haley will attempt to become the first to win five Super Bowls.
“In 10 years, I’ve endured a whole lot of criticism for a lot of things I’ve done in my lifetime,” Haley said. “They may still criticize, but they’re going to have to put up (with) the five rings and that I’m a winner.”
