The Ones Who Hit the Hardest

August 1, 2010

Put simply, the 1970s Super Bowl rivalry between the Steelers and Cowboys was a study in contrasts between the smashmouth Steelers of struggling, blue-collar Pittsburgh and the computerized complexity of the Cowboys of glitzy Dallas. Pittsburgh won both championships largely because of its spectacular pass-catching pair, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, but the Steelers were also the "ones who hit the hardest." The subtitle's reference to "the fight for America's soul" indicates the overreach of the book: the narrative runs on three concurrent tracks (Steelers, Cowboys, and the steelworkers' union in Pittsburgh), with the third a cursory treatment that stalls the engaging football story. Both teams are traced from their beginnings to the formation of these 1970s championship teams, but the Cowboys are treated mostly as a foil to the heroic Steelers. The book ends abruptly after the second Super Bowl confrontation, with no coda on the 1979 season that saw the Steelers' fourth Super Bowl triumph and the Cowboys' farewell to Roger Staubach. Worth reading for its scoring plays, but there are a lot of misfires here as well.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2010
Between them, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys won five Super Bowls in the 1970s. The Steelers cultivated a blue-collar image; the Cowboys, though dubbed Americas team, carried a more glamorous aura. The authors trace the rise of the teams through the decade. The Cowboys had some success in the sixties but no championships. The Steelers had been woeful for decades. When the Steelers hired Chuck Noll as head coach for the 1969 season, their fortunes began to change. Noll opted to build carefully and gradually through the college draft; meanwhile, Landry and the Cowboys were the first NFL team to supplement in-person scouting with computer analysis. In the course of telling the story, the authorswho interviewed 30 former players, coaches, and assistantsportray the Steelers as a lifeline to an industrial city losing its manufacturing base and the Cowboys as the darlings of the Texas oil boomers. Interspersed throughout are dozens of anecdotes about how Nolland his stoic counterpart, Tom Landrymotivated and built the two dominant franchises of footballs golden age. Exciting, informative reading for NFL fans with an interest in the leagues history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)