Book delivers fascinating portrait of a great football coach
MacCambridge digs deep into Noll’s Cleveland roots and tells the story of a boy who withstood epilepsy (it cost him his dream of playing football at Notre Dame) and family hardship to work his way to the top of his profession.
Most fascinating, for me, was a detailed look at “The Emperor” in exile. Noll virtually disappeared from public view upon retirement in 1991 until his death two summers ago. As it turns out, he endured years of great physical and mental anguish amid periods of great joy with his family.
But before we dive into that, it strikes me that Noll was bound to come up this week, anyway. Bill Belichick is visiting this weekend, which naturally prompts the question: Who is the greatest coach in NFL history?
No matter what you think of Belichick, he belongs in the conversation. Six Super Bowl appearances and four rings make it so. Noll remains the only other coach with four (4-0, as you undoubtedly know), and for all their differences, the parallels are striking.
The New England Patriots hired Belichick on Jan. 27, 2000, 31 years to the day the Steelers hired Noll.
Noll’s final game, Dec. 22, 1991, at Three Rivers Stadium, was a 17-10 victory against the Cleveland Browns and their first-year coach, Bill Belichick.
Both men inherited broken franchises. Both had final say in personnel decisions and approached their jobs with a rigid, levelheaded demeanor, often coming off as dour — intentionally boring, even — in media settings.
Mostly, they were teachers, grounded in the fundamentals of their sport.
Noll’s mantra: “Whatever it takes.”
Belichick’s: “Do your job.”
“One thing many of Chuck’s coaches told me about Chuck, and I think it’s the same with Belichick: He could literally go out and coach any position on the team,” MacCambridge said. “If the defensive line coach was sick, Chuck could coach the defensive line without missing a beat.”
As would appear to be the case with Belichick, players viewed Noll as distant and yet profoundly influential. The bottom line is that both gave athletes what they want most: a way to win. But that’s just football. MacCambridge’s book is largely a love story featuring Noll and his wife of nearly 60 years. Marianne Noll would ultimately become her husband’s protector as he battled Alzheimer’s disease and severe heart and back problems.
Marianne would tell callers, even Noll’s former players, he wasn’t feeling well and could not come to the phone. The details were kept secret.
Noll once said he would never write a book, but his family opened up to MacCambridge. It was Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, the man who hired Noll, who in 2012 suggested MacCambridge consider such a project.
“He said, ‘Somebody needs to write a biography of Chuck Noll,’ ” MacCambridge recalled. “I said it’s gotta be something more than, ‘He was just a good football coach.’ He said, ‘You look into it.’
“I think it’s a challenge, when you are as private a family as the Nolls, to open up your lives. They must have collectively decided it was time for Chuck’s story to be told.”
The topics MacCambridge tackled include Noll’s complicated relationship with Terry Bradshaw and the possibility that Noll’s Alzheimer’s was brought on by playing football.
The most poignant scene in the book is Marianne informing her husband of his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2005.
She had him sit in his favorite chair upstairs at their Sewickley home, upon returning from the doctor’s office, and told him they needed to talk …
“She went to the kitchen and collected herself and then sat down opposite Chuck on the footstool. She took his hands in hers and delivered the news: ‘The doctor says you have Alzheimer’s disease.’
Chuck looked back at her. There was a long moment of silence. And she could see him weighing the reality, and the implications, and a lifetime of things that had been left unsaid.
Then he squeezed her hands tightly and looked back into Marianne’s eyes, with the steady, determined gaze she’s seen so many times before. He had just one thing had to tell her.
‘I will … never … forget who you are,’ he said.
Then they embraced and dissolved into tears.”