Pittsburgh fans have always appreciated talented athletes, but they reserve a special place in their hearts for their tough guys—Fran Rogel, Ernie Stautner, John Henry Johnson, those people. We have a responsibility, and if I can keep one kid from going on drugs I’ve accomplished something.”The remnants of the Super Bowl Steeler defenses are dwindling. He went up to Fitzgerald and said, ‘You can’t. A sneering, vicious, angry linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1974 to 1984. I heard someone talking about an older player the other day and he said, ‘Yeah, that was back when he could play.’ I don’t ever want to hear that about Jack. Mr. Post gave it to me. He was the Steelers starting middle linebacker for eleven seasons and, according to Steelers media guides, averaged 146 tackles per season through his 10th year. His reply was typically blunt. . Let me live that long.’ Here it is 10 years later and I’m still alive. And Jack had to know everything, call everything.”Against the run he’d read everything right, always get leverage and balance on the blocker. Lambert threw his helmet into his locker in disgust.“This is a bunch of junk,” he said. It’s not the kind of thing you’d want your mother or your wife to see. Kid in front of him was really their leader, he was kind of the heart and soul of the Kent State defense . The hit was still late, Rozelle said.“I asked him, ‘How about the guys who came off the bench and mobbed me?’ ” Lambert says. When he puts on some weight and learns the position, he’ll be a terror.”Lambert manning the middle vs. the Cowboys in Super Bowl X. Russell, on the right side, had played in four straight Pro Bowls, and Henry Davis, the 235-pound middle linebacker, had been a Pro Bowler two years before. No flag was thrown, but referee Norm Schachter was on the verge of kicking Lambert out of the game. “He said, ‘This is different.’ ”The ‘78 and ’79 Steeler teams won two more Super Bowls. guards, but FBs who weigh much more than he did. The guy who slammed Lambert first started wreaking havoc on a professional level 46 years ago. "To call Chuck Noll and say, 'Coach Noll, I’m going to retire.' “Once, when he was swimming in an old gravel pit after school, he lost his bridge, and he stayed out of school until the dentist made him a new one.”Lambert’s fourth Super Bowl ring came against the Rams in January 1980. That story and many others can be found in what I consider probably the greatest piece written on Lambert “Jack Lambert, Defender of What Is Right”, by Paul Zimmerman. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. The deal was made, and Rooney hung it outside his office. Cosell even repeated it later, and I said, ‘Oh my God, he believed it.’ ”“I heard about it,” Lambert’s mother says. If he thinks he can intimidate you, he will. Intimidating. He had 22 at halftime. "It was the first time in my life that I ever felt like I didn’t deserve a paycheck. When the Steelers played the Rams in the ’80 Super Bowl, Jim Murray, the columnist for the Los Angeles Times, referred to him as “the pro from Pittsburgh, Transylvania.” That same year the Steelers’ highlight film called him “Count Dracula in cleats.” In 1981 Azra Records of L.A. put out a platter in the shape of a football; it was called “Mad Man Jack,” and two bass drums pounding all the way were supposed to simulate Lambert’s feet pumping before a play, a trademark of his early pro days.“All that stuff about Jack, it’s a bad read,” says Andy Russell, the right linebacker on the ’74 and ’75 Steelers Super Bowl teams. And in 1982 the Steelers gave Lambert a partner at an inside backer spot, going to the 3-4. Lambert began driving to the Steelers’ office every weekend to watch films.“I thought everybody did it,” he says. Jack Lambert: The myth, the legend, the toothless enforcer of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense of the 1970s, was taken out by the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. In the Pro Bowl following the ’75 season, seven Steelers were on the starting AFC team, including all three linebackers. (Lambert played quarterback at Crestwood HS before switching to defensive end at Kent State.) Then he had misgivings.“I thought, ‘Holy hell, Lambert’s gonna pull this thing off the wall when he sees it,’ ” Rooney says. First they stopped throwing curls in front of him, then they just stopped throwing to the split end in general.“He was intense, dedicated. They gave him assignments that the old Bears or Packers never would’ve dreamed of. He has made the Pro Bowl in nine of his 10 years and leads active players for appearances. At one affair someone asked him what he’d do to the drug dealers. “We’re all professionals. He has led the Steelers in tackles all 10. He said, ‘I saw films of that Cleveland game.