Joe Paterno Turned Down the Steelers Head Coaching Job in 1969
When disaster strikes and a legend’s career goes up in flames, it’s only natural to wonder what could have been. What if someone had stopped Jerry Sandusky as soon as they heard about what he was allegedly doing? What if Joe Paterno reported Sandusky to the police instead of only informing those who he worked under? What if Paterno retired years ago, like many expected he would? Better yet, what if Paterno became the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers over 30 years ago and never became a Penn State icon?
On Thursday, Shutdown Corner passed along an interesting blurb from the book, “Pittsburgh Steelers: The Complete Illustrated History.” According to page 71 of the publication, Paterno was offered the Steelers head coaching job in 1969 — three years after he became the coach at Penn State. Despite being offered a $70,000 salary when he was only making $20,000 at Penn State, Paterno declined.
“It was an awful lot of money, a fantastic offer. I’d never dreamed of making that much money. Then I started thinking about what I wanted to do. I had put some things out of whack. I haven’t done the job I set out to do at Penn State.”
After Paterno turned them down, the Rooney family offered the job to one of Don Shula’s Baltimore assistants named Chuck Noll. As you may know, Noll went on to win more than a couple games for Pittsburgh and define the Steelers franchise. Ah, what could have been.
