Ernie Holmes passed away this week, the victim of a tragic car accident. Despite the tragedy, Holmes’ place in NFL folklore is firmly secured after being part of perhaps the greatest defense ever assembled in professional football, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the early 70’s. Even though he hasn’t been around his team long enough to see the last two Super bowl wins from the stables in that historic decade, Holmes nevertheless, he was an integral member of the Steel Veil defense.
Drafted No. 8 around 1971, after playing his college ball at Texas Southern University, Holmes would become a formidable defensive lineman for the Steelers for 70 seasons. Despite that skill rivaling that of his more famous teammate, Mean Joe Greene, Holmes sometimes seemed to lack the discipline that would have pushed him to a higher level of play. Remember that he often wore an arrowhead haircut, and his wild behavior, Holmes often fought a serious problem in his career.
For the better part of his career in a line that not only Greene but L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White, all great players in their own right, it was still hard for Holmes to miss. The man appeared to play with self-professed rage self, often describing his play as “schizoid” or even “evil”. In an article for “Time” magazine in 1975, Holmes was quoted as saying, “I don’t mind hitting somebody. If I hear a whine and a whine coming from a hitter, a. adrenaline rushes into me. Steelers President Dan Rooney Holmes” one of the toughest men to wear a Steeler uniform.”
His often brutal style of play, which netted him 39 quarterback sacks in 84 games, helped the Iron Curtain in glory and fame a few decades before better lines, including Dallas’s famous Doomsday Defense, stood first in decades from all anchors. World Defensive Tackle Bob Lilly and later by Randy White and Harvey Martin. Perhaps because the Steelers were on the rise when other notable defenses were on the decline, Holmes and his teammates also seem to be playing a precise game over the Rams’ “horror foursome” and the Vikings’ “Purple People Eaters.” At the height of the Steeler’s reputation in 1974-75, the Rams’ most famous defense had been pretty great, with 14-time Pro-Bowler Merlin Olsen finally leaving since 1976. Also, the Vikings would show their age in the era when the Oakland Raider’s linemen handled the Super Bowl XI. This is about the Steelers competing with Dallas for the best defense of the decade. The Steelers struggled to win, taking two Super Bowls from Dallas in three years. around the first meeting of those two in 1975
Holmes finished his career with the New England Patriots, playing for the team in 1978, and later retired. He later became involved in professional wrestling during the 1980s, and became an organized minister during his football career.
Holmes’ life sadly came to an end when he was driving a car near Houston Texas on Thursday night. it turns several times. Holmes, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the car and died at the scene.
God speed number 63, you lose.
Sources:
“Half a ton of trouble” www.time.com
www.kdka.com/steelers/Steelers.Ernie.Holmes.
“Ernie Holmes” en.wikipedia.org
