The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the '70s, and the Fight for America's Soul

by Chad Millman

lot of the players had come of age on college campuses in the late 1960s. They had been raised on rebellion and freedom of expression. Rozelle’s rules, while harmless, were stifling. At least L. C. Greenwood thought so. For that Browns game he protested by debuting a pair of gold cleats. “We all live to be different or our own selves,” he said. The Steelers were fined by the league, but Noll’s response when asked about the shoes by reporters after the game was typical of his it-doesn’t-bother-me-if-it-doesn’t-bother-the-team approach: “What shoes?” he asked. “The gold shoes,” he was told. “I don’t watch shoes,” he answered. “That’s Peter’s province. I’d feel bad if L.C. went out there barefoot.”