WhoDat!656

"Shouldergate"

The 1978 season began with some controversy, when players were caught wearing shoulder pads in off-season drills in violation of league rules. The infraction occurred during a late May rookie camp and was uncovered and reported by Pittsburgh Press reporter John Clayton.[41]




"That story had no news value whatsoever. The thing that made it very bad was that the story was of no news to the people of Pittsburgh. So I have to assume that he [referring to John Clayton] is working for the competition. He certainly wasn't working in the interest of the paper or the fans. As far as I'm concerned he was working for the other people. The only way I can read it is espionage. I know for a fact that other people use other media for their interests, to spy."

– Head coach Chuck Noll's paranoid reaction to the "shouldergate" story.[42]

Clayton was not the paper's regular Steelers beat writer at the time, but was just filling in that day.[43] While the practice in which the violation occurred was closed to the media by head coach Chuck Noll, Clayton uncovered the story in interviews with players whom he found wearing pads in the locker room.[41] Clayton contacted the league office for clarification on the rule, which stated that teams must have "no contact work or use of pads (except helmets) in an off-season training camp."[41][43]

The story caused an uproar among the team's local fanbase, with most of the vitriol directed at Clayton for reporting the story, rather than at Noll and the team for breaking the rule.[43][44] This sentiment was stoked by Noll's angry reaction to the story, in which he referred to the reporting as "espionage."[42] Even some members of the local media spoke of Clayton as a traitor to the Steeler cause.[45]

The precedent for punishment of such a rule violation was set by an earlier incident for which the Green Bay Packers were stripped of a fourth-round draft pick. The Packers were able to argue at that time that they were unaware of the rule they broke. The Steelers had no such defense, since the team's president, Dan Rooney, was instrumental in negotiations to get the "no pads" rule included in the collective bargaining agreement with the league's players.[46]

NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle eventually stripped the Steelers of their third-round selection in the 1979 draft for the transgression.[47] Interestingly, Pittsburgh-area native and future Hall of Famer Joe Montana was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers just six spots after where the Steelers would have selected with the forfeited pick.[48]

1978 Pittsburgh Steelers season - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

saintfan

I figured he slept with some one of the guys at ESPN. He looks like a child molester to be honest. I think he should be in prison. LOL

SloMotion

... go figure, eh? ... and I thought the older, more seasoned reporters were the ones able to sift through the stories and determine what was 'news' and what was 'sensationalism' ... here Clayton was leading the charge the whole time ... <headscratch>

WhoDat!656

Everyone rises to their own level of incompetence!

QBREES9

LOL