Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

About two months before the subject season, Buddy Parker announced he was leaving the Detroit Lions and was headed to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers were 6-6 in 1957 with a great defense but an offense that was mediocre to say the best. There were two stand out games. The Steelers played the teams that were in the Championship Game the following year. Both the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants were 7-5 in 1957.

Week 6 at Baltimore. The Steelers won 19 to 13.

This game was a study in opposites. Pittsburgh showed a great passing game but virtually nothing on the ground. Baltimore ran well but the passing was week. The big statistics in the game were three interceptions from the Steelers Hall of Famer Jack Butler .

Pittsburgh-Earl Morrall completed 18 of 30 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns. Ray Mathews caught both of for total of 71 yards. The Steelers gained just 15 yards rushing. Baltimore gained a misery 95 yards passing though Johnny Unitas did have a 29 yard touchdown pass to Raymond Berry. On the ground though they were good, gaining 168 yards from Alan Ameche, Lenny Moore and L.G. Dupre.

Week 11 New York Giants at Forbes Field. Steelers won 21 to 10.

For Pittsburgh, John Reger opened the scoring with 14 yard fumble return for a touchdown. Charlie Connerly passed 40 yards to Frank Gifford to tie the score. The Giants basically did nothing thereafter.

New York did outgain the Steelers in total yards 260 to 189. With Billy Wells in the lead, Pittsburgh rushed for 142 yards to just 66 for New York . Earl Morrall passed for one touchdown and threw for another. Charley Connerly went 16 for 29 for 194 yards and a touchdown. Frank Gifford caught five passes for 91 yards.

LeonardRachiele wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 6:21 pm About two months before the subject season, Buddy Parker announced he was leaving the Detroit Lions and was headed to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

That's not quite the way it happened. Parker stunned the crowd at a "Meet the Lions" banquet on August 10 by announcing that he was resigning because, he said, he couldn't handle the players.
There was a gap of a little more than two weeks before he signed with Pittsburgh.

Actually, Parker was tired of dealing with the team's dozen or so directors (who represented the interest of some 140 stockholders)---all of the intrigue, interference, schmoozing, etc. that went with it. He quit in a huff when he saw newly acquired Tobin Rote having drinks with Lyle Fife, who was in a years-long power struggle with Edwin Anderson.

The next day, when Bobby Layne and Joe Schmidt tried to talk Parker into rescinding his resignation, Parker gave them a rundown of the directors' interference: they made him draft Howard Cassady when he really wanted Joe Childress, they took Leon Hart's side in Hart's latest salary holdout, etc. Seeing Rote drinking with Fife in Fife's suite was the final straw for Buddy. He wasn't upset with Rote (who was no problem child) as much as he was with a team owner putting his QB in that situation.

Its obvious leaving the Lions and Steelers in a lurch may have hurt his HOF chances as much as possible racism towards players joining the Lions but in my research of coaches that took a team to three straight championship games, I believe he is the only one since at least 1930, not to make the HOF ...

rhickok1109 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:23 am That's not quite the way it happened. Parker stunned the crowd at a "Meet the Lions" banquet on August 10 by announcing that he was resigning because, he said, he couldn't handle the players.
There was a gap of a little more than two weeks before he signed with Pittsburgh.

August 12, apparently.