Ernie Holmes passed away this week, the tragic victim of a car accident. Despite the tragedy, Holmes place in NFL folklore is firmly secure after being part of perhaps the greatest defense ever assembled in professional football, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the early 70’s. Though he was not around with the team long enough to see the final two Super Bowl’s won by the Steelers in that historical decade, Holmes was nevertheless an integral member of the Steel Curtain defense.
Drafted in the 8th round of the 1971 draft, after playing his college ball at Texas Southern University, Holmes would become a formidable Defensive Tackle for the Steelers during the 70’s. Despite a skill set that rival that of his more famous teammate, Mean Joe Greene, the unconventional Holmes at times seemed to lack the personal discipline that might have vaulted him to a higher level of play. Remember often times as much as for the arrow head haircut he wore, and his wild behavior, Holmes often fought a weight problem throughout his career.
Playing the better part of his career in a line that featured not only Greene, but L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White, all great players in their own right, it was still hard to miss Holmes. The man seemed to play in a self professed rage, often describing his play as “schizoid” or even “evil.” In a football article for “Time” magazine in 1975, Holmes was quoted as saying, “I don’t mind knocking somebody out. If I hear a moan and a groan coming from a player I’ve hit, the adrenaline flows within me. I get more energy and play harder.” Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney called Holmes “one of the toughest man to wear the Steeler’s uniform.”
His often barbaric style of play, which netted him 39 quarterback sacks in 84 games, help propelled the Steel Curtain in glory and notoriety past some of the decade’s better front lines, including the famed Doomsday Defense of Dallas, anchored early in the decade by all-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 way down, Holmes and his teammates also seem to play the game a cut above the Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” and the Viking’s “Purple People Eaters.” At the height of the Steeler fame in 1974-75, the Rams famed defense had aged considerable, with 14 time Pro-Bowler Merlin Olsen finally calling it quits in 1976. Likewise, the Vikings would show their age during the era when the Oakland Raider’s linemen would man handle them in Super Bowl XI. This left the Steelers vying with Dallas for the best defense of the decade. It was a competition the Steelers would win, taking two Super Bowls from Dallas during a three year span., Holmes being around for the first of those two meeting in 1975.
Holmes would go on to finish his career with the New England Patriots, playing for the team in 1978, and retiring afterward. He would later go on to dabble in professional wrestling during the 1980’s, and become an ordained minister during his post football career.
Sadly, Holmes life came to an end when the car he was driving Thursday night near Houston Texas, veered off the road and rolled over 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 will be missed.
Sources:
“Half a ton of trouble,” www.time.com
www.kdka.com/steelers/Steelers.Ernie.Holmes.
“Ernie Holmes,” en.wikipedia.org
