Offseason
Changes that occurred the year before continued for 1970.
As a result of the NFL-AFL merger being finalized for the 1970 season, three teams from the "old" NFL were moved to the newly formed AFC alongside the former AFL teams. The Steelers agreed to be one of them after their archrivals, the Cleveland Browns, volunteered to join the AFL franchises in the AFC. The Browns mainly joined because of the possibility of an intrastate rivalry with the AFL's Cincinnati Bengals (now known as the Battle of Ohio), largely due to the animosity at the time between Browns owner Art Modell and Bengals owner & coach Paul Brown, who was fired from the Browns by Modell after the 1962 season. The Steelers joined the AFC in order to keep the Browns-Steelers rivalry alive on a regular basis, due to the proximity of the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
Another change came in the draft. For the first time since 1956, the Steelers owned the number one selection in the draft after winning a coin toss with the Chicago Bears for the top pick, as the two teams had identical 1–13 records in 1969. (The Steelers would have won the tiebreaker under the modern NFL tiebreaker rules anyway, since the Bears' one win was against the Steelers in week 8 of that season.) Despite having selected Butler, Pennsylvania native Terry Hanratty the year before, the Steelers went with the consensus number one pick and selected Louisiana Tech quarterback Terry Bradshaw with the top pick. Later in the draft, the Steelers would select Southern University cornerback Mel Blount with their third round pick. Both Bradshaw and Blount would be key members of the Steelers' Super Bowl teams, and are now members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The final change for 1970 was planned years in advance, even if the Steelers didn't get the number one pick or if they had decided to stay with the "old" NFL teams to form the NFC: their home venue. The Steelers moved into the brand-new Three Rivers Stadium at the start of the season, the latest of the so-called "cookie-cutter" stadiums to open at the time. The Steelers lost to the Houston Oilers 19–7 in the first football game in the stadium, which had just opened that summer for the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates.
The opening of Three Rivers ended their relatively brief stay at Pitt Stadium, where they had only been playing at on a full-time basis for six years. Before that, the Steelers played most of their home games at Forbes Field, with occasional games being played at Pitt Stadium to take advantage of the larger capacity. The Steelers later returned the favor to the University of Pittsburgh in 2000 when the Pitt Panthers football team moved into Three Rivers for one season as an interim home before Heinz Field was ready in 2001. Pitt would also play their Backyard Brawl games against West Virginia in years Pitt hosted the game during the existence of Three Rivers.
WTAE-TV sportscaster Myron Cope joined the Steelers radio network as color commentator for the 1970 season. Cope remained a fixture of the Steelers radio network through the 2004 season and became beloved by fans due to his enthusiasm and catchphrases behind the announcing booth. In 1975, Cope invented the Terrible Towel, originally conceived as a gimmick in the Steelers playoff game against Baltimore and now a staple among Steelers fans.
Read more about this topic: 1970 Pittsburgh Steelers Season