Larry Brown -- TE/RT, 1971-84

Chuck Noll once was asked this question: Of all the great players who contributed to those four Super Bowl championships during the 1970s, who among those not enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame most deserves to be? Noll's response was instant. Larry Brown. When he came to the Steelers via the first of the team's four fifth-round picks in the 1971 NFL Draft, Brown was a 224-pound tight end. This was the era before tight ends were integral components in the passing game, and even though Brown's primary function was to block for Franco Harris, he was more than capable as a receiver when called upon. He finished his career with 48 catches for a respectable 13.3-yard average and five touchdowns. Among his six catches during the 1974 postseason was a 4-yarder for the clinching touchdown in a 16-6 win over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX. After picking Bennie Cunningham in the first round of the 1976 draft, Brown's days as the starting tight end seemed numbered, and after the 1977 season Noll approached Brown about a position switch rarely successful at the NFL level. Over the course of one offseason, Brown became a 246-pound right tackle and he moved directly into the starting lineup at a time when the Steelers were switching from a run-based offense to one featuring Terry Bradshaw and wide receivers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. In Super Bowls XIII and XIV, Bradshaw passed for 627 yards and six touchdowns in wins over the Dallas Cowboys and Rams, respectively, and Brown made sure neither Ed "Too Tall" Jones nor Jack Youngblood got a sniff of the quarterback. Larry Brown was a starter for four Super Bowl championship teams at two very different positions, and he was voted to only one Pro Bowl, and that one came at the end of the strike-shortened 1982 season.