First, let me know what you’ve been doing since your time coaching?
I’m actually retired now. I’m still dabbling a bit in coaching – I spent a couple of years working with a fellow who started up a program called Your Play, where fans call plays for teams. We practiced at Jacksonville’s facilities and had guys there that were just on the cusp of playing in the NFL. We had two teams and we had them play four games and tested it out. It was a great experience. We’d have three play options for every situation and the fans would vote on either the coach’s choice or their own. It was a 45-second play clock and they had 10 seconds to vote. The winning vote was the play that got called.
Well, it was a hoot to do – we had a great time and it went very well. I think the idea was to make it available for the NFL to use for the Pro Bowl and for college Spring games – things like that. We had 75,000 fans do it and they could win money doing it as well!
What else have you been up to?
I also coached football in Austria for a league there until Covid blew that up. Robert Ford also wants to put on some coaching clinics around the world – Fiji, Sweden….hopefully we can do that soon.
Other than that I was an auditor for years before then for Visa which was very fun – a lot like football – you had a kickoff date, a closing date just like football!
How did you get started in coaching?
I graduated high school with a 1.6 GPA – the judge – my dad- told me I was going to the Marine Corps! I was a turd then! But I had a great instructor there – tough but a great guy who really saved me. This was during the Vietnam era – I went up five levels to Sargeant in 18 months.
When I got out of the Marine Corps I was going to take a job with the highway patrol – I thought that would be a great job. I filled out the forms and they told me I had one problem – I was only 20 years old.
Well, my brother played football then – and I had gotten a lot bigger since I joined the Marine Corps. I was 6’4, 235 pounds. I went to college and ended up being the captain of the football team.
I had actually committed to UCLA but people kept telling me I should look at Stanford as a West Coast guy. I finally told them I didn’t want to go to school in Connecticut. They said “Stanford not Stamford, you idiot!”
When I got there I saw how special of a place it was. I had to call UCLA and tell them I was going to Stanford – they weren’t happy about that.
What happened after that?
It was such a great experience. We beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl my junior year and Michigan my senior year. I had great coaches there in John Ralston and Mike White.
I went to the Cowboys training camp the next year as a free agent. They had 17 rounds in the draft then and I wasn’t drafted, so you can tell how crappy I was! I lined up against Bob Lilly every play and could never even get my hands on him. I finally told him he was killing my chances to make the team, and he told me “Rookie, you aren’t good enough to make the team!”
Later on I ended up calling Mike White – he was coaching then at the University of California. He offered me a graduate assistant coaching job there. I told him I would probably just go to law school, but he said I could do that later – to give coaching a chance. To try it out.
Well, I stayed there for two yeas then got other coaching jobs. Then I ended up coaching the offensive line for Dan Devine at Notre Dame. That was one of the two best experiences I ever had as a coach. The other was coaching for Chuck Noll.
How did you end up in Pittsburgh after that?
I stayed on a year after Devine retired, but Gerry Faust took over and that was one of the worst experiences I ever had, working for him. Now, the year before under Devine I had actually gotten a call from Bart Starr about their offensive line coach opening. When he called me I said “Ha sure! Who is this really!” But he told me it was really him and that they wanted to interview me for the job. I told him I couldn’t say anything until he talked to Coach Devine. Well he did and Coach Devine called me into his office. He said I should do the interview. I told him I wanted to stay at Notre Dame – we were building a great program and I loved it there. But he told me you never pass up a great interview opportunity, so I went.
Well, Bart called me Christmas Day and offered me the job. I told him that I wanted to stay at Notre Dame though- my wife and I loved where we were and I loved the program. He called me 15 minutes later and told me he was getting on a plane to come get me! But I said I really wanted to stay,
Well, the year after Faust took over. I quit, I didn’t even have a job lined up. I just couldn’t take being there. I had one longshot head coaching prospect and I called Bart Starr to ask if I could use his name to interview for the job. He said yes, but that if the job didn’t work out to let him know, that the offensive line job was still open there. I said “Coach Starr, I am no longer interviewing for that job. I’m your new offensive line coach!”
So you got your start in the NFL.
After that I went to some football camps where guys like Woody Widenhofer worked – who spread the word I guess about me to Chuck Noll. I ended up interviewing with him in a hotel room all day. No boards – we just talked all day about football – about technique. It was a fabulous experience – and after that he hired me.
What was he looking for from you?
He wanted me to follow his system. His was the greatest system I ever saw. He could coach any position. He was so wonderful with the technical stuff. The trap game – no one else ran it then. There were so many techniques and intricacies behind it.
We did walk-throughs in the locker room every week in our socks and shorts. We’d do them in slow-motion. Chuck would watch and correct everyone – looking at the angles, bend of the knees, shoulders, was the ass in the right position…. He’d say “Mr. Wolfley, your shoulders are at a 25 degree angle and they should be at 45 degrees.” Everything was about technique.
At the time I wanted to be a college head coach. I was told before I could get there I need to be a coordinator somewhere first before I could get a head coaching job. The biggest regret I ever had, and I need time here as this is always upsetting to talk about…my biggest regret is leaving after that season to take a coordinator job instead of staying in Pittsburgh. My gut told me to stay but I kept thinking I wanted to become a head coach some day and needed the coordinator job.
What made being there so special?
It was the culture Chuck created there. The structure was amazing, but the organization could be a bit loosey goosey too.
When you went into his office to go over notes and gameplans, he’d put his feet up on his desk and you’d just talk football. He loved football banter. The first day of camp I was sitting in the meeting room waiting for the meetings to start. He walked by and asked me what I was doing there. I told him I was waiting for the staff meeting to start. He asked me what meeting, and I told him the one where we talk about how we ran practice – how the installation of the playbook was done and how practice periods were broken up. What structure we were using.
He told me we don’t do that here. He said to just go take your offensive line over to the practice field and work on technique. I asked him what about the seven-on-sevens, one-on-ones. He told me to work that stuff out with Jon Kolb who coached the defensive line then. But there were no practice periods like there in most places were you worked on different things at different times. Just coach the drills and techniques.
How did he handle those practices?
Chuck would walk around to each group every day for about five minutes and coach them. If he took over the drills you knew you were in trouble as a coach.
He was a great teacher. He could be aloof but he was also really easy going. The grounds crew used to give him so much grief. They were a crazy group. They’d yell at him “Hey Chuck, I hear your dad is going to be in town. I hope you can stand up to him this time!” He’d just laugh.
Chuck really loved watching the nonsense happen. He would stand back and smile. He knew he couldn’t be a part of it – he had to make the tough decisions. But the coaching staff was a hard-working, hard-drinking group of characters and he really enjoyed that.
Any good examples?
The coaches would go to Pete’s Lounge after the players went to bed. We’d see Myron Cope there and had a good time. By two am they closed the door and let us stay until it was daylight, then they’d kick the doors open and tell us to get out of there. We’d stink like beer on our way back.
We had a TV room where we had beer and a lounge area. One night Woody Widenhofer and I walked in the next morning wearing the same clothes we had on the night before after one of those late nights. Chuck asked Woody where he was and Woody just said “Mass” and kept on walking!
How else did Chuck differ on how he handled things?
The coaches never drew up gameplans on the board. We gave players Monday off and gameplanned on Tuesdays – most did it the other way around. Well, Chuck had each player draw up the plays on the board themselves – we didn’t do that for them. They’d do it for each situation – third downs, goal lines…
When we worked with the scout teams, Chuck would always coach the scout team. He’d coach the defense versus the offense and vice versa. He wanted the scout team to get things just right – to show the perfect picture of who we were playing against. He wanted them to know how serious the scout team was and that they needed to get it right.
He also coached special teams. We only practiced special teams on Saturdays. He coached them himself. Tom Moore would pull me aside and we’d just spend the day standing behind the guys while Noll coached them.
Any fun moments that stand out?
After practice Tony Parisi would have a keg of beer in the equipment room and he, me, Woodley, Stallworth – and other guys would join in – we’d sit around and smoke and have a beer. After games, we’d have a keg in the sauna -we’d drink while the wives were waiting for us outside in the cold!
Ralph Berlin – the guys painted Jabba – for Jabba the Hut – on his golf cart he used to get around. We’d play gin rummy and he took our money every night.
Who are some of the players that stand out to you?
Webster was such an amazing athlete. Larry Brown, Ilkin, Long,…
Larry’s knees were so bad then – he could hardly practice. He’d block one guy then would have to sit on his helmet – but he played so well on gamedays. But on the plane rides home, they’d have to push the seat forward so he could ice his knees on the way home.
Webster after practice would get linemen to run the stadium stairs with him. They’d tell him he’d need to take a break to give Rasmussen a chance to practice too, just in case. He’d just tell us “There isn’t going to be a just in case!”
They had a terrific weight program too that Chuck brought in. Chuck made sure all the coaches went through the program – he took them through it himself – so then we could help instruct the players too. It’s funny, we used to go through the schedule before the season started and put “W’s” next to games we were sure we would win. Chuck put a W next to every Cowboys game. He knew how to trap versus their stunt 4-3!
Any other good stories about the players?
I’d have to do bed check and Jack Lambert’s dorm room was on the third floor. He was the only guy that didn’t have a roommate – most guys were on the second floor. His was always the last room I’d go to and he was always 15 minutes late – like he was sending a message. So I’d go in his room and wait for him – smoke one of his cigarettes and read his Playboys that were on his desk. He’d walk in and yell at me “What the f*ck are you doing here!” I’d yell back “Why the f*ck are you late!”
Chuck never wanted us to have a team meeting on Saturdays. He called it harassment. He felt that if we didn’t understand something by then they weren’t about to on Saturday! He didn’t want us drinking at the hotel before gamedays either.
Any good gameday stories?
When we were playing the Raiders – it was the last game of the season and we needed to win and for the Bengals to lose to make the playoffs. The Bengals lost earlier that day and we ended up winning.
Well, in the game, a funny thing happened. I knew a lot of those Raiders players – we did football camps and guys like Millen, Howie Long – they’d work those camps. I remember Millen standing behind linebackers in those practices, grabbing kids by the neck and belt and running them into the pile!
Well, we ran a sweep out of bounds in that Raiders game and Millen ran up behind me and kicked me in my butt and yelled at me”You got guys cutting me!” I told him he couldn’t handle the blocks! Chuck looked at me and said “I guess you know him huh?”
David Woodley too. He used to be good running the bootleg in Miami but just got too many concussions. Well, then the quarterbacks called their own plays. Chuck would send a few in every game, that was about it. Well one game Chuck called a bootleg and David didn’t run it. He called it again and Woodley ran something else again. Chuck called it a third time and Woodley looked over and gave him the finger. “I guess he didn’t like that play.” Chuck said!
That season we lost to Miami in the championship game. We beat the 49ers before then – by a lot in San Francisco – we were the only team to beat them. We had Weegie Thompson cut-block Ronnie Lott every play that game – it drove Lott crazy. They fought all through the game.
Well, against Miami, Abercrombie had a big run at the end of the first half, down to the one yard line. We were already ahead. But the refs called a bad penalty on Rostosky – said he was holding someone, but the guy turned around when Abercrombie ran by him. Rostosky just touched his back. At halftime I called the ref every name in the book. Chuck elbowed me “Give it to him Bill!” he said.
You got to coach in the Pro Bowl too -some good stories there?
I went with Chuck and Tom Moore. In fact my wife and I went for dinner with Tom and his wife. Tom was in his 40’s – he was like an older coach to me then. I asked him what he was going to do when he retired. “Retire?”” he said to me in that voice he had. ” I’ll never retire. Just bury me on the 50 yard line!”
The AFC stayed at one hotel and the NFC at the Hilton. We’d go for drinks at the Hilton – I was sitting with Marcus Allen, Joe Klecko and some other guys. We’d watch the beautiful women walk by – some would come over and sit with us. Well, unbeknownst to us, our wives were sitting 15 feet away from us plotting against us. They all walked up to us at once and grabbed us by our ears and pulled us out of there! Guys were laughing at us as we walked out!
Millen and Klecko actually gave my kids their jerseys after the game.
How did Chuck approach the Pro Bowl?
The AFC was beaten badly the year before. Bill Walsh ran the score up. That game Lambert actually tackled someone near Walsh on the sidelines and told Walsh that if he scored again he’d knock his head off.
Well, Noll coached that next year and told the guys that we lost last year but wouldn’t lose this year. He told everyone they’d be practicing in pads. Everyone thought he was crazy. He told them they could earn $15,000 as the winning team. The losing team only earned $7,500.
Howie Long came up to me after that and asked if that’s how we practiced every day and I said yeah. He just said “Holy shit!”
What happened in the game?
We played Ditka and his defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan. They wanted to run the 46 defense and the NFL said no – no blitzing or things offenses couldn’t handle. It was a big deal.
Well, Donnie Shell was the safety for us. And the Steelers scheme was always that if a tight end stayed in to block, the safety should blitz. Well, sure enough in the game the tight end blocked and Shell ended up blitzing and sacking Montana. He was just going on what he knew. But Ryan and Ditka were so upset!
Any good memories of the Rooneys?
I still regret leaving that season. They were such good people.
There was a bar called Froggys – I used to go there and knew the owner – Froggy. I loved the place. Once I took the Chief there – Mary Regan – his secretary – told me not to let him have any wine. Of course that’s the first thing he ordered.
He told me about his brother Jim who wanted to run for justice of the peace in some small town. The Chief told him he wasn’t ready – that he shouldn’t run. But Jim said he was running anyway. The Chief said he told Jim not only would he not win, he wouldn’t get a single vote. Well, he was right. Art had every vote for Jim taken out of every ballot box and had them thrown away!
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