Players from the past you thought were better than they actually were.

[gojira5150]

Michael Irvin thought Woodson was soft and dominated hiim. Woodson often got torched.

this is such an odd, and off target take

As far as I can tell, as a corner, he would have played against Michael Irvin, possibly 3 times.

In 88 Irvin was a rookie, and Woodson didn't play corner that game.
In 91 Woodson was coming off an injury, and had no stats for the game
In the 96 Super Bowl, it was his first game back, after being out all but apx 1 quarter of 1 game, of the season.
In 97 he played the Cowboys as a Corner w/ the 49ers. This was the last season Rod played Corner.

So, to the best of my recollection and research, Michael Irvin is full of shit, and has no grounds to make that statement.

Woodson was anything but soft. He used to absolutely light up players...

as a defensive player- he is one of the very few, I have ever watched single handedly win a game for his team. That's even more uncommon, when the defender plays CB, because the Offense can just throw or run to the other side.

Also, Woodson is arguably a Top 5 player, ALL Time, at both CB and FS.

There is no legitimate way to possibly argue, he was worse than any standard or expectation.

After Dracula Lambert, Woodson is my 2nd Fav All-Time Steeler. I remember playing the Oilers and Rod blitzed from the corner and lit up Warren Moon and knocked him silly. They showed a shot of Moon on the bench and his eyes were as big as silver dollars. Rod concussed him. I was so PO'd when the Steelers didn't resign him

[fractalsteel]

Michael Irvin thought Woodson was soft and dominated hiim. Woodson often got torched.

this is such an odd, and off target take

As far as I can tell, as a corner, he would have played against Michael Irvin, possibly 3 times.

In 88 Irvin was a rookie, and Woodson didn't play corner that game.
In 91 Woodson was coming off an injury, and had no stats for the game
In the 96 Super Bowl, it was his first game back, after being out all but apx 1 quarter of 1 game, of the season.
In 97 he played the Cowboys as a Corner w/ the 49ers. This was the last season Rod played Corner.

So, to the best of my recollection and research, Michael Irvin is full of shit, and has no grounds to make that statement.

Woodson was anything but soft. He used to absolutely light up players...

as a defensive player- he is one of the very few, I have ever watched single handedly win a game for his team. That's even more uncommon, when the defender plays CB, because the Offense can just throw or run to the other side.

Also, Woodson is arguably a Top 5 player, ALL Time, at both CB and FS.

There is no legitimate way to possibly argue, he was worse than any standard or expectation.

Well put and spot on. The player won us so many games probably more than any other defensive player in team history.

A few youtube clips isn't going to change minds about Woodson's greatness.

[anpsteel]

Michael Irvin thought Woodson was soft and dominated hiim. Woodson often got torched.

this is such an odd, and off target take

As far as I can tell, as a corner, he would have played against Michael Irvin, possibly 3 times.

In 88 Irvin was a rookie, and Woodson didn't play corner that game.
In 91 Woodson was coming off an injury, and had no stats for the game
In the 96 Super Bowl, it was his first game back, after being out all but apx 1 quarter of 1 game, of the season.
In 97 he played the Cowboys as a Corner w/ the 49ers. This was the last season Rod played Corner.

So, to the best of my recollection and research, Michael Irvin is full of shit, and has no grounds to make that statement.

Woodson was anything but soft. He used to absolutely light up players...

as a defensive player- he is one of the very few, I have ever watched single handedly win a game for his team. That's even more uncommon, when the defender plays CB, because the Offense can just throw or run to the other side.

Also, Woodson is arguably a Top 5 player, ALL Time, at both CB and FS.

There is no legitimate way to possibly argue, he was worse than any standard or expectation.

Well put and spot on. The player won us so many games probably more than any other defensive player in team history.

A few youtube clips isn't going to change minds about Woodson's greatness.

There was a game, I believe it was against the Oilers, in a string of almost consecutive plays- he caused a fumble that was recovered by the Steelers. Then intercepted a pass, for a TD, and had a punt return for a TD...

Now this is about 40 years ago- so I could have the specifics a bit off- but Rod had some all world games, that are really only closely duplicated, in impact, by Harrison's game against the Ravens.

[anpsteel]

Michael Irvin thought Woodson was soft and dominated hiim. Woodson often got torched.

this is such an odd, and off target take

As far as I can tell, as a corner, he would have played against Michael Irvin, possibly 3 times.

In 88 Irvin was a rookie, and Woodson didn't play corner that game.
In 91 Woodson was coming off an injury, and had no stats for the game
In the 96 Super Bowl, it was his first game back, after being out all but apx 1 quarter of 1 game, of the season.
In 97 he played the Cowboys as a Corner w/ the 49ers. This was the last season Rod played Corner.

So, to the best of my recollection and research, Michael Irvin is full of shit, and has no grounds to make that statement.

Woodson was anything but soft. He used to absolutely light up players...

as a defensive player- he is one of the very few, I have ever watched single handedly win a game for his team. That's even more uncommon, when the defender plays CB, because the Offense can just throw or run to the other side.

Also, Woodson is arguably a Top 5 player, ALL Time, at both CB and FS.

There is no legitimate way to possibly argue, he was worse than any standard or expectation.

After Dracula Lambert, Woodson is my 2nd Fav All-Time Steeler. I remember playing the Oilers and Rod blitzed from the corner and lit up Warren Moon and knocked him silly. They showed a shot of Moon on the bench and his eyes were as big as silver dollars. Rod concussed him. I was so PO'd when the Steelers didn't resign him

Rod had some incredible games against the Oilers... and I'm with you on the team not re-signing him.

Even the organization has admitted their fault, and iirc, deems it as one of the worst decisions they've made, and regret.

[CKSteeler]

As a child, I was sad they let Woodson go.

If Woodson had stayed here, he would have insisted on playing CB still, failed, and perhaps ushered out the door unceremoniously. He was resistant, to moving to safety which is the only reason his career lasted the way it did.

[anpsteel]

As a child, I was sad they let Woodson go.

If Woodson had stayed here, he would have insisted on playing CB still, failed, and perhaps ushered out the door unceremoniously. He was resistant, to moving to safety which is the only reason his career lasted the way it did.

I agree on all points

[swissvale72]

Sadly, in his last game as a Steeler, Woodson was burned from the outset by Terry Glenn, in the Fog Bowl at Foxboro. That was the longest day of my life as a sports fan, sitting among the Patriots morons, heckling me, and my yelling back, in response to their chanting about Super Bowl, "I hope you do better than 46-10 this time!"

[anpsteel]

Sadly, in his last game as a Steeler, Woodson was burned from the outset by Terry Glenn, in the Fog Bowl at Foxboro. That was the longest day of my life as a sports fan, sitting among the Patriots morons, heckling me, and my yelling back, in response to their chanting about Super Bowl, "I hope you do better than 46-10 this time!"

Yeah, he was done as a Corner, certainly in the manner the Steelers were using him.

I'm assuming San Fran had him in more zone schemes the following season, but obviously that didn't work out either.

[Deebo]

And here it is…

https://twitter.com/Ol_TimeFootball/sta ... 04?lang=en

Not 1 MFing Bengal came to his defense. Were the Bengs just a bunch of pussies or what back then? (I was born in '78)

[swissvale72]

And here it is…

https://twitter.com/Ol_TimeFootball/sta ... 04?lang=en

Not 1 MFing Bengal came to his defense. Were the Bengs just a bunch of pussies or what back then? (I was born in '78)

Bengals were Bengals...that's never much changed.

[Louis Lipps Service]

I was only in my teens when Woodson played, and obviously the internet wasn't around, so I'm kind of shocked Woodson had this many detractors.

I only remember positive things about Woodson. But then again, I only really talked about the Steelers with family back then, and they weren't all that knowledgeable, in hindsight.

Reading through this argument, I'm wondering if Woodson wasn't the 90s Steelers version of Kris Letang. All-World talent, better than his detractors want to admit, but certainly prone to occasional brain farts that lead to big plays for the other team.