The Tribune-Review sports staff is conducting a daily countdown of the best players in Pittsburgh pro and college sports history to wear each jersey number.

No. 95: Greg Lloyd

Bryan Cox didn’t believe Greg Lloyd knocked Dan Marino “into next week” with a particularly ferocious hit in a game at Joe Robbie Stadium in 1995.

“I don’t think it was next week,” Cox, a Miami Dolphins linebacker, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “But I think he’s at about Saturday by now.”

Lloyd was, perhaps, the most intimidating Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker of all-time (OK, perhaps, he’s in a tie with Jack Lambert), and he is the Tribune-Review sports staff’s choice for the Pittsburgh athlete who made the most indelible impact wearing No. 95.

In the week before the Steelers’ 23-10 loss to the Dolphins, Lloyd said he planned to knock Marino into next week.

Actually, Lloyd did drive Marino into the turf after he released a pass in the third quarter. The Dolphins quarterback suffered a bruised sternum, was on the ground for several minutes and did not return, but Lloyd was not penalized.

“From what I was told, it was a fine hit,” Marino said. “He plays hard, and he’s just a good player. I just got caught in an awkward position.”

Lloyd authored many hard hits throughout his 11-year NFL career, 10 with the Steelers. It’s a testament to the Steelers’ ability to discover and develop pass rushers that Lloyd’s 53 ½ career sacks rank only seventh in team history. He totaled 791 tackles, including 64 and one more sack with the Carolina Panthers in his final season (1998).

He also forced 35 fumbles, recovered 16 and intercepted 11 passes in his career. He was a three-time All-Pro and was named to five Pro Bowls.

Lloyd, who was not invited to the NFL Combine, was discovered at Fort Valley (Ga.) State by Tom Donahoe, then a Steelers scout, later the team’s director of football operations and today the senior director of player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Lloyd was the 150th player and 28th linebacker drafted that year.

He made his mark quickly, getting ejected in the first game of the 1988 season for a hit on the Denver Broncos’ Gary Kubiak.

In 1989, he pantomimed a pro wrestling referee, counting out New York Jets wide receiver Al Toon after he suffered his ninth concussion on a hit by Steelers safety Thomas Everett. Years later, Lloyd said he acted inappropriately, but in today’s NFL, he would have been fined or suspended.

Lloyd also was infamous for dropping a curse word on national television during a postgame speech to his teammates after the Steelers’ victory against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game Jan. 14, 1996.

Unshaken, NBC’s Greg Gumbel said, “Greg Lloyd flunking the on-air audition.”

Lloyd’s competition among others who wore No. 95 in Pittsburgh includes:

• The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Aleksey Morozov, who scored 84 goals, with 135 assists in seven seasons. He also won a silver medal with the Russian team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Three months ago, he was appointed president of the Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League.

• Gateway graduate and Pitt defensive lineman Bob Buczkowski, who was a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1987. He also played for the Phoenix Cardinals and Cleveland Browns in a three-year career.

‘Burgh’s Best to Wear It

No. 99

No. 98

No. 97

No. 96

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