Steelers Hall of Famer Mel Blount turned 75 on Monday. He celebrated the milestone by doing what he does every day on the 300-acre farm on 6 Mel Blount Drive in Buffalo Township, Washington County, that he has owned since 1989. He shoveled horse manure out of the stalls in his barn. He lugged buckets of water for his cows. He put up fences around his property.
For Blount, who looks as if he still could play for the Steelers, it was the perfect birthday.
"It's a good life," he said. "I don't deserve it. I thank God for it."
Even though Blount is most comfortable in work clothes and cowboy boots, he will put on his best black-tie outfit — with his trademark cowboy hat, of course — for his annual all-star celebrity roast on May 5 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Hotel. This year's honoree will be Troy Polamalu. Jerome Bettis will be the master of ceremonies. Ben Roethlisberger is expected to attend with many other Steelers, past and present.
"We did the first one in 1998 in honor of my 50th birthday," Blount said. "My wife said she was going to make it a fundraiser. I said, 'Are you crazy? Who is going to pay to come see me?'"
A crowd of 1,500, actually.
TiAnda Blount knew exactly what she was doing.
"We raised more than half a million dollars," Mel said. "That's when I told TiAnda, 'We need to do this every year.'"
Benefits from the roasts have enabled Blount to pursue his "life's work," to use his former coach Chuck Noll's words for life after football. Blount opened the Mel Blount Youth Home for troubled boys on his family's 2,700-acre farm in Vidalia, Ga., soon after he retired from the NFL in 1984. He opened a second youth home on his farm in Buffalo Township in 1990 and estimated he has touched the lives of thousands of kids.
"It's OK if people remember me for being a ballplayer," Blount said. "But I don't want that to be my legacy."
Blount said helping kids has always been "a part of my DNA." He explained during his Hall of Fame induction speech in August 1989: "They are the greatest resources this country has, our young people."
Blount elaborated during a day-long visit with him earlier this month at the Buffalo Township farm. He immediately mentioned his mother, Alice, who lived to be 103, "and still had three years left on her driver's license!"
"I was the youngest of 11 kids who lived," Blount said. "She had 15 kids in all. She also raised a lot of her cousins and nieces and nephews.
"Back in those days, the only thing Black people had was each other and church. Any time something was going on in the community, everybody met at the church. They talked about looking out for each other's family, the kids in particular."
It was on the Vidalia farm, Blount said, that he became a football star by running in the tobacco, cotton and corn fields. He became such a terrific cornerback who physically abused wide receivers that the NFL put in the "Mel Blount rule" in 1978 to prevent defensive backs from bumping receivers more than 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. "Guys like Deion [Sanders] and [Darrelle] Revis have told me it's my fault it's so hard to play the position now," Blount said, grinning.
But just as important to Blount, he became a man on that Vidalia farm. He lived through segregation in the Deep South. After the Steelers drafted him in the third round in 1970, he said it was "culture shock" when he got to Pittsburgh: "I had never seen tunnels or snow or high-rise buildings. I had never played with white players. I had never been coached by a white coach."
Blount didn't just survive. He thrived. He credited his upbringing.
"My whole makeup has always been based on family values and things I saw," he said. "Clean, wholesome living. Hard work. I know it pays off. Going to church. I know having faith is the foundation of your character. Respecting people. Treating people the way you want to be treated.
"Those values have been passed on in my family from generation to generation. They instilled in us that you can do anything if you're willing to pay a price. It doesn't matter where you come from. It's where you are going."
Blount said he purposely opened his youth homes in rural areas because he wanted kids to experience what he did.
"I'm a big believer that we're all a product of our environment. I'm a firm believer that what's happening today in these inner cities is because of the environment," he said. "Kids see drug deals going down. The drug dealer is the big guy in the community. Everybody thinks that's what they should do.
"When you see kids shooting and killing each other, they don't have respect for life or themselves or anybody else. It's a shame we're at that point in our history. Here, those kids can see the beauty of God's creation. They can see the beauty of life. Whether it's a tree or a plant or an animal, you see life in all kinds of forms here. You might ignore it, but you respect it."
Opening the youth home in Buffalo Township wasn't easy for Blount. In his Hall of Fame speech, he talked about the "racist attitudes" and "narrow-mindedness" of the township supervisors. He still talks about how the area was "Klan-invested." He closes his eyes and can see crosses being burned on the property across the street.
"I never ran from a challenge," Blount said. "You have to be willing to take a stand."
Blount housed 18-20 kids at any given time for 20 years at his youth home. He doesn't do it now but makes his facilities available for day or weekend visits.
"We're connected to a network of different youth organizations," Blount said. "We found a way to work with more kids for less dollars. We're actually affecting more kids."
Two busloads of students from East Palestine, Ohio — third grade to seventh grade — visited the farm on March 27, about seven weeks after a train derailment spilled toxic waste and turned their lives upside down.
"We just talked about overcoming adversity, about staying focused on your goals, regardless of what might be occurring," Blount said. "Don't get distracted by all the outside noise and the events that might be taking place in their community."
Blount pointed to a big hill on his property.
"We started a walk to the top, but it turned into a run," he said. "The beauty of it, it was like turning a horse out. They felt the freedom of being out here. It did my soul good to see them.
"When we got to the top, I talked about the journey from where we started. Here we were, on top of the mountain, and what it took to get there. That's like life. Some are going to get there quicker than others. But the important thing is you don't quit and get to where you want to get. When you get there, the view is a lot different than when you started. It is amazing."
Next up for Blount are a couple of major projects on the farm.
One is a football field.
"We've been doing Steelers rookie day here since Ben Roethlisberger was a rookie," Blount said. "All the Steelers rookies come out and work with the kids. We have kids from all over the community, 300 or 400 of them. We go through drills. We have counseling sessions. The players stand up and talk about their struggles and what their journey was like. They talked about how important it is to stay focused and the company you keep, your behavior.
"It's important for those young kids to hear that. Here's somebody that went through exactly what they're going through. And they made it. Why can't those kids?"
Blount's second planned project is an equestrian center. It's no surprise he wants to do something with horses. He has been riding all his life. He still rides every day, training cutting horses and riding in competitions. On this particular day, he was working with Lucky and Jubilee. It was an amazing sight, seeing a man, 75, doing something that involves so much strength.
"Studies have shown that horse riding is very therapeutic for the mentally challenged and the physically disabled," Blount said. "We want to provide therapeutic rides for handicapped kids, as well as for veterans who are coming back and trying to re-adjust to society.
"It was Winston Churchill, who said, 'The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.' I absolutely believe that."
Blount said his hope is to finish the projects in his lifetime. His 75th birthday didn't remind him of his mortality as much as Franco Harris' death on Dec. 21 did, just three days before the Steelers were going to retire Harris' No. 32. Joe Greene called Blount in the middle of the night to give him the heart-breaking news.
"I'm still struggling with it," Blount said. "Franco was an icon, not just to football fans, but to his peers. He was the most kind, loving person. He was a special guy."
Blount's teammates will tell you the same thing about him. That's why Terry Bradshaw agreed to come back to Pittsburgh to emcee Blount's 50th birthday dinner. That's why Polamalu, Bettis and Roethlisberger will be at the May 5 affair.
Even some of the Steelers' biggest rivals have attended the roasts. The late, great Bum Phillips, who coached the Houston Oilers, was there when Noll was feted in 1999. He said that night he came because of Blount.
"Hated Mel when he played," Phillips said. "Like him now. He's a great human being."
