Bud Carson Leon H . " Bud " Carson ( – ) was an American football coach best known for his role on the Pittsburgh Steelers ' championship teams of the 1970s . Player . Carson played defensive back for North Carolina from 1949 to 1951 , then entered the Marines . Coach . Georgia Tech . After his discharge from the Marines , he went into coaching , working at Georgia Tech under head coach Bobby Dodd . Carson took over as head coach in 1967 . Under Carson , the Yellow Jackets endured three straight 4 - 6 seasons before going 9 - 3 and winning the Sun Bowl in 1970 . In 1971 , Tech finished 6 - 6 after a Peach Bowl loss . His dismissal as Head Coach of the Yellow Jackets by James E . Boyd was reported in the Atlanta Constitution under the headline " Bitter Bud Carson Is Ousted at Tech " . In 1970 the GT Band began playing the Budweiser tune after the end of the 3rd quarter . In tribute to the then head coach the words were actually sung as , " When you say Bud Carson , you ' ve said it all ! " While at Georgia Tech , he designed and implemented the " Cover 2 " defensive scheme that has been adapted and widely used by the NFL . NFL . Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll hired Carson as defensive backs coach in 1972 . He was elevated to defensive coordinator in 1973 . Under Carson , the " Steel Curtain " developed as one of the best defenses in National Football League history . The unit , led by Jack Lambert , Mel Blount , Jack Ham and Mean Joe Greene , gave up fewer points than any other American Football Conference team in Pittsburgh ' s Super Bowl seasons of 1974 and 1975 . In 1976 , the Curtain gave up fewer than 10 points a game . After the 1977 season , Carson took over the defensive - coordinator job with the Los Angeles Rams , who lost to the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV . He later served on the coaching staffs of the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Colts before running the New York Jets ' defense from 1985 to 1988 . He finally landed a head - coaching job with the Cleveland Browns for the 1989 season after Marty Schottenheimer was fired after a wild card playoff loss to the Houston Oilers in 1988 . Cleveland won the AFC Central Division in 1989 ; however , for the third time in four years , the Browns losing to John Elway ' s Denver Broncos in the conference championship game 37 - 21 . Browns owner Art Modell fired Carson halfway through the 1990 season , following a 42 - 0 home loss to the eventual 1990 AFC Champion Buffalo Bills . Browns ' offensive coordinator Jim Shofner became head coach and the demoralized Browns finished the season with a franchise worst 3 - 13 record . Save for a 13 - 10 win over the Atlanta Falcons , the Browns were outscored 217 - 87 , including being shutout 35 - 0 by bitter rival Pittsburgh Steelers and being crushed in a humiliating 58 - 14 loss to the rival Houston Oilers . In the AFC Central Division rival games , the Browns won on opening day in a defensive gem over the Steelers 13 - 3 , but then the Browns lost their remaining five AFC Central games outscored by combined totals of 183 - 64 . Ironically , the immediate predecessor to Coach Carson and former head coach of the Cleveland Browns Marty Schottenheimer led his Kansas City Chiefs to an 11 - 5 won - loss record and a wild card playoff appearance in the 1990 NFL season . Adding more insult to injury , the Chiefs defeated the Browns 34 - 0 in Week Four . Carson returned for successful stints as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Eagles ( his 1991 crew pulled the rare feat of being ranked # 1 versus the pass , # 1 versus the rush , and # 1 overall ) and Rams — by then in St . Louis — before retiring in 1997 due to health concerns . Family . Carson , a long - time smoker , died in 2005 of emphysema . He was married to Linda Carson , an anchorwoman at Sarasota television station WWSB . His daughter Cathi Carson is the sports reporter at two Jacksonville stations in Jacksonville WTEV and WAWS and was formerly a reporter at WWSB . He also had a son , Cliff , and a daughter , Dana , as well as a stepson , Gary Ford .