Steelers Brutal Week 13 Loss Should Have Fans Turning Frustrated Eyes Towards Art Rooney II

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the model franchise in the Super Bowl era. Pete Rozelle, the former commissioner of the NFL, envisioned a league where every team was competitive on a year-in, year-out basis after the AFL-NFL merger. The Steelers are the living embodiment of that dream. The Steelers have only had seven losing seasons since their first playoff victory in 1972. Pittsburgh hasn’t had consecutive losing seasons in the twenty-first century.

Something has changed in Pittsburgh. It didn’t happen overnight, but the once-high standards of the Rooney family have been lowered. An entire generation of fans has not seen the Steelers win a championship. Pittsburgh is celebrating the 15th anniversary of the last Super Bowl championship for a team that has never been more irrelevant in the Super Bowl Era.

On Sunday in Week 13, the Steelers lost to a two-win dome team at Acrisure Stadium during a driving rain storm. The Arizona Cardinals didn’t just beat Mike Tomlin’s team. They embarrassed them. The Steelers lost Kenny Pickett to an ankle injury for several weeks. Seven wins in 12 tries in 2023 have them slipping back towards the standard. Old-school fans rail against this particular “Tomlinism” because their definition and the current reality are diametrically opposed.

Since 1972, Pittsburgh has played in 16 AFC Championship games and appeared in eight Super Bowls. The Steelers appeared in the game five times during the 1970s and twice in the 1980s under Chuck Noll. They made it to the game three times in the 1990s and three times under Bill Cowher in the 2000s. Tomlin made the game in his second season in 2008-'09 and again in 2010-'11. His final appearance in the game was in 2016-'17, which began the current four-game playoff losing streak that has now stretched over seven years.

Dan Rooney, the true architect of the Steelers Way, ran the team's day-to-day operations from 1969-2003. He hired Noll and Cowher and was responsible for the Rooney rule that requires franchises to interview minority candidates. It is a disservice to Tomlin and the organization to label the current head coach as a beneficiary of the rule. Tomlin was a Hall of Fame coach at one time. That time has passed. 

This isn't unique to Tomlin. Noll was grooming Tony Dungy to take over the Steelers in the 1980s, but the second half of that decade made it impossible to protect him from the owner-mandated 1988 coaching purge. In 2003, Rooney stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the Steelers and empowered his son, Art Rooney II, to manage the team. It got off to a promising start.

During his first decade in charge, the Steelers made four AFC Championship games and appeared in three Super Bowls. Pittsburgh won its fifth and sixth Super Bowls and narrowly missed a third in Super Bowl XLVI after a Rashard Mendenhall fumble killed what looked like the game-winning drive. It was a devastating blow for the team and fans, and the fundamental change in the organization began in the aftermath of that game.

The Steelers' defense was aging, and the team needed to be rebuilt on that side of the ball. They also had a franchise quarterback who needed pieces around him to be successful. The Steelers evolved to take advantage of Ben Roethlisberger’s talent, but the owner saw it as an opportunity to impose his will on his head coach and forced him to fire Bruce Arians and hire Todd Haley. Haley draws praise for the team's offensive success in the Killer B era, but it produced exactly one AFC Championship Game appearance.

The current Mr. Rooney undercut his coach after a Super Bowl appearance under the guise of protecting his franchise quarterback and shifted the power dynamic. The seemingly never-ending parade of unqualified assistants the Steelers have hired since directly resulted from that decision. It has long been rumored that Tomlin does not like to hire assistants who have strong voices that could contradict him. Is it possible that is an emotional scar that ownership inflicted on him?

That does not excuse Tomlin from his responsibility as the leader of the team. He seems to have devolved into petulance. The string of coaches not named Brian Flores and Mike Munchak indicates that Tomlin refuses to consider qualified coaches Rooney would approve of in favor of some all-time bad hires. He has been slowly losing his grip on the locker room, and in 2023, the failure is complete. This is the most undisciplined group of Steelers in the Super Bowl era.

Steelers' Jaylen Warren Has Shocking Admission After Devastating Loss

Diontae Johnson celebrated a meaningless fourth-quarter touchdown against the Cardinals in his latest outburst, as he had just won the Super Bowl. The best defensive player on the planet, TJ Watt, has been reduced to complaining about the NFL’s bias against him. Mason Cole was so miserable at snapping the ball on Sunday that he finished Pittsburgh with a horrible snap that Mitch Trubisky could not handle. After the game, he refused any individual accountability. Jaylen Warren admitted they may have taken the now three-win team too lightly.

Where have you gone, Dan Rooney? Steeler Nation turns its frustrated eyes to you. The players are openly revolting. Canada bore the blame for Najee Harris, George Pickens and Johnson’s outbursts. It is a much deeper issue when Watt starts blaming outside forces for the Steelers' struggles. The current owner undercut the current head coach over a decade ago, and it has now devolved to the point that the Steelers are dysfunctional.

The Steelers need leadership, and it is apparent that the current Rooney in the owner’s box does not know how to provide it. Omar Khan, if empowered, might be the solution, but it would be a challenging needle to thread. Daniel Rooney III is waiting in the wings for his opportunity to run the team. At 71 years old, maybe it is time for the owner to admit that the only hope left to break the current malaise is to empower the former Dartmouth backup quarterback. He could hardly do worse.

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Is the organizational rot set in so deep that only a complete overhaul in leadership will fix it? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq. 

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