Medical Emergency Caused Steelers To Scramble Before First Game

The Pittsburgh Steelers looked reasonably organized Thursday night, which is exactly why Mike McCarthy's explanation the next day was so revealing. From the seats at Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh's 28-9 preseason win looked like normal first-game football: young quarterbacks getting their chance, a new staff finding its rhythm and far too many penalty flags. Behind the sideline, however, the Steelers were solving a problem that had almost nothing to do with the Green Bay Packers.

McCarthy hinted at the issue immediately after the game. He acknowledged that the staff had been forced to make adjustments because of last-minute administrative changes, but he did not explain what had actually happened. That left an unusual loose end attached to an otherwise straightforward preseason victory.

By Friday, McCarthy was ready to provide more context. The problem involved Steve Scarnecchia, Pittsburgh's chief of staff and one of the people McCarthy relies on to keep the football operation moving around him.

Scarnecchia's title can sound vague until his job description is unpacked. The Steelers list him as a 17-year NFL veteran entering his sixth season as a chief of staff after previous stops with the New York Jets and Atlanta Falcons. His previous work has centered on coordinating meetings, schedules and football operations.

Scarnecchia is assigned to many of the details a head coach would rather not discover are missing five minutes before kickoff. Pittsburgh's training-camp coverage offered a glimpse earlier this month, noting that Scarnecchia handled the megaphone during a situational period while game-management assistant Tim Berbenich watched the clock.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, McCarthy explained why his first preseason game with Pittsburgh required more improvisation than anyone watching from the stands could have known.

“We were really challenged last night,” he said. “Our ace, Steve Scarnecchia, had a medical situation, and he was attended to. He’s my chief of staff, and he’s the guy that’s in charge of everything, especially the little things. A challenging opportunity for us as a coaching staff, football operations, especially the first game out the door. There was a lot of running around, frankly, behind the scenes and making sure we had everything buttoned up.”

McCarthy did not disclose the nature of Scarnecchia's medical situation, and there is no reason to speculate beyond what he provided. What he did make clear was how much the situation changed the workload around the rest of the operation.

That description also explains why McCarthy called Scarnecchia his “ace.” The details he oversees are supposed to blend into the background because everything reaches the correct person at the correct moment. When the person coordinating many of those details suddenly has to step away, dozens of small responsibilities can become visible very quickly. Scarnecchia's official duties are broad enough to touch the team's daily schedule, football calendar and administrative operation, so McCarthy was not exaggerating when he described the amount of running around required.

Pittsburgh was dealing with that on the first night the entire new operation had been asked to function in a game. McCarthy was coaching his first contest for his hometown franchise, his assistants were working together in new roles under actual game conditions, and the organization was learning which routines held up once the controlled environment of training camp disappeared. The 28-9 victory officially became the first game of the McCarthy era, making the behind-the-scenes disruption an especially inconvenient introduction.

The final product did not advertise the scramble. Pittsburgh won by 19 points, and nothing about the evening suggested the coaching and operations staffs were redistributing responsibilities on short notice. From the outside, it looked much more like an ordinary preseason opener than a staff trying to cover for one of McCarthy's most trusted organizational figures.

Preseason games are designed to expose procedural problems before the standings count. Pittsburgh unexpectedly received a test of its contingency plan, too, and the staff kept the game operation functioning while Scarnecchia was being attended to.

Scarnecchia's importance also provides more context for one of McCarthy's quieter organizational changes. Pittsburgh gave him a specialized chief of staff to absorb meaningful operational work, and Scarnecchia is in his first season holding that position with the Steelers. McCarthy's reaction Friday made it obvious the job has quickly become intertwined with how the new staff functions.

Steelers Got An Unexpected Test Of Their New Operation

The easiest way to evaluate a coaching staff in August is to watch the football. Pittsburgh can grade its protection, tackling and penalties because all of them appear on film. The machinery required to get a team through game day is harder to judge unless something disrupts it.

Thursday provided that disruption earlier than McCarthy would have wanted. Scarnecchia's medical situation forced coaches and football operations personnel to redistribute tasks while preparing for the first game of a new era. For a staff still establishing its routines, that is about as inconvenient a dress rehearsal as the Steelers could have drawn.

It also gave McCarthy information he could not have created during a practice at Saint Vincent College. He now knows how his staff responds when a key organizer suddenly cannot handle everything originally assigned to him. Pittsburgh can review where communication became difficult, which responsibilities needed immediate coverage and whether any part of its game-day process needs a stronger backup plan.

There are more important concerns than football whenever a medical situation is involved, and McCarthy appropriately stopped short of offering details that were not necessary. From an organizational standpoint, the episode still revealed how central Scarnecchia has already become to Pittsburgh's new setup.

McCarthy's first Steelers game ended with a comfortable win on the scoreboard. Behind it was something much less comfortable, a new staff discovering in real time whether it could keep all the little things buttoned up when the man normally responsible for them suddenly had something far more important to deal with.

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