There are not many teams in North American sports that have a better reputation than the Pittsburgh Steelers. Consistency. A championship history with Hall of Fame head coaches and players.
Stable, great ownership is oftentimes cited as one of the driving forces behind all of it.
If you are paying attention, however, things might be starting to swing dramatically when it comes to the ownership. It might be bad. Especially if we are to take the results from the latest NFLPA player survey seriously (and we should).
Steelers ownership gets horrible reviews in player survey
The Rooney family has been held in high regard around the NFL for decades, and a lot of that stems from the success the team has had on the field. Which is understandable. Winning earns respect, and it masks a lot of flaws that might exist under the surface.
When the winning stops, however, the fun times have a tendency to stop with it.
Steelers fans have grown frustrated with ownership ever since Art Rooney II took the reins of the franchise and has seemingly lowered the expectations. He seems to be content to just finish with a winning record and make the playoffs, without really having much concern for whether or not they advance. The team has not won a playoff game since the 2016 season, and he has not really been in much hurry to make any significant changes.
While complacency might be frustrating for fans who want to see another championship, the far bigger concern might be what his own players think of him.
And it is apparently not much.
Rooney and the Steelers ownership ranked 32nd out of 32 teams in the player’s poll, whose results were reported by ESPN on Thursday.
The biggest issue players seem to have: The organization’s unwillingness to make investments in the team facilities as well as the way players’ families are treated.
The Steelers received F’s for treatment of families, the home-field playing surface, locker room facilities and team travel. Several of those were graded as an F-minus.
Ownership itself received a D-minus grade.
The only A’s went to the head coach (Mike Tomlin) and special teams coordinator (Danny Smith), who are no longer working for the organization.
This could be a problem going into the offseason.
Tomlin’s presence was a big draw for players, as he consistently graded out as the NFL head coach players most wanted to play for. Without his pull, there are not only concerns about the team’s ability to remain competitive, but there should also be some concerns about players wanted to choose Pittsburgh.
Word gets around, and if the current players are unhappy with the facilities, and the way they are treated, and if there is not a coach there who can bring players in, there’s only one other thing that can do it: money.
And that brings the whole thing back full circle. The Steelers do not always spend the most money in the NFL on their roster, and if they are not interested in fixing issues regarding the facility, there should be some real concern as to what sort of financial commitment they actually have. Facilities, training and staff are all areas that are uncapped and would be great for teams to find an extra edge over their opposition. As long as they are willing to make the investment.
Despite consistency in posting winning records and making the playoffs, the whole organization right now seems like a pretty big house of cards that is going to need something to stabilize it. They might not have a reputation as bad as, say, the Cleveland Browns or New York Jets on a national level, but it is pretty obvious there are some big issues lurking within the ownership.