Sell the team!

May sound ridiculous and out of possibility but until the Rooneys no longer own the Steelers there will be not enough changes to win again. At least contend for a championship. It's a dumpster fire and nobody at the top works towards very needed drastic changes.

 

Hard salary cap, equal revenue sharing and tv contracts make it easier for inept owners being able to hold on to their sports teams in the NFL.

MLB should make that a number 1 point in their next agreement meeting in 2026.

 

I am not happy with the way Rooney has handled Tomlin but selling the team. Come on! We are fortunate to have an owner who loves both the team and the city and he is loyal to both. We are not a large market team in the sense are population is much smaller than many other markets. An owner that lacks any loyalty to the city and fan base could pull this team in a heart beat and go to a new city with a better stadium etc. you don’t think it can’t happen. See the Oakland Raiders as an example.

 

Sounds familiar
Like the Pirates organization

 

I won't vouch for selling the team, but I'll vouch for handing over team president to Dan III

 

The Steelers have such a huge fan base that they could sell the team to a much more dedicated ownership, tear down Acricrap stadium, build a modern upgrade and fill hotels every Sunday. The way they are going hometown fans will stop showing up. Nobody will travel to see them and they will fade to that of the Pittsburgh Pirate level.

 

Has to be better than Art Jr.

 

Yeah no.


AR II being stubborn doesn't warrant the team to be sold. Him stepping down would be the better plan here. Should DMR III continue this?! There will be an argument to be made.


That said, that is looking way too far into the future with too much assumptions.

 

Why is he Dan III? His grandfather, Art II's father was Dan. Was that Dan II? Was there an earlier Dan too?

 

Get someone not name Dan or Art to run the club. Start the change by going with anyone with a unique name.

 

Be careful what you wish for...

 

I doubt that will happen. I do know that I vowed I wouldn’t go to a game in Pittsburgh till Tomlin was gone. 2021 was my last game. I used to do a couple home games and a road game every year. I’ll be back once we have a new Head coach.

 

I wish the Steelers would field a competitive team that can be playoff and SB contenders. I haven’t seen that in a decade.

 

The owners who depend on the nfl team for their income are obsolete. He is a dodo bird and a detriment to the Steelers winning. Throw in his handling of tomlin where a change has been needed for years. We have the smallest coaching staff and now need a new stadium. Lean times ahead

 

We just need a coaching change.

 

Two words.... Jimmy Haslam. There are some bad ownership groups in pro sports. You can do a lot worse than the Rooneys. And I do mean a lot worse. I know we are all mad right now, but let's not be stupid.

 

Death and Family is your road to the Rooney's selling the team.

I saw it here in Colorado when the Broncos owner died and then passed the team down to all his family members. Half the family wanted to keep the team and the other half wanted the money. The court would eventually make the family sell the team to the highest bidder and divide up the money. Like the Rooney's the franchise was the Family's main source of income, so the family members who wanted to keep the team did not have enough money to buy out the other family members.

 

Well Elon Musk is a steeler fan...

 

He's the world's first trillionaire so money shouldn't be a problem, lol

 

That was the answer in Washington, but they had a really crappy owner for sure.

As I've said many times over, I grew up with the Rooney's thanks to my father's business interest with "The Chief."
Art had issues with the team performing very poorly and it really wasn't till he hired that guy named Noll that his image changed.
Art loved the team and his players even if they went 0-fer.
He stood by all his players and coaches, and employees for that matter.
I don't see a Bob Nutting situation here. BTW, MLB should force him to straighten up or sell. He is not as slimy as Snyder, but he is a terrible owner.

Back to the Steelers.
I am pretty sure that after last evenings public display of ineptness, the writing is on the wall that Mike Tomlin is done.
The Post Gazette's Ray Fittipaldo hit the nail on the head.
19 years is an eternity in the NFL and 18 non-losing seasons is a quite a feat.
That all should end this year.

We can bristle and scuff at his accomplishments and bring up all sorts of shoulda/woulda/coulda points but it is tough to win in the NFL and the ultimate glory of winning a Super Bowl is very elusive in these days and times. I don't think we'll see a 16-1 team anymore.. I think dynasties are a thing of the past.
But that is just my gut feelings.

The Rooney's are behind the scenes and unfamiliarity breeds' suspicion.
There's no doubt that 19 years has in fact set some loyalty and I think that 18 years of being in the race has built a sense of hope.

When I look out of the press box or even from the sidelines as a visiting team, especially the last 5-7 years, Tomlins team looks like it is playing 1970's style football.
Ben Rothlisberger had the ability during his prime to shrug that off and make plays, he's actually better than some may think because of that.

The shortcomings are as follows.
- Tomlin has grown to stubborn about his staff.
- Austin never was a great mind as a Defensive Coordinator. He's only been in that spot for 4 years after inheriting it from the retirement of Keith Butler.
- Austin defense has the distinct accomplishment of giving up 500+ yards in 3 straight games for which Cincinnati sent him packing after coaching only till November the same year of his hiring.
- There have been several Defensive Coordinators available that have been very successful, and Tomlin did not see the need to make that change despite the failure on the field. He's almost repeated that historic accomplishment.
- The total blunder of promoting Matt Canada to Offensive Coordinator, a joke to the NFL. I don't need to go about that mess.

Of course, the Rooney's and yes, I repeat again, the front office share blame too for ignoring the failure on the field.
Tomlin by rumor has had free rein on input of players and staff and stubbornly stuck with them despite the on-field failures stacking up.
There is no absolution for this group to allow that, they own blame too.
The philosophy from operations seems to be quantity over quality. They've not found the impact players but have found guys that can play as support.
Sunday evening, we watched the pride of their endeavors, the offensive line fail as they could not open holes against the 30th ranked run defense?!
Now one does have to consider another coaching flaw in the OL Coach Myers and his part in that. It is the Offensive Line Coach to come up with a game plan of how to block the opponent to execute the offenses overall game plan.

Then there's the glaringly obvious WR situation. So, the blame goes across the board for the failure to acquire anyone remotely presenting a threat to the opposing defense.
I spent a while chatting with a colleague from Buffalo as he waited on his flight, and his words rang out my sentiments exactly, "there is no threat other than Metcalf and as long as we keep him in short game, he can't hurt us." I think Ray must have spoken to him too as he mentioned same.
Readers should really know that there have been a lot of GM firings for less.
But in this case, the waters are muddled because of "Tomlin's interference" which yet again, GM's have been fired for allowing.
I do agree that Mr Rooney needs to step in and remedy that and the only real solution is letting Tomlin go and putting the weight on the front office to come up with the next innovative mind to take the team helm... let them do their jobs.

I will say that I do like Mike Tomlin, but it is bluntly obvious that his time in Pittsburgh has come to a close amid those very vocal chants of "Fire Mike Tomlin" and it is a shame that it will be a losing season.

 

Acrisure is only 25 years old and you think they need a NEW stadium? However have the Packers and Bears survived?

 

Great post, summing up the issues well.
Thanks for the insight.

It does look ominous for Tomlin at this stage. Even if they rally a little and win the division I think everyone on football can see that it is time for change.

 

I agree.
It is a stale situation, and the blame goes across the board.
It's a hard call to make for someone you've worked with for 19 years, but business is business and our product is demonstratable bad.
Our QB mentioned a poor coaching point in that a WR missed the film prep and missed assignment as a result.
It's just the tip of the iceberg of short comings.
Art has 5 games to prepare his termination talk with Mike and it won't be easy but at this point, there's really no way out of it, unless Mike sees the writing on the wall and resigns as he should.