It takes a lot to become one of the most storied organizations in all of North American professional sports. Yet that’s what the Steelers have been able to do over the last couple of decades. Pittsburgh has been a consistent winner, and with six Super Bowl championships, the Steelers have cemented themselves as one of the league’s most iconic teams.
However, that recognition may be starting to slip without a playoff win in nearly a decade now. And it’s not just slipping on the field. With the NFLPA report cards being leaked this week, the Steelers got several terrible grades. Pittsburgh received a few F’s, including treatment of families, home game field, locker room and team travel. Overall, they came in dead last of all 32 teams.
To Colin Cowherd, it’s a sign that the organization might be falling from grace. He compares them to the Cincinnati Bengals, who he thinks are now on the same level.
“The Rooney’s have always had a reputation as good people, but cheap. And you know, it used to be the Steelers were up here, and the Bengals were down there. And now they’re contemporaries,” Cowherd said Friday on FS1’s The Herd. “How can you butcher team travel? By the way, the head coach and the special teams coordinator, they got A’s on this report card, they’re both gone. So the average grade is gonna plummet for the Steelers… I think some of these owners need to be called out.”
Cowherd isn’t wrong to call the Steelers out here. Sharing facilities and fields does make it things harder in terms of the locker room and the playing surface, so those grades are more understandable. But there really isn’t an excuse for the Steelers to be getting F’s in things like the treatment of families and team travel.
One thing is for sure: The Steelers’ players don’t take pride in the team’s ownership. That grade came in at a D-, the second worst in the league. As Cowherd notes, the Steelers only received A’s for their head coach and special teams coordinator, each of whom are gone now.
For what it’s worth, there still are some differences between the Steelers and the Bengals. Aside from Cincinnati’s Super Bowl run a few years ago, the Steelers have mostly been more successful on the field recently. The Bengals also had some ugly contract disputes with Shemar Stewart and Trey Hendrickson just last offseason.
However, this is another sign that the Steelers haven’t been trending in the right direction as a franchise. On the field, the standard clearly isn’t being met. And it’s not being met off the field, either. Some things aren’t entirely in the Steelers’ control, but Cowherd isn’t wrong to call them out for some of these poor grades.
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