RIP Mr. Rooney 1932-2017

Last Thursday, Pittsburgh lost a native son.  Dan Rooney, former chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers and United States Ambassador to Ireland, passed away at the age of 84.

Mr. Rooney was born in 1932, one year before his father, Art "The Chief" Rooney founded the Pittsburgh Pirates Football Club--or the first iteration of the Steelers.  At five years old, he was already involved with the franchise working as a water boy, and he later met his wife, Patricia, in the office of the Steelers where she was working.

Much of the successes of the Steelers and that of the National Football League are due to Mr. Rooney's contributions.  It was Mr. Rooney, the general manager, who selected Chuck Noll to lead the team from mediocrity in 1969 to a record four Super Bowl victories during the Steel Curtain Dynasty.  It was Mr. Rooney, the former accounting major from Duquesne University, who crafted the modern unrestricted free agent system in 1992 that resulted in higher player salaries.  And it was Mr. Rooney, the owner, who urged the NFL to create more opportunities for minorities to earn high-level coaching and administrative positions in what ultimately became known as the 'Rooney Rule'.

Mr. Rooney had a lifelong commitment to advancing the relationship between the American and Irish people.  In 1976, he and former CEO of the H.J. Heinz Corporation, Anthony O'Reilly, founded the Ireland Fund, which promotes peace, culture, and charity.  The nongovernmental organization has increased its world exposure, sprouting chapters in 12 other countries and has raised over $550 million since its inception.  Mr. Rooney's nationalist relations with Ireland also made him an apt choice to serve as the US Ambassador to the country under President Barack Obama. From July 1st, 2009 to December 14th, 2012, Ambassador Rooney served his appointment, and to date, he is the only ambassador to have visited all 32 counties in Ireland. 

Despite his world adventures and despite the level of prominence he elevated the Steelers franchise, Mr. Rooney always considered the North Side of Pittsburgh to be his home.  He was an accessible man, walking to Pirates games and frequenting local spots in the neighborhood, like Gus & Yia Yia's storied icy ball stand or Legends, an Italian-style eatery next to Allegheny General Hospital.  Tailgaters could mingle with the owner on game days as he traveled the five minutes down North Shore Drive from his house to Heinz Field in a black golf cart.

Dan Rooney is survived by his wife, Patricia, and their seven children.  The eldest of them is Art Rooney II, the current owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  His memory lives on in the hearts and minds of Steelers past and present as well as inside the people of Pittsburgh.  Following his death, Obama recounted his friendship with Mr. Rooney saying, "he was a model citizen and someone who represented the United States with dignity and grace on the world stage...a championship-caliber good man."

A public viewing is being held for Dan Rooney later this afternoon at Heinz Field from 2pm to 7pm at the PNC Champions Club inside the stadium.  On Tuesday, a funeral mass is scheduled to take place at Saint Paul Cathedral in Oakland. 

Stairway to Seven

Lynn Swann and John Stallworth circa 1975.

I walked up to the fourth floor court, locked-in for a playoff wiffle ball game last spring.  You go up there to get away from the much more frequented gym and basketball courts on the lower floors, or to play collegiate intramural sports in my case.  I opened the glass doors to some early hitting practice when my teammate shouted, "You smell that? It's the playoffs baby!"  Although normally just a particularly cold part of the Health and Wellness Center, the court that day did have a different aroma.  I can't describe it exactly, maybe it was just in my head, but the air was a lot crisper, untouched by the sweat and panting breaths that were about to envelope the room. It was the brewing tension between two teams knowing it was a a win-or-go-home scenario that you could have cut with a knife.

I'm sure this is how playoff football teams feel heading into Wild Card weekend, although intensified by thousands of screaming fans, future pay days, and the desire to be world champions.  The playoff air though, is something the Pittsburgh Steelers plan to breathe in every year, and something Stillers Nation has come to expect.  After being eliminated in last year's divisional round to the eventual Super Bowl 50 champion Denver Broncos, Lombardi Trophy aspirations began to stir.  While absences from a concussed Antonio Brown and injured Le'veon Bell hindered our offensive production in that game, it was also clear our defense had some more construction to be done to it.  The Steelers' first three draft picks cornerback Artie Burns, safety Sean Davis, and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave played early and often as the coaching staff looked to accelerate their learning curves.  Burns got burned as experienced quarterbacks looked to roast the fresh meat out of the University of Miami.  Unfortunately, some of those plays, like the Ravens' Mike Wallace's 94-yard slant route touchdown catch in Week 9, really stymied the Steelers chances of victory, and for several weeks in a row they struggled to find their footing.  As the younger players were indoctrinated into Stillers football, learning the history and philosophy of our game, those splash plays have been gradually diminished, keeping the defense tenth in opponents points per game and allowing our offense to finish games off.

As dominant as the Stillers have been in December and January, sports pundits and Las Vegas betting booths are first favoring the Patriots, Falcons, Cowboys and Chiefs to win Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas.  Since 2001, Tom Brady's rookie year, the Patriots have participated in ten AFC conference championships and four Super Bowl titles.  They have been a fixture in playoff football and a thorn in the side of the Pittsburgh Steelers; the clear power of the NFL for the past two decades.  After surviving the ridicule and consequences of Deflate Gate, the Patriots are 14-2 on the strength of Brady's 28 touchdowns and record-breaking 2 interceptions.  Aside from the home-field advantage, in which New England is 15-3 at Gillette Stadium in the last fifteen years, the Patriots will be difficult to stop due to their well-oiled offensive and defensive machines.  Brady is complemented by brusiing running back LeGarrette Blount who tallied a League-high 18 rushing touchdowns this season.  Their defense on the other hand, ranks top three in rush yards allowed per game and first in points allowed per game with 15.6.

The Cowboys' season started out as a surprise--Tony Romo suffered another back injury and the rookie phenoms, Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot, were performing like they'd been in the NFL for years.  The only team to beat Dallas' rookie duo was the New York Football Giants who are also in the playoffs.  My only question for America's Team is at what point do Prescott and Elliot hit that "rookie wall"?  For as successful as their season has been, finishing 13-2 in the games they played, the Cowboys have yet to play the best defense in the NFC--the Seattle Seahawks.  If both teams meet in the NFC Championship game, it will be interesting to see how a rookie quarterback and a rookie running back match up against the vaunted, Super Bowl winning Legion of Boom.

Much like the Steelers, the Green Bay Packers were in dire straits near the halfway point of the season.  Starting the season 4-6, Green Bay went on to finish their regular season on a six-game winning streak, clinching their division championship over the wild card-bound Detroit Lions in the final week of the season.  Any time Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the ball, their team is a threat to score.  Having three receivers in Jordy Nelson, Davante Adams and Randall Cobb who have hauled in a collective 30 touchdowns creates a vertical game that defenses will struggle to adjust to.  Green Bay's defense, which ranks 21st or lower in points allowed per game and yards allowed per game, will be its weak point the deeper in the playoffs they go. 

January 5th, 2003- the Steelers came back from a 17 point deficit to defeat the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round. Courtesy of Steelers.com 

On a seven-game winning streak, with an offense scoring at-will and a defense rounding into postseason form, the Pittsburgh Stillers are still being overlooked.  And that's fine.  That's how we like it; we've won the world championship before as underdogs.  Remember when Jerome Bettis fumbled on the two yard line of the Indianapolis Colts in 2005? No? That's because Ben Roethlisberger, then in his second year, tackled defensive back Nick Harper, keeping the Colts from taking a late-game lead in the Divisional round, consequently sending us to Denver where we won the AFC title.  That year, Super Bowl XL, was the first year in NFL history in which a six-seeded team won all four playoff games.  Nobody saw the Stillers coming then, but we did it for The Bus.

If I'm any other team in the AFC, I'm scared to play the Stillers.  For one, the Stillers are playing alongside a motivational figure, hungry to leave the game atop the mountain.  "Silverback" James Harrison, probably the most feared player in the league--still--has made it known that at thirty-eight years old this may be his final season.  leading the team this season in sacks and surpassing Jason Gildon as Pittsburgh's all-time sack leader, Harrison has been nstrumental in turning the tide of the Steelers defense.  Young players on the roster got a glimpse of the amount of energy and time it takes to perform in the NFL at an elite level by watching Harrison hurling weights across the room; they want to win for him.  Other veteran leaders who have won super bowls with Harrison, like Ben Roethlisberger and linebacker Lawrence Timmons, want to be in Houston this year because they are not done cementing their legacies.  In speaking to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler on how he cut out fast food from his diet, Timmons spoke about hit legacy saying, "You can't be any other NFL linebacker when you're a Pittsburgh Steeler.  I feel I'm an unfinished product." 

Moreover, the Steelers are dangerous because they have the most potent offensive weapons at wide-receiver and running back in Antonio Brown and Le'veon Bell respectively.  Despite moments of discontinuity for the Pittsburgh offense, there was never a moment when Brown and Bell were not a threat to score.  AB84 found himself double and triple-teamed from start to finish of the season, while players such as Vontaze Burfict have maliciously hit Bell with the intent to injure.  Yet, in the last four years, Anotnio Brown has amassed 480 receptions, the most in NFL history over that time span, surpassing the great Marvin Harrison.  Le'veon Bell set his own league record this year, too, becoming the first player to average at least 100 rushing yards and 50 receiving yards in a season.  Stillers fans have such a luxury watching the tandem that it's surreal how easily Ben and the offense moves the ball.  Beyond their skill-set, these stars know the only way to cement their legacy is with a Super Bowl championship; they know it and they are hungry for it.  Antonio Brown's extension into the end-zone on Christmas Day is a perfect example of that hunger--recoiled short of the goal line with seconds left on the clock to pop back up and fight through Ravens defenders--he simply wanted it more.  That 'bend don't break' attitude has been echoed throughout the Steelers locker room all season.  The faith this football family has in one another and their expectation to be at Super Bowl LI in February are reasons why potential playoff games at Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium, the loudest stadium in the NFL, and Gillette Stadium do not seem so daunting.  "The standard is the standard," as Mike Tomlin would say.  It's the postseason and the Stillers are in the hunt.  Here we go.

Bend Don't Break

Sunday's defeat to the 8-1 Dallas Cowboys was an ample opportunity for the reeling Pittsburgh Steelers to re-ignite their 2016 Super Bowl campaign and turn around a three-game losing streak.  Embarrassing losses to the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens could be well within the rear-view mirror if the Stillers could handle business at home in football's biggest game of the year thus far.  Despite the hype leading up to this classic match-up--the deserved buzz around rookie phenoms Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott who have managed to change the hopeless rhetoric of 'America's Team' through a seven game winning streak--the Stillers were expected to protect Heinz Field and have an answer for the hot-handed Cowboys.  All last week, the tone in the Pittsburgh locker room was a calm urgency.  Two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, told the younger cast members of the Black and Yellow to "follow my lead."

Courtesy of Steelers.com

It hadn't just been the three poor performances the Steelers had put on tape after beginning the season 4-1 that emanated concern, but rather the lack-luster and undisciplined play that has been so uncharacteristic of Steelers football.  The Pittsburgh offense has been praised for its potential as soon as they (and by "they" I mean an Antonio Brown and Le'veon Bell-less Steelers) were ousted from last year's playoffs by the Denver Broncos.  The machine of Big Ben, Bell, and Brown as well as the emergence of somersault-specialist, Martavis Bryant, had many analysts questioning who could stop an offense with a goal of scoring 30 points per game. Mental health has sidelined Bryant for the entire season, but the answer seems to be the Stillers stopping themselves.

Prior to Sunday's loss, the Steelers offense averaged 15 points against the Miami Dolphins (double-yoi), Patriots and Ravens.  Holding calls, mis-communication with the games best wide receiver, AB84, and an injury sidelining Big Ben for the inevitable loss against the Patriots left the offensive outbursts untapped.  What's more baffling than a sputtering offensive unit is how uncharacteristic the Pittsburgh Steelers defense has played.  Understand that the complexion of the Steelers' defensive team has changed since our Super Bowl appearances in 2005, 2008 and 2010.  Players like Casey Hampton, Brett Kiesel, Ryan Clark, Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu who anchored the 2000s Steel Curtain are now a part of Stillers lore, retired.  Those game-changers Pittsburgh still has on defense, namely James Harrison and Lawrence TImmons, are sadly nearing the end of their careers, bodies unable to consistently make the strip-sacks and timely interceptions that would close-out ball games--think back to "Silverback", James Harrison's 100 yard interception return for a touchdown to end the first half of Super Bowl XLIII.  

Courtesy of Steelers.com

Over the past several years, the Steel Curtain has been reconstructed to feature new linemen, linebackers and defensive backs.  Young players who were selected as high value draft picks such as Jarvis Jones, Ryan Shazier, Stephon Tuitt; and rookies Artie Burns, Sean Davis and Javon Hargrave have been called upon to fill the shoes of older impact players.  Before the game against Dallas, the Steelers coaching staff was quoted by Fox reporter Erin Andrews saying, "The young players have to grow up. Today.  The honey moon phase is over."  Becoming a feared cohesive unit takes time and experience to put together.  This losing streak has really highlighted these growing pains, though.  Between Jay Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount, the respective running backs for the Dolphins and Patriots, the Stillers were mauled for over 300 rushing yards and four ground scores.  Pittsburgh's pass coverage was non-existent, too.  The mantra in the secondary has always been 'bend don't break' where pass yards may be given up, but yards-after-the-catch and touchdowns are relinquished seldom.  The issue over the past two and a half seasons; however, is that the Steelers are just giving up too many passing yards. From 2014 to this year, the defense has ranked 27th or lower in the NFL in pass yards per game. Signing defensive backs Artie Burn, Sean Davis, Ross Cockrell and Mike Mitchell was meant to rejuvenate an aged unit, but those aspirations have yet to come to fruition.  To be fair, injury has delayed some of the live-action opportunities for players, in particular for someone like 2015 second round draft pick Senquez Golson whom has yet to play a single snap.  For those players on the field, though, it's like watching the bully quarterback choose which kid to pick on next, as Rob Gronkowski, Jarvis Landry and Mike Wallace repeatedly burned defenders.  And when there looked to finally be some battles won, competitive plays were called for pass interference and face-mask penalties.  A Steel Curtain defense meets ball carriers at the point-of-attack, plugging any open holes and controlling the line of scrimmage.  A Steel Curtain defense takes pride in tackling, looking to abuse average quarterbacks, creating sacks and forcing turnovers, while limiting the home run ball.  A Steel Curtain defense plays disciplined, communicative football.

Sunday certainly felt like the pivotal moment the Steelers would point to as the catalyst of the remainder of their season.  In order to win, the Steelers were going to have to score points, like the analysts have been projecting, to cushion themselves against the matchup with Dez Bryant, the Cowboys' star number 88 receiver, and the game's best security blanket in Jason Witten.  Though Prescott and Elliott were taking the NFL by storm, it was my belief their play wasn't worth a drop until they faced a hard-nosed championship caliber team, like the six-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.  Traditionally, the Stillers punished rookie quarterbacks; Pat White, the highly touted prospect from West Virginia, was knocked unconscious by Ike Taylor in 2010 and never returned to take another NFL snap.  This was going to be Dak Prescott's 'welcome to the NFL' moment, and Ezekiel Elliott was going to be punched in the mouth by a stout Steel front.

Courtesy of Steelers.com

Heinz Field had a playoff atmosphere as any game against the Dallas Cowboys evokes a sense of nostalgia, thinking back to the three times the franchises met to decide Super Bowls X, XIII and XXX, in which the Stillers have a two games to one lead.  Though a  record crowd of 67,737 fans featured a mass of Terrible Towel yellow, Cowboys faithful were heard loud and clear during some of the contest's most important moments.  For the first half, the Stillers were controlling the game.  Despite an 83 yard check-down pass to Ezekiel Elliott, Pittsburgh had forced a fumble on Prescott, thanks to Anthony Chickillo, and had bottled up many of Elliott's running lanes.  However, football is a game of four quarters and this game came down to a matter of will.

You could see how badly the respective players on the two teams wanted to win.  In back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter, two former college teammates at Ohio State re-acquainted themselves on the gridiron, as Elliott flipped over a blitzing Ryan Shazier before reaching Prescott to showcase his skills as a pass-blocker.  As if to mimic Stephen Curry in last year's NBA playoffs saying, "I'm here. I'm back," Shazier came back pounding through the hole to blow up his Buckeye brethren for a six yard loss.  It seemed like the Steelers had a counter-punch to every Cowboys jab.  After their offensive line created time for Prescott to throw a dime to Dez Bryant, over a hypnotized Artie Burns, the Steelers marched down-field for Le'veon Bell's second touchdown of the day.  And when Dallas' offensive front again paved the way for number 21 to walk into the end zone for a second time to take the lead 29-24 with 1:55 left on the clock, no one at Heinz Field believed Big Ben would be stopped on a game-sealing drive.  Reporters in the press box said resoundingly, "These are the games the Steelers always find a way to win."  The fake spike to paralyze the defense as we watched Roethlisberger toss a 15 yard dart to Antonio Brown on what looked like a routine practice rep, symbolized check-mate.  Unfortunately, Dallas' rookie duo is very real and here to stay for quite some time.  Forty-two seconds and a face-mask penalty on Sean Davis was all the Cowboys needed for Elliott to scamper, untouched, for a 32 yard game-winning touchdown. 

To all the Dallas Cowboys fans pumping their chests: please remember yinz ain't shit until you win another ring to match the Black n' Yellow's tally of SIX.  But in all seriousness, yinz should really enjoy the kind of season yinz are having.  It appears that Sunday's victory was the validation Jerry Jones needed to finally determine whether Tony Romo would take over the reins from Prescott because Romo's address to the media today, as a backup, was given with the utmost respect.  The sky is the limit for yinz team.  That vaunted Seattle Seahawks defense is going to test you come January, but yinz should be thinking Super Bowl.

As for the Pittsburgh Stillers, we aren't in any kind of shape to contend for a Super Bowl championship.  We have shown flashes of how good we can be, and Lord knows come the post-season, every team looking at the Stillers should be fearful, but we must first become a more consistent and disciplined ball-club.  Our offense can score fifty points per game, but we will not be able to finish football games until our defense plays to the Steel Curtain caliber.  Luckily, we have put ourselves in this kind of predicament before.  In the 2005 playoffs, the Steelers became the first six-seed to win a football championship, and last year following  a loss to the Seahawks, we had to win out the regular season to make it to the post-season--shout out the Buffalo Bills for helping make that happen.  The loss to the Cowboys didn't squash our playoff chances altogether, as games against NFC opponents do not tabulate into the AFC conference standings.  But sitting in ninth place at 4-5, it looks like the only route to the big dance is to win our division, which is currently controlled by the Ravens.  So long as we win every remaining divisional game against the Browns (two games) and the Bengals (one game), Christmas day at Heinz Field against Baltimore looks to be the AFC North championship game.

Illustration by Maxwell Young