Steelers Now
During his lengthy Pittsburgh Steelers coaching tenure, Mike Tomlin was apt to remind people that the team he was in charge of had one standard. As the franchise approaches a new horizon, Steelers president Art Rooney II stressed on Wednesday that he feels seasons during which it’s out of the title race are a waste of time.
On his podcast, Wave’s Bomani Jones offered a reminder that the Steelers’ early history was mediocre, implying that fans might be expecting too much.
“This is the thing that people don’t know,” Jones said. “Prior to Chuck Noll, you can make an argument that the Pittsburgh Steelers were the worst franchise in the NFL. The original Rooney running the team was a little bit more concerned with his primary business, which was the rackets, to be talking about the football team. … They have not always been as excellent as the rhetoric would have you believe. They had a run of four Super Bowls in six years that kinda gives us (that impression).
“It was what it was. The 1970s were incredible, the 1980s were not and the 1990s were pretty good.”
Wave’s Bomani Jones pushed back against the #Steelers’ storied history on his podcast on Wednesday:
“They have not always been as excellent as the rhetoric would have you believe.”
His guest, Yahoo Sports’ Charles McDonald, said the team’s fanbase is cult-like. #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/6Tak2mGvaV
— Brendan Howe (@bybrendanhowe) January 16, 2026
During the first 34 seasons of their existence — Noll was hired before the 35th — the Steelers had six winning campaigns. The team’s all-time regular-season record before he arrived stood at 156-240-18, corresponding to an approximately 39.3% winning percentage.
Since 1972, the Steelers have reached the AFC Championship 15 times and missed the playoffs on 20 occasions.
Still, Yahoo Sports NFL writer Charles McDonald, Jones’ guest, furthered the host’s point. He feels that Tomlin’s successor will be under just as much pressure as he was.
“Good luck to the next person that steps in there, because I think Steelers fans understand how high the standard that Mike Tomlin actually set,” McDonald said. “Because I feel like if I were to take this group of players and I stuck them with the Falcons’ supporting cast or coaching staff from last year, (I’d be like) ‘Hey, I don’t think we’re gonna win 10 games. … But that’s what the expectations say.
“I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but Steelers fans kind of have a little cult thing going on like, ‘This is the Oracle. And it’s the best and it’s always been the best.’ Even though it hasn’t always been the best. They were the best a long time ago. You kinda gotta get that right.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Analyst Questions Just How Rich Steelers History Is
