The Pittsburgh Steelers cannot be the greatest franchise in NFL history
Despite owning six Vince Lombardi Trophies and boasting 22
Hall of Famers, the history of the Steelers is one of polar extremes. They’ve
been a consistent playoff participant since 1992 and everyone knows about the
Steel Curtain era of the 1970s. But before Chuck Noll turned the Black and Gold
into a dynasty, Pittsburgh was plagued with one of the most inept teams the
league has ever seen.
--- A LIFETIME OF DISAPPOINTMENTS ---
1933 was the first season in the NFL for the club, then
called the Pirates. In the league’s first season using a divisional layout,
Pittsburgh finished dead last in an unremarkable five-team Eastern Division
with a 3-6-2 record. For the seven years the team called itself the Pirates,
they only managed to reach the .500 mark once, racking up 22 wins, 55 losses,
and three ties in the process.
By 1943, the team had changed its name to Steelers but the
results were more of the same. Additionally, World War II had sapped every NFL
team of players, and the Steelers were forced to merge with the Philadelphia
Eagles to field a roster for the season. Though the “Steagles” finished 5-4-1,
they landed in third place in the Eastern Division, only besting the hapless Brooklyn
Dodgers.
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Another merger in 1944 – this time with the Chicago Cardinals – was decidedly more disastrous for the team. Card-Pitt, as they were called, floundered to an 0-10 record, sharing that futile mark with the Eastern Division’s Brooklyn Tigers.
1945 saw the Allied Forces win in
Europe and Japan, bringing an end to World War II and allowing the Steelers to
reboot with a full squad. Two years later, Pittsburgh’s second-place finish in
the East was good enough to earn them a berth in the playoffs – their first
postseason game in 15 years of existence. They squared off against their intrastate
rivals, Philadelphia, and were subsequently shut out 21-0.
Over the next 24 years, the only
time the Steelers played past the regular season came in 1962, when they lost to
the Detroit Lions in the league’s third-place exhibition game – the Playoff
Bowl.
--- THE 40-YEAR-OLD PLAYOFF VIRGINS
Steve Carrell knows better than
anybody that if it takes you 40 years to finally score, it’s going to be
memorable. It took 40 seasons for the Steelers to score (in the playoffs), but
they made it count. The 11-3 Steelers won the AFC Central for the first time,
and hosted the Oakland Raiders in the divisional round of the playoffs. It was
a defensive standoff that nearly saw the Oakland Raiders win 7-6 before Franco
Harris reeled in a stray ball and rumbled 60 yards to pay dirt with just five
seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Immaculate Reception launched a
dynasty that owned the league in the 1970s, winning four Super Bowls in a six year
span.
--- AND SO ON
Despite several playoff appearances in the
1980s, the Steelers failed to reclaim their former glory as the focus of the
league’s power shifted to the NFC. The Steelers returned to prominence when
Bill Cowher replaced Chuck Noll as the team’s head coach in 1992. An appearance
in Super Bowl XXX was Cowher’s first trip to the Big Show but not the last. In
2005 he led the Steelers to a Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl XL. Cowher’s
successor, Mike Tomlin, subsequently coached the Steelers to their sixth Super
Bowl title just three seasons later.
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--- WIDER SCOPE ---
From 1933 to 1971, the teams with
the most playoff appearances were the New York Giants (16), Cleveland Browns
(14), Chicago Bears (11), and Green Bay Packers (11). These were primarily in a
time when there was only one playoff game, the NFL Championship, not a series
of rounds that led to the title game. It’s also worth noting that the Browns
didn’t come into the NFL until 1950, almost 20 years after the Steelers did. Even
the Miami Dolphins, who joined the league in 1970 as part of the AFL-NFL
merger, had more playoff appearances in that time frame (2) than Pittsburgh. The
Steelers’ lone playoff appearance in 1947 was still one more than the Atlanta
Falcons and New Orleans Saints, but those teams didn’t join the league until
1966 and 1967, respectively.
One can argue that since 1972, the
Steelers have been one of the most stable and successful teams. They have made
the playoffs more times than any other team (29). Their triumph over another
longtime NFL franchise – the Arizona Cardinals – in Super Bowl XLIII made them
the first franchise to collect six Lombardi Trophies, and those six NFL
championships rank fourth all-time behind the Packers (13), Bears (9), and
Giants (8).
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But to give them the title of “league’s greatest franchise” is erroneous. They are the only modern team that required multiple mergers to survive, and having only competed in a single playoff game for the first four decades of its existence should definitely be factored in. For all the greatness the Steelers seem to be synonymous with these days, it’s easy to overlook the fact that they were once the poster boys of failure.
