All Hail the Black and Gold Standard

Steelers always get it right

As a tormented NY Jet Fan my life has been a living hell for decades. Whether its head coaches, draft picks or free agents Gang Green always gets the wrong guy. If we draft high we get the fantastic athlete who is always injured (Johnny Ham Jones and Blair Thomas come to mind) and released after three years or we sign fantastic free agents who get injured before the ink is dry on their contract or opt out due to Covid -19 (thanks CJ Mosely). Today the Jets released Le’Veon Bell because he was a headache on and off the field. Before signing with the Jets he was considered the best running back in football. Once he signed with the Jets we was about as good as Larry Csonka was in 1977 for the NY Giants after a Hall of Fame career in Miami. I was an open advocate for the Jets to go after Bell two years ago and thought he would be a perfect check down receiver out of the backfield for young QB Sam Darnold. Instead, we learned once again it’s the system and not the player when it comes to certain organizations. The Steelers have proved once again why they are one of the finest organizations in professional sports and why the Jets are a dumpster fire and belong in the Sun Belt conference in the NCAA where they may be able to compete.

I have long admired the Steelers as an organization. A small market team in the middle of Pennsylvania is one of the leading winners in NFL history but how? How can a team with limited resources and a small fan base be this successful? There are three keys to their success over the last five decades: Stability, management and drafting.

Stability: The Steelers have had three (3) head coaches in the last fifty years!!!! Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and now Mike Tomlin…The Jets have had about 23 in the same span ranging from Lou Holtz to Rich Kotite and for one day Bill Belichick (that is still a sore spot for us). The longest tenure of any Jet coach for the last 5 decades is Rex Ryan who’s biggest claim to fame is he has a foot fetish and might be the only person on earth with a Mark Sanchez inspired tattoo. Meanwhile each and every player that joins the Steelers knows who is in charge and that their time with the team might be very short if they don’t get along with the coach. They know from day one that the head coach isn’t going anywhere. The Jets draft and sign players who know their coach is “dead man walking” from week to week. The Jets have had 23 coaches and only one coach has a winning record (Parcells), unless you want to count the single season of Al Groh before he left the Jets to take that coveted job coaching Virginia in the ACC?

Management: Part of the success of the Steelers is their management and the ownership of the Rooney family. They are out of sight and out of mind and don’t do weekly radio shows like Jerry Jones or TV shows like Mark Cuban. They don’t want to be in the spotlight. They are like the mafia in many ways. They operate in the shadows, make crucial decisions and make a ton of money all while walking around like the local butcher. The late great Art Rooney and his son Dan could go to a local bar and throw back some beers without anyone knowing who they are. Their basic philosophy was to find a leader for the team, hand them the keys and stay out of the way. The only times the Rooney family was in the spotlight is when they created “The Rooney Rule” which required all NFL teams to interview minorities prior to hiring a coach. More importantly, they installed a mentality that the team was bigger than the individual was and as soon as a diva wide receiver or running back like Bell starts popping off, they move on. They don’t have public feuds with players, instead they go and find another option who often times is better than the diva.

Drafting: The management is the driving force for the drafting process and nobody does it better than the Black and Gold. They basically ask the three head coaches for the last five decades what they need and then somehow go about their business and find diamonds in a coal mine. Antonio Brown was a superstar headed for the Hall of Fame and the Steelers simply cut bait with him and drafted another superstar in Ju Ju Smith. Le’Veon Bell was the best back in football and headed for hall of fame status. He held out for a year and they simply inserted a 3rd round pick in James Conner into the lineup and today Bell is on waivers for a moon pie and a pack of smokes because nobody would trade for him and Conners is a thousand yard rusher the last few years. Last week some guy named Chase Claypool who grew up in Canada and played for Notre Dame, burst onto the scene with a four TD game. He was a late second round pick and not on anyone’s fantasy football list. Year in and year out the Steelers find gems at WR and RB and for some reason they have had a dominant offensive line for decades. Jerome Bettis was a cast off by the Rams, but he comes to Steel-town and becomes a hall of famer. Ben Roethlisberger played for Miami University, a known football power in the ACC, however he played for the Miami located in Toledo, Ohio. Until he was drafted, I didn’t know there was another Miami University. Conversely, almost every superstar they have created from within has watched their life and career go downhill once they leave this organization. Antonio Brown, Bell, Santonio Holmes, Plaxico Burress to name a few. All of the above went from sure fire Hall of Fame Careers to waiver wires in a NY minute.

All hail the Black and Gold and the terrible towel of the Pittsburgh Steelers! This is what a well-run organization looks like and why every year their fan base is expecting to compete for a championship while my NY Jets are competing to win at least 1 game this year.

-BB