The Steelers’ NFLPA Report Card Was…Pretty Bad
For the second straight year, the NFLPA released their team-by-team report cards, in which players grade their working conditions, and it includes everything from head coaches and ownership, all the way down to the cafeteria and dieticians. And for the second year in a row, the Steelers rank poorly in comparison to the rest of the league in many categories.
The Steelers’ players (collectively) gave the worst grade to the team’s ‘Treatment of Families’; an F-. Here I was thinking an F was as bad as it gets. As it turns out, the Steelers are one of only four teams in the NFL that don’t provide either a family room or daycare services on game days. The players provided feedback that stated that the best way to improve the treatment of their families was to provide those amenities like most other teams do.
Perhaps the most shocking grade, to me, was their grade for the Steelers’ ownership, which was an F. After further research, the grade became less shocking. The Rooney’s were once the gold standard of NFL ownership. However, it’s safe to say that under Art Rooney II, the team hasn’t evolved, and the old way of doing things is leaving a sour taste in the mouths of the folks in the building every day. With that being said, this grade is only supposed to reflect the players’ opinion on Art Rooney’s willingness to invest in the team’s facilities, which clearly hasn’t been done; as is evident in the team’s locker room grade (F) and training room grade (D+). The long-standing notion that the Steelers’ owner is a cheap-ass is starting to rear its ugly head in a fairly public way.
On Wednesday, Brooke Pryor recalled the end-of-season presser earlier this month when she asked Art Rooney II about the potential for improvements to the practice facility, and his answer was about as tone-deaf as you’d expect (based on this grade): "I haven't met too many players that are architects yet. We're not opposed to player feedback...Look, we do look at what are the benchmarks around the country, what do players need to be successful these days. To be honest with you, we're not as deep into the let's say assessment of this facility as we are into the stadium.”
Doing the bare minimum to make sure your players have what they “need” is fine and dandy, until you consider their willingness to put up with it as opposed to going to another organization where they can get what they want as well. Ya know, just thinking this over from a fan’s perspective, I think about the interview that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia did on the Pat Mcafee show a couple of weeks ago. During that interview he kept saying the same thing over and over again: “Take care of your guys.” The way he spoke about his willingness to take feedback from his players about EVERYTHING from improvements to the arena for the players’ families as well as the fans, to practice facilities and travel accommodations, just to make sure everyone is as comfortable as possible-it was really awesome to hear. It’s no wonder he’s able to get all-world guys like Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to come play for him. I understand that the NBA and NFL are two different worlds, but parallels can be drawn, and clearly, Art Rooney II has some work to do in that respect.
One good thing that came from this report card, which may come as a surprise to many yinzers (I’m not one of them) is the A for Mike Tomlin. I’m not going to elaborate too far on this one, because some of yinz aren’t going to take anything away from it anyways. Say what you want about the guy, but the players in the locker room want to be there because of him. As far as the mediocrity in recent years, maybe it’s time to look at ownership instead of casting all of our blame at Mike T. every offseason. Just a thought.
Overall, the Steelers ranked 28th out of 32 teams based on their report card. Maybe this will prompt ownership to invest a bit more into the Steelers overall. Maybe not. I’m not going to hold my breath on it personally, but the players clearly aren’t holding back. What yinz think? Let me know on the socials!
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