Jim Rooney, the brother of Pittsburgh Steelers team president Art Rooney II, does not place sole blame for the team’s playoff struggles over the last decade on head coach Mike Tomlin.
Rooney says that the issue lies not at Tomlin’s feet, but trails throughout the entire organization rather than just sitting on the head coach.
“I think it’s an organization issue, not just Mike,” Rooney said on the Ross Tucker Podcast. “I think all of us are responsible for the outcomes, but I think we take responsibility. I don’t want to get into excuse making, but the reality is we outperform the NFL mean at a greater rate than just about any team for the last 25 years.”
Rooney does not work for the team officially but instead works as an author and public speaker, so this is not coming from someone in the team. Still, Rooney is connected to the logo just by his last name, and he says that a lot of the quarterback talent around the NFL could be another reason things have fallen short.
“I think if this was a boxing match and you were judging the competition, not just looking at the winning percentage, you would say that we have performed in a harder circumstance than most and outperformed them,” Rooney said. “Having said that, I understand no one wants to lose playoff games. The goal is to win the Super Bowl, and you have to get to there. You have to get to playoff games, which we do well, and you have to win playoff games, which we haven’t.”
All in all, these are probably reasons that Tomlin is returning. On top of all that, Tomlin’s massive contract that he just signed will likely keep him in Pittsburgh for the next few seasons. The Steelers will try to navigate their way out of the mess they are in, but without a quarterback of the future, that is increasingly hard to do.
