The Pittsburgh Steelers are currently struggling to find an identity both on and off the field. On the field, the Steelers used to be a fearless, hardnosed team that no one else throughout the NFL wanted to face on any given Sunday. Off the field, they were a professional group that said very little and came to work with their hard hat and lunch pal. Unfortunately, the Steelers players that identity with that are long gone, and it is hard for Steeler Nation to even recognize the current team other than the black and gold on the jersey.
There is no doubt that around the league in general, the demeanor and attitude which certain players approach the game with has shifted. The shift didn't just start occurring throughout the league recently, as it has been happening for well over a decade now. However, the Steelers were always the team that maintained the same qualities mentioned above even as the league evolved, for better or worse.
On his most recent episode of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, former Steelers Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger mentioned how the trend of being less focused on the job at hand and more focused on the noise around them started to affect the Steelers more and more.
"The trend got progressively worse," on teammates reaching for their phone before anything else said Roethlisberger. "Where guys would come in at halftime and go right to their lockers and grab their phones, and be looking at social media and things like that. Or as soon as the game was over, the first thing they did was go to their locker and check things. Not everybody, but it got progressively more and more."
Despite how the coaching staff, especially Head Coach Mike Tomlin, continuously vocalizes his emphasis on the Steelers' desire to be the hardest working and most team focused group, it appears as though this was trending away from that during the end of Roethlisberger's career. There was never a doubt that eventually this trend would happen, in a world of social media and constant information at anyone's fingertips, it was only a matter of time before blocking out the talk around the team was a focus from some players. The concern however is it being a primary focus from some during the game.
"It would drive you nuts," said Roethlisberger. "All the linemen would always be together, you never saw those guys on phones. But you'd see other guys, instead of being with their group, they'd be in their locker on their phones. Unless you're looking at film or a play call sheet or something like that, which you knew they weren't. It ended up getting worse and worse, and that would always drive me nuts. You made me think of that when you said the, 'Me' instead of, 'Team.'"
Realizing the trend that more and more players, especially within the Steelers locker room, are having a "me" instead of "team" attitude is concerning. That is something you never want to hear, let alone from a former player who was one of the leaders of the team for the better part of two decades.
It is clear that the shift in mentality inside the Steelers locker room has been happening for some time, and while that is concerning, it has likely been happening around the NFL and most other leagues for much longer. Other teams have found a way to work past some of these issues and have success; now the Steelers must do the same.
Steelers Need To Get Back To Focusing On Team Goals Instead Of Individual Goals
There is no doubt that the performance of the team should always be the first priority for every individual, but recently that hasn't appeared to be the case for several members of the Steelers. There are plenty of examples around the league where some of the all-time greats are consistently only worried if the team succeeds, despite having individual performances that may not be up to their standards, especially from a stats perspective.
Whether or not this needs to be a change in the messaging being delivered to the team from Tomlin, the leaders on the team needing to hold people more accountable, or the front office needing to reevaluate the mindset of the players they bring in, it is a change that can't wait too much longer before things likely come crumbling down from within.
