Happy Independence Day, everyone. Celebrate safely and sanely.
I know that NFL teams have not reported to training camp yet and that the start of real NFL action is about 8 weeks in the future, but there is a confluence of events in the NFL that I will be very interested to watch unfold once things get underway. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:
- The 2025 version of the Pittsburgh Steelers
This is a franchise known for stability, staying the course, patience, a blue-collar identity … You get the idea. Their last “losing season” was in 2003 – – albeit there have been four seasons with records of 8-8-0 in that streak. The team has been in the Playoffs in four of the last five years. What might entice such an organization to make a big change in “philosophy” with that history?
The Steelers have had a few divas over that time span, but their most accomplished players were the antithesis of “diva”. Check this list of top-shelf Steelers’ players and try to apply the “diva label” to more than one or two:
- Jerome Bettis
- James Harrison
- Cam Hayward
- Santonio Holmes – – plenty of “diva” mixed in there
- Troy Polamalu
- Ben Roethlisberger
- Hines Ward
- TJ Watt
- Rod Woodson
And that list does not include any of the stars of the Super Bowl teams in the 1970s none of whom were remotely in the “diva category”. So, in the offseason between 2024 and 2025, this stable and stay-the-course franchise decided to:
- Sign Aaron Rodgers
- Trade for DK Metcalf
- Trade for Jalen Ramsey
- Get into a “contract stare-down” with TJ Watt
Mike Tomlin has been the Steelers’ head coach since 2007; he is the longest tenured coach with an NFL team at the moment; this current roster may contain more personnel who represent “potential turmoil” than all the Steelers’ rosters combined in the Mike Tomlin Era. And what I will find interesting to watch is this:
- Will Tomlin adapt to the new personnel dynamic?
- Will the rest of the roster adapt to the new personnel dynamic?
- Will Tomlin and the Steelers “squelch” the “diva potential” on the roster?
I am well aware of the adage that “Winning cures everything”. So, if the Steelers make it to the AFC Championship Game, it will not matter – – nor will it be apparent – – how the team coalesced to get there. By the same token, if the Steelers have a miserable season and are drafting in the Top Three for next year’s Draft, there will be so many fingers pointed, and stories floated about the collapse that it will be difficult to separate fact from fiction. Since I expect neither of those extreme scenarios to play out in 2025, that means it could be possible to take a synoptic view of the team and perhaps divine why they took the course they did and how the coaches managed the change.
Finally, since I began today with Independence Day wishes for everyone, let me close with a line from the morning time DJ at a local rock-and-roll station from my youth. Here is what Bill Wright Sr. told everyone about having a safe Fourth of July:
“To have a safe Fourth, don’t buy a fifth on the third.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
You forgot Antonio Brown. For decades, my litmus test for a team’s success in an NFL year is whether they won at least one playoff game that year. The Pittsburgh Steelers last playoff victory was in January, 2017.
And the Oakland Raiders’ last playoff victory was in January, 2003.