The brother of Steelers Chairman Art Rooney II, Jim Rooney was recently on the Ross Tucker Football Podcast to talk about the current state of the organization.
Pomp & Joe on Jim Rooney's comments
Jim Rooney said he isn’t making excuses…BUT…
Talking to Tucker, Rooney said, “the reality is we outperform the NFL mean at a greater rate than just about any team for the last 25 years.”
Another issue? The Steelers have to deal with the Baltimore Ravens in the same division.
Teams like the New England Patriots and now, Kansas City Chief have been able to dominate in weaker divisions.
“Another team that has been in that category, in terms of outperforming that mean has been the Ravens,” said Rooney. “There’s no other team in either case that has been as successful and has a division rival that has outperformed the mean.”
Rooney adds that if it were being judged like a boxing match and not by wins and losses, “you would have to say that we’ve performed in a harder circumstance than most and we’ve outperformed them.”
But, Rooney recognizes the goal is to make it to and win the Super Bowl and you have to win playoff games to do that, and the Steelers haven’t won a single one since 2016.
He also reacted to the heavy criticism of Head Coach Mike Tomlin and calls that its time to move on from him.
PM Team on Jim Rooney comments
“I think its an organization issue, not just Mike,” said Rooney. “I think all of us are responsible for the outcomes.”
Steeler Nation hasn’t been able to celebrate a single playoff win since January 15, 2017, a Divisional round win against the Chiefs.
“I also think if you’re going to make an argument, you should look at the facts in the matter and I think the Steelers organization, Mike Tomlin, have outperformed any expectation you could have of any NFL team.”
The Steelers make the playoffs but lose badly. They’re in the upper-middle class of the NFL and until we hear different from Art Rooney II, it sounds like they’re cool with that.