The Pittsburgh Steelers are in a bit of an identity crisis.
Each year that passes, the franchise gets further and further away from its 1970s domination and closer and closer to perhaps the worst fate that can befall an organization: mediocrity. Not bad enough to miss the playoffs, but never good enough to win. Not bad enough to snag a franchise-changing No. 1 draft pick, but never good enough to inspire much confidence in fans.
A lot of these issues stem from under center; the team has been without a dependable franchise quarterback since the 2022 retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, who proved himself to be one of the NFL's best quarterbacks for much of his 18-season career. So who better to comment on the Steelers' stalled hopes than the former QB himself?
On the most recent episode of his Footbahlin podcast, Roethlisberger expounded upon his belief that, in its struggles, the team could be losing the "Steelers Way" that made them so great years ago.
"You have to evolve. You have to evolve as a team. You can't just assume that everybody wants to come play for the Steelers anymore like they used to," Roethlisberger begins, responding to a thought-starter re: maintaining or evolving the "Steelers Way" in a league that has changed so much.
"People used to want to come play for Pittsburgh 'cause you had a chance every year to win a Super Bowl. I used to joke that we'd be up three or four points before the game even started. Right? Because there were people saying, 'Man we're about to get hit in the mouth by these guys.' I think you've lost a little bit of that."
There used to be a "pride" there regarding the team's dominating performance, he continues, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, where players couldn't stand to give up 100 rushing yards and would be angry if they did. And it seems like, maybe, that mentality is maybe on its way out the door.
"A team has to know when they're playing the Pittsburgh Steelers that they're going to be hurting. Same way I knew when I was playing Baltimore that I was gonna be hurting. We need to play Baltimore every week. That needs to be our mentality as the Pittsburgh Steelers. We're going to absolutely pound these people into the ground in a clean way and you know what? We're gonna be hurting but you're gonna be hurting worse.
"I don't know how that keeps on. I don't know if that's been lost from players now, 'cause there's so few guys left." He cites Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, and Minkah Fitzpatrick as good torch-bearers, but adds an asterisk to Fitzpatrick by noting he wasn't drafted by Pittsburgh.
"I don't know," he concludes. "Bring Joe Greene back for a little."
Pittsburgh's down-and-dirty mentality and physicality are cornerstones of its legacy, so Roethlisberger has a point that maybe the team needs to remember who it is. Yes, it must adapt to a completely different league, but perhaps the missing piece is the "Mean Joe Greene" attitude Steelers' fans and players have come to expect.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ben Roethlisberger Is Concerned Pittsburgh Is Losing the 'Steelers Way'.
