Steelers' Home Defended By Mark Kaboly Who Shifts Blame For Poor Results Of NFLPA Survey To Pitt Panthers

The tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers was damaged during the 2023 season. The Steelers fired a coach during the season for the first time in decades. Mike Tomlin came under heavy fire for extending his winless playoff streak to five consecutive games over seven years. Ben Roethlisberger openly questioned if the venerated Steeler Way was a thing of the past, and if that wasn't enough, Pittsburgh created a quarterback controversy by benching Kenny Pickett.

Steelers Earn Horrific Report Card From NFLPA With Multiple "F's"

The Steelers organization and Owner Art Rooney II are now squarely in the crosshairs after an anonymous NFL Players Association survey ranked the Steelers near the bottom of the league in multiple categories regarding the team facilities. The players were unkind to UPMC Rooney complex, but it paled in comparison to what they thought of Rooney, who was ranked as the second worst owner in all of football.

Mark Kaboly from The Athletic rode to the Steelers' rescue regarding the facilities on social media. He pointed out that the problems with the locker room and on-site amenities at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex should not be blamed on the Steelers organization. Kaboly placed the blame squarely on the Pittsburgh Panthers, who share the facility, when he replied to 93.7 The Fan personality "Donny Football" on social media. 

"There is zero room in that facility for improvements," Kaboly posted. "Biggest issue is sharing a facility with Pitt. Period."

The reality is that Acrisure Stadium, formerly Heinz Field, and the surrounding practice facilities are not aging gracefully. It was a dubious plan over 20 years ago to share the facility between two teams, and it is haunting the Steelers and the Panthers in 2024. Kaboly joined The Joe Starkey Show on Wednesday and told Joe Starkey and Paul Zeise that he was not surprised by the grades and didn't expect them to improve any time soon. 

"The locker room stinks. Let's not sugarcoat it," Kaboly began. "It's small, it's outdated. The whole facility is not very good.  I don't think Art is a guy who is not willing to put money into it. He put $10 million into the weight room eight years ago. There is only so much you can do when it comes to facilities when your facility is shared with a Division I football team. There is no room. There is no place to go. It will continue to get numbers like this."

The dual occupancy plan has limited the Steelers' ability to make meaningful changes, and as the years have gone by, they have fallen further and further behind the rest of the NFL. It has also hurt Pitt because Acrisure Stadium is a considerable distance from the campus in Oakland. The student body's inability to travel for home games has been used as a scapegoat when Pitt draws small crowds for home games. 

"There is no place to go until they move out of there at some point," Kaboly continued. "Who knows, within five, eight, 10 years, whatever, they are going to keep getting these numbers. You can't upgrade something that's not upgradeable. A lot of these guys come from big-time colleges. You ever see Georgia or Alabama's locker room? They get individual PlayStation games in their lockers or something like that. You're not getting that inside the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex."

Kaboly points out that Steelers players like George Pickens, Broderick Jones, and Najee Harris, who came from programs with first-class facilities, could be caught off guard when the professional football complex is worse than what they had in college. The transition isn't always smooth, and when it comes time to grade anonymously, the Steelers suffer by comparison. 

Starkey pointed out that the Steelers' worst grade was an F- in the treatment of families at the stadium. It was a confusing grade because, as Kaboly points out, Pittsburgh has a very young roster and only a small contingent of players with children. 

"I'd like to see more of a discussion of what that means," Kaboly concluded. "What are we talking about? The media families, players with kids, are we talking about so and so's brother coming into town? Maybe they are upset they have to pay for their tickets. That's a league rule, I think. Unless they think they should be getting some more freebies, I have no idea."

The Steelers are typically listed high on the franchise list they would most like to play for, which contradicts the results of this survey. It must be uncomfortable for Mr. Rooney to have his facilities and acumen for running a franchise torn down by the NFLPA. He is already a year older than his father, Dan Rooney, was when he ceded the team presidency to him in 2003. Time stands still for no man, and it may be time for Mr. Rooney to turn the $4.6 billion franchise over to Daniel Rooney.