The last time Steelers fired a coach in season and what might happen next…
Let it never be said again that the Rooney family, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, are loyal to a fault. It’s easy to see how many fans of the Black & Yellow, and national observers of the franchise, developed that opinion in recent years.
The Steelers, tied for the NFL record for most Super Bowl wins, are now mired in their longest streak of playoff futility since before their 1970s dynasty.
Their offense hasn’t put up more than 300 yards or scored more than 30 points since before Ben Roethlisberger hung up his cleats two years ago.
Their fans, a nation of spoiled yinzers accustomed to perennially contending for Lombardis, have slid into malcontentment – taking up chants to fire embattled offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
At Pittsburgh Penguins home games. At Penguins road games. At Pat McAfee broadcasts . . . in Utah. Literally everywhere.
Today, those fans got their pound of flesh when the Steelers canned Canada, handing the architect of their rickety, wobbly offense his walking papers just two days before Thanksgiving – and less than a week after an ugly loss to their hated rivals the Cleveland Browns.
That the Steelers are 6-4 and currently in possession of a theoretical wild-card berth is something of a Thanksgiving miracle given that under Canada’s system, they’ve trailed in the fourth quarter of every one of their wins and have been outgained in yardage by every opposing offense they’ve faced this season.
The Steelers have scored fewer total points than their opponents through 11 games and somehow still have a winning record.
Maybe the only things more miraculous are that Canada managed to hold onto his job this long – having squandered the final season of Roethlisberger’s career along with the first year-and-a-half of Kenny Pickett’s – or the fact that the Steelers actually fired him midseason.
The Steelers may be the only franchise in all of the American team sports OK with at least the appearance of valuing organizational loyalty and stability as much as winning.
They’ve had only three head coaches since hiring Chuck Noll in 1969. Roethlisberger was under center from 2004 until 2021. According to ESPN, leather helmets were still an innovation the last time they fired a coach in-season.