Success - in numbers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are known for their successes. They won the most Super Bowls, as they hold 6 Vince Lombardi Trophies. They won the most Super Bowls amongst all NFL teams, with 6 Super Bowl rings. Most impressive of all, they have a .611 winning percentage, which ranks them 1st amongst all NFL teams, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
I think they are successful because of their consistency and stability. Consistency provided them with the same working principles to work with, to build their successful team. On the other hand, the stability provides an assuring, firm sameness in the team, to enable the team to uphold their principles all the time.
Consistency
The merger marked a watershed point for NFL. They have a good team throughout since the merger. The merger has brought changes. First there had been free agency, and then there was a hard salary cap that all teams have to adhere to. These could have destabilized any typical NFL team, which could have resulted in transition periods of ineptitude of the team, in terms of the dearth of winning seasons.
Despite all these, the Steelers did indeed try to adapt, in the midst of such major changes to the professional football landscape. Under their then-head coach, Chuck Noll, they started to build a strong core. From 1972 onwards, they began to get into postseason for 8 consecutive seasons, while bagging 7 Central Division titles, and winning 4 Super Bowls, in the process. Then the core began to show its age, as the Steelers only won 5 games in 1988. Noll then began to try to replace the team with new players, with a renewed focus in winning. This resulted in the team having a 9-7 record in the following season, and Noll winning the ‘NFL Coach of the Year’ for the first time. Since then the Steelers have won more than five games, every season. Except for the 1988 season, the Steelers would never finish last in its division.
The Steelers currently have the highest ratio of 5 or fewer losses to 5 or fewer wins ratio, at 9, which is the highest amongst all NFL teams. They also do not lose more than 10 games for consecutive seasons, since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970. In contrast, the Texans never had a season with less than 5 losses. In contrast, the Bengals have only one season with less than 5 losses for 2 seasons with fewer than 5 wins. The Steelers’ remarkable consistency also resulted them having 30 winning seasons, in 41 post-merger NFL seasons, again leading all NFL teams. The Steelers do not just win scrap by their seasons for just a winning record; they also show that they can win convincingly over the past years. They managed to bag 20 AFC Central and AFC North division titles, in total, since the merger.
The Steelers managed to win so many games and titles, as they always have a distinctive ability to build the team around star players. No team has more All-Pros (64) than the Steelers, it suggests that Steelers always have star players all along. From defensive Steel Curtain players like Joe Greene, Blitzburgh era players like Greg Lloyd, to modern defensive salwarts like Troy Polamalu and offensive players like Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers have the consistent star power.
How remarkable are the Steelers’ good consistency, in winning so many games over the years! Their level of consistency really wins them a large fan base, in the form of Steelers Nation. The Steelers sold out their home stadium, since 1972. Famous Steelers fans include U.S. president Barack Obama, country singer Hank Williams Jr., rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Jake Gyllenhaal, former Director of CIA Michael Hayden and golfer Jim Furyk.
Stability
The Steelers are a consistent team. Not only that, also currently one of the most stable teams in the NFL, probably unmatched by other teams.
No team entering the league before 1976 has less than three coaching changes, other than the Steelers. Mike Tomlin, the current coach, and director of football operations Kevin Colbert, are all given contract extensions. Colbert even worked for the Steelers for 11 seasons, drafting most of the players we see in the Steelers’ squad.
With a strong consistent strategy making use of the defense-based philosophy with a strong systematic ground game, the Steelers only needed to find coaches who work well confirming and applying this strategy well. In addition, the Steelers are owned by the same Rooney family since 1933, and they have stuck to their successful team management principles that reflect the grit of the industrial workers in Pittsburgh. They are committed to the same functioning mechanism that served them well for almost 40 years. They need not experiment with new coaching systems, which would have made a lot of adjustments that the players may not apply well, as in other teams – such as Cleveland Browns with 14 coaching changes.
Besides, the Steelers also have a stable image in their home community, Pittsburgh.
Sales of their famous terrible towels, which are black and gold just like the team and the city's flag colors, actually raised over US$3 million for a Pennsylvania school which cares for people with mental retardation, autism and physical disabilities. The rally symbol has been used since the Steel Curtain era, and are going strong. The Steelers can find a visual symbol to rally all fans, through this black-and-gold towel. In addition, post-merger, the Steelers only had Myron Cope as their radio announcer till 2005. Besides, the Steelers also played around the area of Heinz Field. They played around the North Shore neighborhood since the NFL-AFL merger. Everything in Steelers is just looks the same as it was, just like the team on field.
The significance of stability and consistency
The Steelers' stability and consistency have significance over their community, that is, Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. their home region.
The Steelers' home region have endured economic hardship due to economic restructuring, from an industrial city to a knowledge-based economy. There are people from Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania moving out to the rest of the country, that still result in a drop of population in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area currently, at 3% from 2000 to 2009. Old Pittsburgh residents then shower their love for their city, through filling other NFL stadiums. The Steelers are so popular, they outdrew their rival Seahawks fans in Super Bowl XL, 25 to 1. Other NFL teams like the San Diego Chargers even require fans who watch Pittsburgh games against the team to buy tickets for other matches, before they can go in and watch the matchup against Steelers. Such hardiness and resilience in the Steeler Nation and Western pennsylvania people are indeed a source of their pride, in their 'Stillerz' team.
The Steelers' successes can be possibly replicated, even outside Pennsylvania and NFL. It can be exemplified in the case of the Iowa Hawkeyes, who happen to have the same school colors as the Pittsburgh Steelers, were one of the few teams that has the desire to replicate the Steelers' success. Indeed, Iowa's then-coach, Hayden Fry, got the Steelers' permission to re-design their uniforms to look the same as Steelers, resulting in the Hawkeyes now wearing the Steelers' uniform in the 'Steel Curtain' era (while the Steelers modified their uniforms to have rounder numbers, in 1997). Iowa were the first team to break the Michigan-Ohio State dominance in Big Ten football in the 1980's, winning 5 Big Ten titles under just 2 coaches, since their first conference championship in 1981. They are the best practitioners of the Steelers' success blueprint.
With consistency and stability, the Steelers can aim for a Super Bowl title every year. Even though they fall short more often than they are not, they had done extremely well over the years, and they will continue to do well in the years to come.
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