It started with a bad decision made for the wrong reason and has cascaded since.
This "administration"
INHERITED a potential dynasty. It had a young Super Bowl winning roster that was good enough to cruise through the 2008 season and post season and win it all. They weren't dominant, just very talented. The defense could rise up and carry an often lackadaisical offense. But it was the beginning of the end of Steeler football. That team would have won it all with the Jack in the Box clown at the helm, the roster was that stacked. Then in 2009 they started to really show the lack of leadership, discipline, and hunger that would have sustained them into a dynasty and they seriously regressed. They were even less dominant in 2010 than in 2008 but still managed to eek into the SB only to lose in a very poor offensive "performance" in which they should have torched a totally depleted GB secondary. The defense was on their last gasp at that point. That D was #1 in 5 of that 10 year span and carried the team through the transition from Cowher to the meltdown.
Very poor drafting, NO player development, attrition of the SB core, and hopeless mismanagement has eroded the winningest franchise since the merger into an undisciplined group of young men that seem to have little interest in the game, much less the uniform they wear. Their presence on that field Thursday night was a mockery of all things Steelers. They should be ashamed but they aren't because they aren't asked to take any pride in their work.
We hear that "it's a business", and in the last analysis, it is. The majority of ownership is in the hands of recent investors that bought in at a high point. This franchise's value is entirely dependent on a national following that feeds of the Steeler brand of sport and shows up, buys stuff, and buoys TV ratings. This "administration" has killed all that and is eroding the value of the brand and franchise. One wonders how long the majority will tolerate that. Surely they will demand wholesale changes sooner rather than later. Let's be real here sports fans, this band of disinterested sideline pukers isn't going to scare up an 8-8 record again this year, or anywhere close to it. If they're at less than .500 midway, the money has to clean house.
The parallels to
what has transpired on a societal level since 2008 are eery.
