Florio: Steelers Suffer "Competitive Disadvantage" After NFL's Big Secret Agenda

The Pittsburgh Steelers have rebelled against the NFL before. They are not the Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders of Al Davis, but they are not afraid to make waves. Dan Rooney was adamant about the league adopting the 'Rooney Rule', though most of the owners still ignore it, with no meaningful penalty. Ryan Clark and the Steelers players refused to ratify the collective bargaining agreement back in 2011 and this offseason they were one of seven teams to vote against Thursday Night Football games being subject to flex scheduling.

Mike Florio from NBC Sports Pro Football Talk joined the PM Team/w Poni & Mueller for his regular weekly appearance on Wednesday. Andrew Fillipponi advised Florio that Steelers fans were not happy with the NFL for scheduling Pittsburgh to play twice on Thursday Night Football.

“To make it worse, they play home games the prior Sunday in both cases,” Florio observed. “It’s back-to-back home games twice, four days apart. Twice, this year. Twice.”

Home games are very important for NFL franchises, especially in smaller cities like Pittsburgh. The TV money that is shared equally is the lion’s share of the revenue for NFL franchises, but teams are allowed to keep 60% of ticket sales. Scheduling home games in rapid succession puts an undue hardship on fans and the team to ensure the stadium is ready to host multiple games in tighter windows.

“Here is what surprised me,” Florio continued. “They acquired the power to force any team to play Sundays and Thursdays twice this year. That was the compromise to the commissioner trying to get the ability to flex late-season Thursday Night games. Which he is still going to get. I thought that meant the best of the best teams, playoff teams. Chiefs, Cowboys, Bills, Bengals, all the best teams having to do this twice.”

The Steelers and their fans are wildly optimistic after a successful offseason engineered by Omar Khan, Andy Weidl, and Mike Tomlin. Kenny Pickett and the Steelers finished 7-2 down the stretch and the expectations of returning to the playoffs are realistic, but Florio’s point is that the Steelers are not a Super Bowl contender. In some betting circles, they are being picked to finish last in AFC North.

“It creates an intriguing competitive disadvantage for those teams,” Florio said. "Advantage for the teams that don’t have to do it. That’s the counter. Some teams don’t have to do it all [and] some teams have to do it twice. Out comes the schedule, and there are seven teams that have to do it twice and only one of them made the playoffs last year. 13 of the 14 playoff teams don’t have to do Sunday to Thursday, twice.”

One of the reasons that the Steelers rebelled against the NFLPA and the league in 2011 was because they felt the commissioner was going to have too much power in doling out punishment to players. It took the rest of the league years to catch on and follow their lead in the next CBA and limit in Roger Goodell’s power. Based on the retaliatory appearance of the 2023 NFL schedule, it is clear that Goodell and his cronies in the NFL office may still be harboring a grudge against the black and gold.

“I understand that the Steelers are a national draw,” Florio acknowledged. “But they didn’t make the playoffs last year, and yes there is appeal to having the Steelers. It doesn’t make sense when you look at the whole thing. Why the Commanders twice, why the Bears twice, why the Packers twice, why the Lions twice?”

The point of flex scheduling is to get the best matchups in front of a national audience. The fact that the NFL chose games like the Chicago Bears vs. Washington Commanders, Carolina Panthers vs Bears and then Week 16 with the New Orleans Saints vs. Los Angeles Rams matchup does not exactly scream primetime. No offense to the Bears, but since they got fleeced by Khan in the Chase Claypool trade, they are on a 10-game losing streak.”

“It just doesn’t make sense. The one thing we learned because teams were complaining about it,” Florio concluded. “The seven teams that have to do it, at least six of them voted against late-season Thursday Night flexing.  For those teams that voted no to that, most of them ended up getting two Thursday night games. It should have been better teams; it should have been bigger teams.

[Roger Goodell] only needs two votes to get there. I was told recently to expect a vote in the next two weeks. He wants it, the message is if you continue to resist, we are going to mess with you. The commissioner knows how to get what he wants.”

Steelers Renew Opposition To Roger Goodell's Questionable Tactics

Florio is making the point that the idea is to build streaming. The NFL has already announced that they will stream a playoff game on Peacock this postseason. Cord-cutting is officially sanctioned by the NFL with the migration of the league’s television package to YouTube but like so many changes, the league is taking a heavy-handed approach to ensure cooperation. History says that the commissioner will find two votes, but they won’t come from Pittsburgh.

The Steelers have been on the right side of history after rebelling many previous times against the league and if the NFL pays more than lip service to player safety, they will be proven right again. What becomes more apparent with each passing year is that the commissioner and the NFL only care about one thing and it isn’t the future health of the men who play the competitive game.

What do you think Steeler Nation? Are you upset with the NFL’s idea of payback? Please comment below or on my Twitter@thebubbasq.