"This Is Messed Up": Former Steelers Defender Rips Art Rooney II In Honest Rant

The Pittsburgh Steelers are widely recognized as a historic professional sports franchise. With six Super Bowl championships and a storied tradition, the organization is often lauded as one of the world's most respected when it comes to ownership and success. However, Art Rooney II has taken quite plenty of hits lately, with the lack of playoff success dating back to the 2017 season being at the top of the list. Additionally, a former employee recently got prepared to sue him, which shed a negative line on the team. On top of all of that, the 2026 NFL Players Association (NFLPA) report cards resulted in terrible reviews once again.

Rooney was likely one of the owners leading the charge when a grievance was filed against the NFLPA for illegally publishing the players' voting. It is meant to be a tool that free agents can use to assess potential landing spots, but teams were frustrated that this sort of information was getting out into the public. Despite there being a new rule enacted that disallowed the publishing of the report, it leaked out anyway, adding more to Rooney's plate.

The Steelers were literally dead last out of 32 teams, and that's not a very positive thing when the front office has over $40 million in cap space with free agency right around the corner. Players want impressive facilities and a strong overall situation when moving on to their next opportunities. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh may face challenges because of how poorly Rooney and co. were graded.

Two former players that put on the Black and Gold, James Harrison and Joe Haden, host a podcast together called Deebo & Joe. On the latest episode, the duo dove into the 2026 grades, and the retired cornerback admitted he originally didn't care about certain flaws in Pittsburgh's facility because the Steelers sold him on tradition; but looking back, he believes there is absolutely no excuse for Rooney.

"I was in there, like, culture, this is what it is, you know what I'm saying," Haden said. "At the end of the day, when you do look at it, it's like, nah, this is messed up. We need to have bathrooms available and nice lockers, you know what I'm saying? There's no reason why it shouldn't be up to grade and that, like, old mentality of like, 'No, no, you get what you — we have the requirements, it may not be as extravagant as you like it', but they have everything that you need, but the levels of the locker room, that's crazy."

The Steelers' locker room received an "F-", and it doesn't take a genius to figure out just how embarrassing that grade is. There are much better high school and college facilities across the nation, which is something Rooney needs to reflect on if he wants to change players' opinions. All in all, Haden said out loud what a lot of guys are thinking, and that's one of the main reasons the Steelers ended up last on the 2026 version of the NFLPA report cards.

It is not new for this kind of negative feedback to come to the surface. There's a reason why the Steelers are consistently at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to facilities. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that much will change anytime soon as the University of Pittsburgh has nowhere else to play, and Rooney seems uninterested in reinvesting into things such as the locker room.

Steelers Could Be Purposely Not Spending Money

There remains a strong possibility that Pittsburgh is hoping to build a new stadium sometime within the next decade. If that ends up being the case, there would be no reason for Rooney to dive deep into the organization's pockets to improve some of the things that the team is behind the eight ball on. With that, however, will bring intense scrutiny in the coming years while also seriously hurting the Steelers each offseason when free agency rolls around.

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