The Pittsburgh Steelers, specifically team owner Art Rooney II, are taking a beating when it comes to the release of the 2024 NFL Players Association report cards.

As posted by our Joe Rutter Wednesday, the Steelers ranked No. 28 overall out of 32 teams in a survey of 1,706 players. The worst grades the Steelers received were an F for ownership and locker room and an F- for treatment of families. The franchise was ranked No. 20 or lower in nine categories, including a No. 31 mark for team president Art Rooney II as an owner.

Conditions at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex also received low marks. “The facilities are lacking,” NFLPA president J.C. Tretter said, specifically pointing out the shared situation with Pitt. “They are the only team that does that. They don’t offer what is normal everywhere else, whether that is daycare or a family room for teams.”

Certainly, none of that is good.

I’ll admit, my first year covering the Steelers was 2001, the first year of (then named) Heinz Field opening. The South Side facility was still in its infancy. I did cover a few games at Three Rivers Stadium when I worked in Columbus and as a college intern at WPXI. And I just know how much better those two places are than Three Rivers was by the end of that building’s existence.

Aside from one year’s worth of exposure working in New England (who ranked 29th) covering the Patriots at Gillette Stadium, I don’t have much of a comparison base. At no point did I think either franchise was giving their players antiquated conditions to work in during the season.

If that’s the case, though, Rooney should do whatever he can to fix, or at least mitigate, these concerns for his most valuable employees.

But let’s be honest. These players have been coddled throughout their entire careers. They are used to people taking care of them and bending to their every want and need since they were 18. Some of the big-time college programs they come from have better facilities, treatment and amenities than many NFL clubs.

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So before we excoriate Rooney and the Steelers too much, let’s be fair and consider a few things.

First of all, we need to be honest about the goal of the report cards. The intent is for the union to embarrass and shame teams and owners into giving concessions to their members across the league. The report cards are not an attempt to praise teams that do well in that regard, despite that being the stated goal. They are an attempt to guilt the franchises who are perceived to be falling short in some areas into pampering their players even more than they already are.

It’s a shaming exercise. Wanna know how I know it’s a shaming exercise? Tretter is quoted in Rutter’s post as saying, “This is not a shaming exercise.”

That means it’s a shaming exercise. It is a shaming exercise so we can feel sorry for how multi-millionaires are treated by billionaires.

Tretter is the head of a union. That’s a classic union approach to soak more out of management. It’s embarrassment by comparison.

Second, it’s funny to me how the Steelers graded so poorly, yet so many of them sign big-money contracts to stay in Pittsburgh when there are — apparently — at least 27 other teams that offer better working conditions.

Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Diontae Johnson, Chuks Okorafor, Larry Ogunjobi and Alex Highsmith are all recent examples of players who could’ve left for big money elsewhere after finishing at least one contract here, yet decided to sign new deals with the Steelers.

Mason Cole, James Daniels, Isaac Seumalo, Levi Wallace, Nate Herbig, Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb are all examples of players who have signed in Pittsburgh as free agents in recent years who previously played elsewhere. In some cases, they know what allegedly better facilities and treatment are like. Apparently, the gap isn’t so wide that a few extra free-agent bucks couldn’t assuage any concerns they may have had about the workplace on South Water Street and/or Acrisure Stadium.

I know, I know. I’ll say it before you do. “But, Tim, they all came here to play for Mike Tomlin! They love playing for Coach T!”

Yup, Tomlin got an “A” on those report cards. The NFLPA mission statement for the survey directly states that it “has nothing to do with winning, or losing, football games.” That is a very convenient evaluation process for a coach that hasn’t won a playoff game in seven years. I guess being a fun guy to play for matters more than winning.

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However, did LeGarrette Blount, Melvin Ingram and James Harrison (the second time around) gripe their way out of town because the work conditions in Pittsburgh were lousy? Or did that happen because they weren’t getting the playing time from Tomlin that they expected?

I mean, that lounge chair Harrison would snooze in during film sessions in the weeks before his 2017 release sure sounded relaxing.

Furthermore, one of the only teams that ranked worse than the Steelers was — wait for it — the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah. The team that won the Super Bowl the past two years. The top five teams are the Dolphins, Vikings, Packers, Eagles and Jaguars. That’s five teams with a combined one playoff win from 2023.

I’ll ask again: Why does winning matter less than having a comfy, cozy atmosphere?

Unfortunately for the Steelers right now, apparently, they aren’t achieving either. Rooney should address both as soon as possible and as much as possible.

But I’m much more concerned about the former rather than the latter.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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