The Pittsburgh Steelers may have been a pleasant surprise in making the playoffs this season, but they were eliminated by the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round.
It was just the latest in a series of postseason losses for the Steelers, who have not won a playoff game since January 2017 in spite of qualifying for the playoffs four times since then.
Former Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison spoke about the current state of the franchise on The Pat McAfee Show this week and said that expectations for the team have fallen.
“The expectations should never change. I think the expectations have become, ‘We don’t want to have a losing season,’” Harrison said. “I’m not throwing salt or flak at anybody. But the Pittsburgh Steelers standard is to win Lombardis. When you go into that building, there’s six of them sitting there, and right now, we’re not even winning a playoff game.”
The Steelers have not had a losing season since 2003, which is, by far, the longest active streak of any NFL team. But perhaps Harrison has a point.
It’s not just about having winning seasons. It’s about winning championships.
“I think we need to get back to what the standard of the Pittsburgh Steelers legacy, the lore is,” added Harrison. “That’s [non-losing seasons] just not what it is.”
Harrison spent 13-and-a-half seasons across two different stints with the Steelers between 2002 and 2017. He made five straight trips to the Pro Bowl between 2007 and 2011, earning a pair of First-Team All-Pro selections in the process. His best season came in 2008, when he racked up 101 tackles, 16 sacks, an interception and seven forced fumbles en route to winning Defensive Player of the Year.
Most importantly, Harrison was a member of two Super Bowl-winning teams in Pittsburgh, helping lead the club to titles in the 2005-06 and 2008-09 campaigns.
We’ll see if the Steelers can get back to legitimately contending for championships in the coming years.
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