A noteworthy statement that Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II made in his annual year-end meeting with the media was a quick retort to a question about recent comments made by his brother.

Last week, Jim Rooney was on a podcast with former NFL player Ross Tucker. Jim is promoting a book about his late father, Dan, and his ownership of the Steelers called “A Different Way to Win.”

During the interview with Tucker, Jim defended the Steelers’ eight-year playoff-victory drought under head coach Mike Tomlin and the organization’s failure to win a playoff game in 15 of the past 19 years.

“I don’t want to get into excuse-making, but the reality is, we outperform the NFL mean at a greater rate than just about any team for the last 25 years,” Jim said. “Another team that has been in that category in terms of outperforming that mean has been the Ravens. There’s no other team that has been as successful and has a division rival that has outperformed the mean. We have performed in a harder circumstance than most, and we’ve outperformed them.”

Jim isn’t a direct part of the Rooney family’s ownership of the Steelers. But his name is associated with a franchise that allegedly lives by the credo “The standard is the standard.” Hence, his explanations and excuses for why the team has been a postseason no-show for almost a decade made headlines.

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“I think the Steelers organization (and) Mike Tomlin have outperformed any expectation you could have of any NFL team in terms of who they have to play against, what the competition looks like, etc,” Jim continued.

Those opinions and others from Jim during Tucker’s podcast didn’t go over well with a frustrated fanbase.

Sent to me by an emailer named "Steve J" in the wake of Jim Rooney's comments about the Steelers "outperforming the NFL mean" for 25 years. I expect these to sell like crazy in the Strip District this fall.

Subtle, Steve. Subtle.

https://t.co/Z2t3ip3qcQ pic.twitter.com/IzQKFUMWsj

— Tim Benz (@TimBenzPGH) January 28, 2025

On Monday, Art Rooney II was asked to comment on his brother’s characterization of the franchise.

“Jim speaks for himself,” Art replied. “I’m happy that he’s doing good selling his book.”

Art appeared to be strategically curt and dismissive in his response, essentially saying, “Jim may think that way, but we don’t. Jim may be making those excuses, but we aren’t.”

The problem is, though, everything else Art said to assembled media members on Monday ostensibly echoed Jim Rooney’s assessment of the franchise’s mindset.

Everything.

During that Q&A session, and in follow-up interviews with KDKA-TV and Steelers.com afterward, Art made the following points:

• Tomlin is staying on as head coach with no indication that his job is at all in jeopardy.

• He quickly dismissed a trade inquiry about Tomlin from the Chicago Bears without getting into any serious negotiations.

• Both offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin are likely to return, as is most of the coaching staff.

• He’d prefer to have at least one of last year’s quarterbacks, Russell Wilson or Justin Fields, back again next year.

• When asked about the notion of increasing the team’s passing attempts per game, Art’s first words were, “I certainly hope we continue to have a running game as one of our strengths,” before merely adding: “We want to have an offense that can take advantage of whatever the defense is giving us.”

• T.J. Watt is entering the last year of his $112,011,000 contract. Art would like Watt to stay in Pittsburgh “for the future beyond this year.”

• He doesn’t see the need to expand the coaching staff.

All that despite the fact that Rooney II even admitted, “After losing five in a row, it’s hard to say we’re closer (to winning playoff games).”

Well, obviously, it’s hard to say that, Art, because you aren’t closer. You aren’t closer because you are keeping all those things the same. And even though you changed the QBs and the offensive coordinator before this season, you kept the same head coach and the same conservative philosophy. Not to mention, you brought back 12 regular contributors on an overpaid defense.

At one point on Monday, Art was asked if he had a sense of how angry fans are in Pittsburgh these days. Ironically, he said, “I understand why people are mad. All I can say is actions speak louder than words, and we’ve got to be better.”

Yeah. Yeah, they do. Actions do speak louder than words. That’s exactly the concern.

Art Rooney II tried to blow off his brother’s words. Yet, his own actions make those words sound like an organizational mission statement.

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