Steelers’ pres. Art Rooney II and his brother Jim talk with former Steeler Tunch Ilkin about their father Dan’s influence on their lives.
#Steelers President Art Rooney II & @ADiffWay2Win speak with Tunch Ilkin about their father, Dan Rooney. They speak about growing up with a father who worked in the football business, his humility, what lessons he taught them and more. https://t.co/euI2lG4kVi
In an interview with Steelers analyst, Tunch Ilkin, Steelers president Art Rooney II and his brother Jim, speak candidly about their father, Dan Rooney.
Art said the only minus about his father was that he wasn’t around much due to his responsibilities with the Steelers. “[Dan] traveled a good bit, and he worked long hours,” said Art. “The other side of it was, having a dad in the football business, and being able to be around the team a lot. He brought me around a lot. I used to go to work with him every Saturday morning.”
“It was great how he tried to include me in different conversations,” Art said when asked what it was like growing up with the football influence. “I got to hear a lot about what was going on. Particularly in the early days, sort of the back-and-forth between he and my grandfather was fun to hear what they were talking about.”
“[Dan] was very busy, and he made sure we were both very busy on and off the field,” added Jim.
Jim said that his father and The Chief, Art Rooney, were always all about getting things done. “Don’t be a big shot,” Jim said his father and grandfather would always say. “Whenever you went anywhere with them, they were always involved in something that had purpose and meaning, and they expected you to be involved with them or respect what was going on.”
Faith, family, and football were the cornerstones of the Rooney family. Both Jim and Art have carried those through and incorporated them into their own lives in every way.
Among NFL franchises, the Steelers have been at the forefront in terms of diversity and employing Black players and coaches.
The Steelers are among several NFL teams that closed team headquarters on Friday in observance of Juneteeth as a company holiday. The holiday commemorates the day that slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865. The state of Pennsylvania began recognizing Juneteenth in 2001.
While the Steelers and the NFL are working toward a commitment to employ minorities of all racial backgrounds, this post will focus specifically on the Steelers’ history of hiring individuals from the Black community.
Art Rooney
Art Rooney founded the Steelers (then known as the Pirates) in 1933. He was known for his progressive disposition, especially toward Black athletes. While operating the Pirates, he offered financial support for the Homestead Grays, the famed Negro League baseball team located near Pittsburgh.
(AP Photo/Harry Cabluck, File)
Rooney also brought in Duquesne tackle Ray Kemp, who was an original member of the Pirates when they entered the NFL in 1933. He was the sole Black player on the team and one of only two Black players in the league.
According to this Pro Football Hall of Fame profile on Ray Kemp, he was released after a 21-6 loss to the Boston Redskins on Oct. 4. “I received a letter saying I had been dropped from the roster,” Kemp recalled, according to the Hall of Fame article. “I talked with Art Rooney, and I can recall his exact words. He said, ‘Ray, I feel you are as good a ballplayer as we have on the club, but I am not going over the head of the coach [Jap Douds]. You know how I feel about you personally.’ I didn’t talk to [head coach] Douds personally, but he was a player-coach at my position — tackle — and he had a lot of cronies on the team. I just think it was a combination of things.”
The Pirates won just two of their remaining eight games that season, and at one point, Kemp received a call from the team asking him to return. “I guess I could have felt humiliated about being cut earlier and said no. I didn’t need the money — I only got $60 a game. But I felt someone had to keep the door open. You have to pay a price for being a pioneer,” Kemp said.
Kemp returned for the Pirates’ last game of the 1933 season, then was hired as the head football coach at Bluefield State College in West Virginia; thus, his tenure in the NFL was short-lived. “The Pirates didn’t ask me to come back,” Kemp recalled, “but I wouldn’t have anyway because I really wanted a coaching job.”
No other African American would play in the league again until 1946. In January 1952, fullback Jack Spinks (11th round) and halfback Bill Robinson (25th round) became the first Black players to be drafted by the Steelers. Spinks appeared in three games, and Robinson didn’t play in any.
That spring, Pittsburgh went out an signed 6-foot-5 Black tackle, Ted Benson, out of Morris Brown University. Kemp had recommended Benson to new Steelers head coach Joe Bach.
Also on the training camp roster were four other Black players: tackle Charlie Thomas, offensive guard/tackle Ray Newman, and halfbacks Willie Smith and Clyde Atkins. Newman made it through camp but was released before the Steelers’ first preseason game. Benson and Smith were two of 12 players cut on July 30, 1952. It’s unclear how long Atkins’ and Thomas’ tenure lasted.
Photo courtesy of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In 1953, Rooney selected wide receiver Lowell Perry in the eighth round of the draft. Perry was committed to the Air Force ROTC for three years and would not play for the Steelers until 1956. In his sixth game, he sustained a broken hip and dislocated pelvis, which ended his playing career.
Upon Perry’s release from the hospital, Rooney offered him a position as a wide receivers coach. In 1957, he became the first Black coach in modern NFL history. The next year, Perry worked in the Steelers’ scouting department until leaving to obtain his law degree at Duquesne.
Recognizing the importance of integrating Black players on his team, Rooney hired Bill Nunn, the NFL’s second Black scout.
Nunn, a sports editor at The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, had his finger on the pulse of football programs at historically Black colleges. Rooney found exceptional value in the knowledge Nunn could bring to the Steelers and hired him as a part-time scout in 1967. He became a full-time employee in 1969. By 1970, he was promoted to assistant director of player personnel.
Over the next decade, Nunn discovered a bevy of players from Black colleges and universities who went on to help the Steelers win four Super Bowls. Among them were cornerback Mel Blount (Southern), defensive end L.C. Greenwood (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), defensive tackle Ernie Holmes (Texas Southern), defensive back Donnie Shell (South Carolina State), wide receiver John Stallworth (Alabama A&M), and defensive end Dwight White (East Texas State).
Nunn also was responsible for the Steelers drafting their first Black quarterback. Joe Gilliam was drafted in the 11th round of the 1972 draft. In 1974, Gilliam battled with Terry Bradshaw and Terry Hanratty to earn the starting QB spot. Gilliam became the first Black quarterback to serve as an opening-day starter in the NFL, although his 45.3% completion rate led him to lose the spot after six games.
Steelers quarterback Joe Gilliam consults with head coach Chuck Noll. (Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Nunn retired from his full-time position with the Steelers in 1987 but continued as a talent consultant and advised in draft preparation until he died in 2014. He was one of the longest-tenured employees of the organization and one of the few with six Super Bowl rings to his name.
“The one doggone thing I’m proud of is the way I might have been a part of opening some doors to pro football for Black men, not just as players, but as coaches and front-office personnel. I’ve been able to see progress,” said Nunn in a 2007 interview with the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.
The Rooney Rule
Dan Rooney, the son of Art, was often by the family patriarch’s side in team operations throughout the years. His first role with the team was director of personnel. Though Art remained the face of the franchise until he died in 1988, Rooney was given full operational control in 1975.
Rooney shared his father’s progressive nature. He served as chairman of the NFL’s diversity committee and authored the Rooney Rule.
First adopted in 2003, the Rooney Rule was created to help ensure that minority candidates would receive equal opportunities when applying for head coach vacancies and various senior football positions. The rule requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate. It was conceived as a way to hire more minority coaches in a profession where almost 70% of players are black, but just 6% were minority head coaches at the time.
In the early days of the Rooney Rule, teams that violated it faced hefty fines from the NFL. In 2003, the Detroit Lions hired Steve Mariucci without interviewing a minority candidate and were slapped with a $200,000 fine. Since then, teams arguably have figured out ways to sidestep being penalized, as no penalties have been handed down even though there are only three current black head coaches in the league.
(Photo by Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images)
While there have been a few points when the number of Black head coaches was much higher (six in 2006, seven in 2008, seven in 2018), the number has since reverted to the same level as when the rule was first created.
Because of this, many observers feel the Rooney Rule is ineffective, and concerns remain about implementation and enforcement. Critics say it allows teams to merely check a box saying they’ve addressed diversity without any further action.
Since its implementation, the Rooney Rule has assisted in the hiring of 14 coaches with minority backgrounds. But Steelers president Art Rooney II knows those numbers should be significantly higher.
“I think where we are right now is not where we want to be, not where we need to be,” Rooney told NFL Network’s Steve Wyche in a January interview.
“We have about one-third of the coaches in the National Football League are from the minority communities. That’s really not a bad pipeline,” said Rooney. “And so, the question is, why aren’t more of those people getting interviews? Why aren’t more of those people advancing through the process? Like I said, there are a lot of pieces to it that we have to look at. We have a lot of work to do that.”
Rooney, as chairman of the NFL’s Workplace Diversity Committee, outlined the expansion of the rule, following a recent owners meeting.
“There are three things in particular that we got done today that are very important,” said Rooney. “No. 1, we are going to ask all clubs to develop a diversity and inclusion plan over the next year that really impact all levels of hiring at the league and club levels; No. 2, we approved a series of enhancements to the Rooney Rule that will require two minority candidates to be interviewed for a head coaching position, one minority candidate to be interviewed for any coordinator position, and one minority candidate to be interviewed for any senior football or GM position, and for other senior-level positions around the league and the clubs, there must be an interview for a minority or a female candidate; and finally No. 3, we passed a resolution that is aimed at increasing mobility throughout the league.”
Coaches
Four years after the Rooney Rule was enacted, Rooney interviewed and hired a minority candidate as Pittsburgh’s head coach. Mike Tomlin became the 10th Black head coach in NFL history and the first for the Steelers franchise. On Feb. 1, 2009, he became the second Black head coach to win a Super Bowl. He is the longest-tenured Black head coach in the NFL.
Currently, there are five Black coaches on the Steelers staff: defensive line coach Karl Dunbar; tight ends coach Adrian Klemm; running backs coach Eddie Faulkner; wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard; senior defensive assistant Teryl Austin; and coaching assistant Denzel Martin.
On Wednesday, Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II released the following statement in regards to the death of George Floyd and the protests and riots that have followed all over the country.
Over the last week, we have witnessed the anger and frustration in our city and around the country relating to the killing of George Floyd and the recent deaths of African-American men and women. We have also witnessed the good in so many people who have peacefully expressed their concerns.
I am proud to hear the voices of many of our players who have spoken out against racism and injustice and called for unity. As an organization, we will continue to listen to our players, coaches, alumni and leaders in our community and work together to bring awareness and change in the effort to create a more fair and equal community.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are in uncharted territory when it comes to their QB situation.
No one knows, including the quarterback himself, if Ben Roethlisberger will be able to return to form after a devasting elbow injury in Week 2 of last season.
For the first time since Roethlisberger was drafted in 2004, the organization (and its fans) is grappling with the unknown. It leaves fans questioning whether Mason Rudolph will have what it takes to become the Steelers eventual franchise QB.
We got our first glimpse of Rudolph after Roethlisberger exited the game versus Seattle in September. Coming off the bench to play in one’s first regular-season pro game is never easy, but Rudolph took the Steelers downfield twice for scores and nearly led them to a win.
Though it was a Steelers loss — both for their season and Roethlisberger’s — Rudolph’s performance wasn’t devastating.
Until Cleveland.
After a catastrophic four-interception game versus the Browns that ended with the notorious incident involving defensive end Myles Garrett, Rudolph was benched the following week leading up to the Cincinnati Bengals.
(AP Photo/David Richard)
Rudolph warmed the bench the next three games before getting another shot at redemption in Week 16. Replacing a struggling Devlin Hodges, Rudolph led the Steelers to a field goal and TD in the final minutes of the first half and completed 14 of 20 passes for 129 yards and a score.
In the third quarter, Rudolph took a hard tackle for a loss and had to exit the game due to a shoulder injury — one that would prove to be season-ending.
Rudolph’s 10 games played resulted in a 5-5 record. He completed 62 percent of his passes on 13 TDs and nine interceptions.
At the close of the 2019 season, Pittsburgh’s front office publicly supported the idea of Rudolph being Roethlisberger’s backup. Coach Mike Tomlin, general manager Kevin Colbert, and Steelers president Art Rooney II all used the word “comfortable” in their statements about Rudolph’s position on the 2020 depth chart.
Comfortable isn’t the way someone should feel about a franchise QB. A backup, sure. But not the future.
Pittsburgh Steelers team president Art Rooney II released a statement about the NFL players passing the new collective bargaining agreement. The new CBA creates sweeping changes to the landscape of the NFL and offers concessions on both sides in order to assure there is no work stoppage.
We are excited to have come to terms with the NFLPA on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that I believe is fair for the players, teams, and our fans. Many people worked very hard at finalizing this agreement. It is a win-win arrangement that will allow the NFL to continue to grow and provide significant increased benefits to both current and retired players.
It is great that we can now move forward and allow the focus to remain on our team’s preparations for free agency, the draft, and then the 2020 season without any disruptions associated with the absence of a new labor agreement.
The Steelers are going to continue to keep Ryan Shazier on the roster.
For the past two years, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Ryan Shazier have had a complicated relationship. Shazier’s injury he suffered in December of 2017 has kept him off the field ever since and everyone continues to wait and see if Shazier will ever be able to play again. But in the meantime, the Steelers plan to keep Shazier around for as long as necessary in some capacity.
Steelers president Art Rooney II spoke to the media last week and was very positive about the scenarios that would keep Shazier back in the fold. “We’re never going to take that away from Ryan,” Colbert said. “We have always told him we’ll never put a ceiling on it.”
Last season, Shazier’s contract did not toll, meaning the team was able to count a reduced amount of his veteran minimum salary against the salary cap. This season, according to Rooney, Shazier’s contract will toll, meaning the full value of a veteran minimum contract — $820,000 — would count against the salary cap.
Rooney also made it seem like Pittsburgh was in no rush to make any big decisions about Shazier’s future until he is ready “When Ryan becomes healthy enough to play this game, which is his goal, we’ll make that decision and he’ll make that decision at that point, and we’ll respect it either way it goes.”
Steelers Art Rooney II talks about the quarterback position.
“We want to be able to run the ball effectively," Art Rooney II said. "We think you have to be balanced. Hopefully, we can get back to being that this coming season.”
There were plenty of reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers fell short of the playoffs last season. But a strong case can be made nothing hurt this team more than the loss of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. When he went down with an elbow injury the Steelers were forced to scramble to fill the void.
The tandem of Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges filed to keep the offense moving and the whole team ran out of gas down the stretch. But despite all these struggles and Roethlisberger’s health an unknown, team president Art Rooney II says the team will not sign a veteran quarterback.
This feels like an incredibly short-sighted point of view to present in early February. There are so many unknowns with this quarterback group over the next few months, anything could end up happening. But even if Roethlisberger does come back healthy, adding a veteran to help push Rudolph and provide some stability on the depth chart makes sense.
Art Rooney II releases a statement about Troy Polamalu making the HOF.
On Saturday night, former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu got the news he made the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first Ballot. This punctuates Polamalu’s amazing NFL career and solidifies his place among the NFL elite.
Steelers president Art Rooney II released the following statement about Polamalu making the HOF.
I want to congratulate Troy Polamalu on being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Troy was the kind of player who was able to impact the outcome of games from his safety position, and he did it with uncanny instincts that made it almost impossible for opposing offenses to predict where he would be. A proven playmaker who never failed to come up big in the biggest games, Troy deserves to be considered among the best defensive backs in NFL history. During both the 2005 and 2008 seasons, Troy was a significant contributor to our efforts during our drive to victories in those two Super Bowls, and the interception he returned for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter of the 2008 AFC Championship Game clinched that victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Troy was truly a playmaker every time he stepped on the field, and we couldn’t be happier for him.
It will be an exciting time for Troy and his family this summer when he receives our game’s highest individual honor in Canton.
Rooney: All signs point to GM Kevin Colbert returning for at least more season when his deal expires after the draft. "I'm optimistic about Kevin being back next year. We have to get something done. The sooner, the better."
The biggest free agent for the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason doesn’t put on a helmet on Sunday. General Manager Kevin Colbert’s contract with the Steelers is set to expire after the 2020 NFL draft and as of now, the two sides haven’t come to any sort of agreement moving forward.
Colbert chose not to negotiate a new contract last offseason leading some to believe he was planning to move on from the Steelers. Colbert has been the general manager of the Steelers since 2010. Steelers president Art Rooney II said this week he’s optimistic about getting Colbert and noted the team has to get something done and the sooner the better.
Losing Colbert would be a huge blow to Pittsburgh at a critical juncture for the franchise. The Steelers want Colbert back but with him refusing to negotiate last offseason raises serious doubts he has any interest in coming back to the Steelers.
In 2003, the NFL implemented a new policy dubbed the “Rooney Rule” as a form of affirmative action to help facilitate more minority coaching hires in the league. It earned its name from former Pittsburgh Steelers president Dan Rooney, who spearheaded the policy as chairman of the league’s diversity committee.
Every season when coaches start changing jobs and the Rooney Rule comes under heavy scrutiny. This season has been no different. Current Steelers owner and son of Dan, Art Rooney II talked about the concerns with the rule as it exists now and what might need to happen going forward.
“I think where we are right now is not where we want to be, not where we need to be,” Rooney said. “We need to take a step back and look at what’s happening with our hiring processes.”
“The first thing we’ll do as part of our diversity committee is really review this past season’s hiring cycle and make sure we understand what went on and talk to the people involved, both on the owner’s side, management side, as well as the people who were interviewed.”
