Yesterday Pittsburgh lost the patriarch of it’s royal family and the NFL lost the keeper of “the Old Guard.” As someone who grew up in the Rooney kingdom this hits home in a litany of ways, but even as just fans of the NFL, this should non-Steeler fans as well because Dan Rooney is one of the last of a dying breed of NFL owners.
The influence the Rooney family has in the National Football League is not because they have the most money or the most innovative ideas, it is because this family has been at the forefront of growing the game of football since 1933. Dan Rooney took the reigns of the Steelers in 1969, coincidentally just around the time the game began to turn into more of a ritual than a sport. If the NFL is the Catholic Church, Dan Rooney was the Pope.
Dan Rooney represented all that was loved about the NFL when it first became our national obsession. His humility allowed blue collar fans not just in Pittsburgh, but worldwide, identify with the Steelers. Dan Rooney carefully crafted the image the Steelers portray as the NFL’s premiere blue collar franchise. Why do you think so many Terrible Towels are waved in away team stadiums when the Steelers are on the road? It’s not because Steeler fans from Pittsburgh are throwing all this money into traveling with the team, it is because the values the Steelers represent allows millions to gravitate towards the franchise. Dan Rooney was a master at earning the trust and devotion of the fans. Probably more so than any NFL owner in history.
While other NFL owners are looking to squeeze every dollar out of their fans, Dan Rooney never priced Steeler fans out of watching their team. Sure he made taxpayers pay for Heinz Field (he IS an NFL owner after all), but even after displaying many of the qualities rich old white NFL owners display, Dan Rooney was always the voice of reason and progress among NFL owners. The NFL is how the Rooneys became billioaires, not through ventures in tech or truck stops or razor blades. Football was what made them their money. Dan Rooney was the NFL. That is why he was so respected.
Not only did Dan Rooney’s vision enhance his team into a winner, but it also created an unbelievable fan base, and it helped develop the NFL into the unstoppable juggernaut it is today. The empathy Dan Rooney displayed led to the “Rooney Rule” being created so that African-Americans would get a fair crack at head coaching jobs. The accounting expertise he learned at Duquesne helped the league develop the salary cap which today affords every team but the Browns a realistic chance at becoming an instant winner. Dan Rooney was a wizard who’s magic helped create the most insanely popular league ever known to man. The NFL lost it’s Dumbledore yesterday. May his magic live forever. Rest in peace Dan Rooney.