Pittsburgh Steelers: Is the NFL Unfairly Targeting the Steelers?

Any fan of any team will tell you that the men in zebra stripes, the officials, have it in for their team on Sundays. In virtually any sport, scorn toward the men who enforce the rules is high.

In Pittsburgh, however, recent seasons seemed to have played out showing that not only the officials, but also the NFL’s head people, have it in for the Black and Gold.

The question now is this:

If you take an objective look at things, is the NFL really targeting the Steelers?

Let’s look at that subject in depth and see if it’s fan angst or actual fact.

“Steelers Rules”

In the past few years, two new rules have been enacted by the NFL that have been painted by pundits, analysts and fans as unfairly targeting the Steelers and a couple of their marquee players.

First, prior to the 2009 season, the NFL put a rule in place that protected defenders from blindside hits and crack back blocks delivered by offensive players. The rule was meant to prevent injuries to defenders who were defenseless (similar to recent rule changes in the NHL to prevent concussions and vicious, unnecessary play).

With the NFL attempting to better target injuries, the rule makes some sense. Defenders have long been prohibited from blindsiding offensive players with hard hits, so in a way, this can be seen as a way to level the playing field.

Similarly, during and after the 2010 season, the league has worked to implement new rules governing how defenders can hit offensive skill players, particularly quarterbacks. The new rule stipulates that fines, suspensions and other disciplinary action can be assessed in addition to on-field penalties for hits that are deemed illegal.

The goal, again, was to protect quarterback, the premiere position in the NFL, from injury risks.

Both rule changes, however, were spawned mostly in response to the play of wide receiver Hines Ward and linebacker James Harrison. The perception, therefore, is that the rules are directed at the Steelers.

To further the case of the fans against the league, Harrison was assessed a higher amount of fines by the league in 2010 than any other defensive player despite some questionable hits by other repeat offenders.

Unfair Treatment on the Field

In addition to the attention heaped upon the rule changes, there are constant concerns that Pittsburgh teams are unfairly penalized a higher percentage of the time.

During the 2007 playoffs, the Steelers received a notorious apology from the league’s officiating office for a missed call that played a role in costing the Steelers a playoff victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

During the 2010 season, several quarterback sacks or near-sacks by James Harrison were penalized while similar hits to Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went unnoticed. This double standard drew the ire of fans, coaches and even several players.

While it’s easy to dismiss fan reaction to the way games are officiated, there has been some excellent, verifiable evidence in recent seasons that officials are making more and more costly mistakes during games. There is also, after 2010, some indication that the field might be slanted against some members of the Steelers organization.

How About the Numbers Game?

This is an era driven by statistics. In baseball, there are statistics for everything from home runs to the amount of times a pitcher throws a certain pitch. It seems like eventually baseball will have statistics for the amount of movement a player makes between pitches.

Football isn’t that far behind. In recent seasons, quarterbacks have been judged more on their numbers than on their intangible contributions to the game.

The statistics on penalties aren’t nearly as obvious as those for touchdowns thrown or rushing yards, but they are there for anyone who cares to look. It’s hard to quantify with statistics whether or not penalties are unfair since their severity can often times be based upon the game situation.

Perhaps the most startling statistic is the one we’ve already mentioned about how James Harrison was fined more than any other player last season. That could be a one-season fluke, however, so we’ll have to see how it plays out in 2011.

Final Verdict

The objective reporter in me says that the Steelers, as a team, probably are not more discriminated against than any other team in the NFL. The fan in me screams against that conclusion, but if I remove my emotions from it, I can see clearly that every team has a lot of calls go against them that look bad on further review.

I will, however, say that players like James Harrison and Ben Roethlisberger are discriminated against with penalties. Because he is a mobile, athletic quarterback, Roethlisberger doesn’t draw many of the same calls that Tom Brady or Peyton Manning might, even if the plays are similar.

Harrison, because of his reputation and because, as the old adage goes, his mouth got him in trouble, seems to be the league’s poster child for illegal hits to quarterbacks. This year will be very telling as there seem to be a lot of changes coming with the new CBA. We’ll have to see how things play out.