With all of the recent talk of whether or not the Pittsburgh Steelers should make a trade or two to upgrade the team for the stretch run, the question of “what is a successful season?” has emerged. I decided to put a poll on Twitter to ask this very question. Here are the results.
How do YOU define a 'successful' #Steelers' Season?
*Comments may be used in an upcoming article @SCBlitz
— Steel Dad (@SteelDad) October 24, 2018
With 700 people voting, the results speak for themselves. But does this indicate that Steelers’ fans have unrealistic expectations? Going to a Super Bowl is not easy. Winning the Super Bowl is even more difficult but is apparently still the standard for the majority of fans that voted.
If you don't win the Super Bowl….it cannot be a successful season!!!!! That's the whole reason to win….go all the way or go home??
— Diane Price (@pghpeanut1_) October 25, 2018
I think Diane is pretty straight-forward in her opinion!
Superbowl win. Anything less is unsuccessful. If they're playing for any reason other than a Superbowl win they're not going to win 1. https://t.co/bb3Dt3gzFm
— Scott Torgun (@steelersscott) October 24, 2018
Seems logical to me Scott!
Normally I would say a playoff appearance is the expected "standard" in Pittsburgh. However, this year was supposed to be "their year" so I would say SB appearance this year.
— Joe Steeler Fan ™ ?=? (@JoeSteelerFan) October 25, 2018
Joe proves that people can have some flexibility on the issue.
I chose playoff appearance because since the merger, only a handful of teams have won multiple SB’s. Illustrates how difficult it is. The goal is ALWAY to win a title, but making the playoffs is more successful than not, and far more successful than being perennially below .500
— BlockboyJR??? (@J_R_607) October 24, 2018
How dare someone use logic???
I had to pick playoff apperance as that was the closet option but personally I would say any season that had at least one playoff win. Yeah I'm spoiled.
— Simon Chester (@SimonAChester) October 24, 2018
Simon admits what many other Steelers’ fans are afraid to… We have become spoiled with success.
AFC title game.
— Mr. Crash (@SteelersCrash) October 24, 2018
I have to give Crash credit. I thought for sure he’d be all-in on Super Bowl win!
Some of the things that have to be mentioned are how success is defined. I say this because if you look at all 32 teams in the NFL, do the fans of each team all share the same definition? Every fan base shares the same goal, let’s be clear on that. If winning the Super Bowl isn’t your goal then why are you even bothering?
But when it comes to success, this is where things get different. Would an Arizona Cardinals’ fan say their season isn’t successful if they made the postseason and lost in the NFC Conference Championship Game? Would a Browns’ fan say that a .500 season is a success after going 1-31 the previous two seasons?
As is the case with most things in life it comes down to your perspective. For Steelers’ fans, that perspective is clearly focused on victory in the Super Bowl. Anything less is not to be deemed a success. I can’t help but wonder how things change once Ben Roethlisberger hangs up his cleats. Will the ‘Standard still be the Standard?” or will there be more forgiveness?
When that time comes I’ll be asking once again.
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[…] I ran a poll this week on Twitter asking fans how they defined success for the Steelers. Here’s the write up along with several tweets that replied to the poll. […]