The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team in the National Football League. The team is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and play their home games at Heinz Field. Heinz Field has a capacity of 65,050 and opened in 2001. The team plays in the AFC North division and is currently coached by Mike Tomlin. The team was established in 1933, and is the oldest franchise in the AFC.
Through their nearly 80 year history, the team has featured 16 coaches, starting with Forrest Douds. The team has featured five coaches inducted into the Hall of Fame; however, only Chuck Noll was inducted as a coach. Noll coached the team from 1969 through 1991, compiling a 193-148-1 record while garnering two Coach of the Year award honors and led the team to four Super Bowl victories. The team has made 27 playoff appearances, while winning 20 division championships. The team has won eight conference championships, and has a 6-2 record in Super Bowls, most recently winning Super Bowl XLIII in 2008 under coach Mike Tomlin.
The team has featured 25 Hall of Fame inductees including such greats as “Mean” Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Lynn Swann, and most recently Jack Butler and Dermontti Dawson, who were both inducted in 2012. The team has featured two NFL Most Valuable Player award winners: Bill Dudley in 1946, and Terry Bradshaw in 1978. Five different Steelers have won Super Bowl MVP including Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, and Terry Bradshaw twice.
The Steelers have three main rivals, division-foes the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Ravens, and the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as additional rivalries against the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, and recently the New England Patriots. The “Turnpike Rivalry” between the Browns and the Steelers has seen the two teams face off against one another 120 times over the past 62 years, with the Steelers holding a 64-56 advantage; however, since the Browns rejoined the league in 1999, the Steelers hold a commanding 20-4 lead over the Browns. Since their inception in 1996, the Steelers and the Ravens have held one of the most intense rivalries in the NFL, with Pittsburgh holding a 21-14 lead. The Bengals and Steelers have faced off 84 times since their first meeting in 1970, with the Steelers holding a 52-32 lead. Recently, a rivalry between the Steelers and Patriots have formed due to each team’s dominance over the rest of the AFC with some of the most hotly contested playoff matchups coming between these two teams.
