Published: July 17, 2008 11:23 pm            

HUGH CONRAD | ‘Corleone moment’ hurting Dan Rooney

Irish-Catholics are often very close families – at least until money or property is involved.

When the dollar amount is three-quarters of a billion dollars ($800 million according to one estimate), the Irish are more like the Corleones than the placid Bradys, Ryans or O’Briens.

Of course, the same could be said of many families, regardless of heritage.

Then, when one member of the family turns against one of the others, the bonds may be irretrievably severed.

That is the situation in which Pittsburgh Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney currently finds himself. In fact, unless he is able to find a huge investor or a group of smaller investors quickly, the truth is that his four brothers – Art Jr., Timothy, Patrick and John – may sell their individual 16 percent shares of the football team to the highest bidder. That will place ownership of the team that their father, Art Sr., founded in 1933 in the hands of someone other than a Rooney for the first time.

This is a sad story, but one that may be traced back to 1987.

When I was coaching football at St. Francis College (now University) in 1985, I received a letter from Art Jr., who wanted his son Michael to attend the Loretto school and play football there.

Michael eventually decided to stay at home and attend Robert Morris, but I was impressed with Art Jr. and his family. Later that year I met Art Sr. at a Pirates game at Three Rivers Stadium, and I was impressed with the quality of the people in the Rooney family.

But, just two years later, Dan Rooney put together his Corleone moment, apparently in a period of anger: He fired his brother, Art Jr., who was the Steelers director of personnel and scouting.

You reap what you sow, and today, Art Jr. and his brothers are turning on their eldest sibling because they want to receive the best price they can for their beloved Steelers. No family loyalty here.

A little history can help explain how the Steelers arrived at this point. Art Sr. was a class act, someone who is revered even today in Pittsburgh, 20 years after his death.

However, the founder of the team treated the Steelers more as a hobby than as a true business. He made his millions on race tracks and with gambling and real estate. The Rooney family currently owns Yonkers Raceway in New York and Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida, both of which allow gambling, which is why the NFL management is forcing the family to choose between the franchise and any business ties that are even peripherally involved with gambling.

For the first 34 or 35 years of their existence, the Steelers struggled as Art Sr. tried to run it for his personal enjoyment while he earned his big bucks from the real money-makers: The race tracks. Then, in the 1960s, he turned the Steelers over to Dan, now 75 and the oldest son of five.

Eventually, Dan hired Chuck Noll in 1969, and Art Jr. became the scouting and personnel director. Art Jr. is credited with putting together the outstanding drafts through the BLESTO-V agency that resulted in four Super Bowl wins in six years from 1974 until 1980 and nine players being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame – along with Noll and Dan Rooney.

Those teams are the ones that resulted in the a rabid group of followers that is now known as Steeler Nation.

However, those hall of famers aged in the 1980s and eventually retired or went elsewhere, and the successful drafts of the 1970s suddenly became horrible. Remember those legends like No. 1 picks Mark Malone (1980), Keith Gary (1981), Walter Abercrombie (1982), Gabe Rivera (1983), Darryl Sims (1985) and John Rienstra (1986)? Of the selections during those years, only Rod Woodson (1987) is a future Hall of Famer.

Rivera may have been very good but was paralyzed in an automobile accident.

Most of these picks were simply busts.

That led Dan to fire Art Jr., in 1987, his Corleone moment.

Certainly, Art Jr. had to face the fact that a once proud drafting operation was now inept.

However, instead of doing this quietly and shifting Art Jr. to the real estate division of the family business where he now works with little fanfare, Dan eventually made this public, blaming his brother for all of the team’s woes in the 1980s.

Yes, you can fire your brother, but do it quietly, and maybe he will not resent it 21 years later.

Art Jr. downplayed the firing in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“Dan has been an excellent steward,” Art Jr. said. “Like any family, we have problems. We have arguments. I mean, 21 years ago, Dan fired me. We got over it. Through some very trying times, all of the brothers have kept the ability to communicate with one another.”

Families may forgive, but they never forget.

The truth is that the four brothers, now in their late 60s and 70s, are thinking more about the inheritance taxes that they will have to pay after they pass away than keeping the Steelers in the hands of their eldest brother.

In fact, the five brothers have 32 children, 30 of whom are still living, so the money is important.

The brothers control 80 percent of the team at present, and Dan will need at least 30 percent of that – 14 percent more than his current 16 percent – to fit within NFL guidelines of having that much in the hands of a single owner.

All of the brothers are currently on the Steelers board.

The other 20 percent is owned by the family of the late Barney McGinley.

While the other three brothers also work in the family businesses, only Dan and Art Jr. still live in Pittsburgh.

Dan Rooney has been attempting to resolve this situation for at least two years, but now the NFL is now forcing his hand.

The four Rooney brothers have retained the renowned New York firm of Goldman, Sachs & Co. to negotiate offers for their share, an omen that Dan Rooney understands right now.

Another omen for Dan and his family are that the family is now resorting to being quoted anonymously in the media, leaking negative information about Dan, who is apparently offering less than the market share of $160 million that each brother controls.

Before his death in 1988, Art Sr. wrote a letter to his sons warning of exactly what might happen if a family feud might erupt. That was too late for Dan, who made his fateful choice a year earlier, one that his other brothers have obviously not forgotten.



Hugh Conrad is a freelance sports writer for The Tribune-Democrat.

        

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