Bordow: Old-guard ownerships have much in common

TAMPA, Fla. - Once upon a time there was a joke of an NFL franchise. The team had just eight winning seasons and one postseason appearance from 1943 to 1971.

The owner was considered a nice guy, but a bit of an incompetent.

There was no continuity or sanity in the front office; the organization had 10 different head coaches in one 25-year span.

Consistency is key for Cards' O line

And it wasn’t until the son took over for the father that the organization finally ditched its losing ways.

The Cardinals?

Nope.

The Steelers.

It’s hard to believe now, but the Steelers once were the Cardinals. Minus the bow ties, of course.

“It took us umpteen thousand years to even look fairly respectable,” Ed Kiely, 90, who began working for the Steelers in the 1940s and later became Art Rooney Sr.’s assistant, told the St. Petersburg Times. “I used to drive to these little towns along the rivers and try to get the newspaper guys to write a little something about the Steelers. Nobody cared about the team.”

The Cardinals changed course when Michael Bidwill took over the day-to-day running of the organization. The Steelers became winners when Dan Rooney inherited the responsibilities from his father, Art.

Dan Rooney hired Chuck Noll. Michael Bidwill hired Ken Whisenhunt.

It just took a few years for the Cardinals to catch up.

“We have a lot of history together,” Bill Bidwill said. “It’s kind of special that we’re playing them in the Super Bowl.”

The Cardinals and Steelers haven’t just shared a dubious past. They once were business partners.

During World War II, dozens of NFL players served their country overseas. Franchises had to merge to field complete rosters and in 1944 the Chicago Cardinals and Steelers combined forces to put together a team known as Car-Pitt.

“My father and Charlie Bidwill (Bill’s father) were really the ones that got together,” Dan Rooney said. “Elmer Layden was the commissioner then and he worked really hard to try to get the government to say like they did with baseball, that it was something good to do. It was a way to provide entertainment. People needed an outlet.”

The idea had merit. There was just one problem. Car-Pitt stunk. The team had two more head coaches (Walt Kiesling and Phil Handler) than it had victories (0-10). It was outscored 328-108, it threw 41 interceptions, and in seven of the 10 games it scored seven points or less.

“We got killed every week,” said center Vince Banonis, 87, who played for the Cardinals for parts of seven seasons. “It was miserable.”

How bad was it? Well, the team played in hand-me-down uniforms with holes in them. Three players were fined for “indifferent play,” after a 34-7 loss to Chicago. Running back Johnny Grigas, the team’s best player, left the field and was on the train more than an hour before the season-ending 49-7 loss to the Chicago Bears was over. Grigas left a note that said, simply, “This is the end.”

Eventually, the team became known as the Car-Pitts because everyone walked all over it.

“The Car-Pitts played the role of a red plush rug this afternoon as the undefeated Giants paraded over and past them,” the Chicago Tribune wrote after a 23-0 New York victory on Oct. 22.

The Cardinals were used to being stomped on. They were in the midst of a 29-game losing streak. But the Steelers? It remains the only winless season in franchise history.

Pittsburgh could have disavowed the blemish on its record — “it was the Cardinals’ fault!” — but the Rooneys wouldn’t hear of it.

“Nah, we admit to it, and I think they do, too,” Dan Rooney said.

Sixty-five years have passed. The Steelers have become one of the most successful franchises in NFL history with five Super Bowl rings. The Cardinals are just now dusting off their past.

But once upon a time, the two organizations shared a sense of frustration and hopelessness, their family names a source of derision.

Thankfully, times have changed.

But they’ll always have the Car-Pitts.