Engel: Common sense is a perfect business model for Art Rooney II

ARLINGTON -- Steelers owner Art Rooney II was standing on the field at JerryWorld on Media Day, no podium, no seat in the stands with his name, no huge crowd of reporters around him. He was standing in the best stadium in the NFL, the playground of the most recognized owner in the league and answering questions from a few gathered reporters about The Rooney Way.

Super Bowl week practically choked on fawning talk about The Rooney Way; journalists tripping over themselves to praise Art Rooney and Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II for running their NFL franchise better than the 31 other teams in the league. Or so the stories went all week. The Rooneys have been praised for having only three coaches since 1969 and financial prudency and running their business like a family and building through the draft and being non-flash. And when you do this while playing in a Super Bowl in Owner Jones' back yard, you quickly get juxtaposed against Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

And so I thought "Why not just ask Rooney II?" about being the anti-Jerry.

Of course, this sounded better in my brain than it did coming out of my mouth. It has to be one of the more awkward questions ever asked by anybody.

Me: "Because you know down here, I mean, you are considered the anti-Jerry Jones. I am sure you and Jerry are friends. But down here you are held up as 'Wow, they are so lucky in Pittsburgh.'"

Rooney II, after giving me a look that screamed, "Really? You want me to weigh in on Jerry?": "Well, everybody has a different style. Every ownership has a different approach to it, and I'm not going to stand here and say our way is the right way."

Uh, your way has your Steelers in their third Super Bowl in six years seasons while the Cowboys have a single playoff victory in more than a decade?

"There are a lot of teams that have been successful over the years, including the one we are going to play," Rooney II said. "So I don't think we've got the answer in the bottle. I don't think anybody has."

He is right, of course. In the 1990s, Steeler Nation probably wished The Rooneys had followed The Cowboy Way. What the Steelers have at the moment are results, and results are almost impossible to argue. It is what led to all of the fawning, and questions.

What does Rooney II think when he hears people talk about The Rooney Way?

"Yeah, well, it makes me a little nervous when people talk about The Rooney Way," he said. "I'm not sure what it is."

This made me feel better. Because while I admire The Rooneys and this Pittsburgh team and certainly Mike Tomlin, and while I have been an ardent basher of Owner Jones or at least his GM, let's not pretend The Rooney Way has been perfect.

It included welcoming Ben Roethlisberger back after his off-season "troubles" and the fact he was the first good quarterback they have had since Terry Bradshaw. And there were the 1980s.

"Somebody just asked me, 'What is it?' and I said, 'I don't know,'" Rooney II said. "All we try to do is get the right people in the right spot and try to hire good people that do a good job, and it is not more complicated than that."

Oh, but it is. Or it can be.

We here in Dallas know exactly how complicated it can be when the owner feels like he has to be the GM and an assistant coach and building contractor and training-camp planner and huckster and PR maven and rock star. Jerry does it all, not because he wants to lose, or because he does not want to be in the Super Bowl. He really wants to win, no matter what anybody says. He just cannot help thinking he needs to be involved. So I asked Rooney II how he avoids making these mistakes.

"I think the key is to get people like Coach Tomlin who are capable of doing the job on their own and not to try to do the job for them," Rooney II said. "Coach and I talk every day. But I don't try to call the plays. I don't try to tell him who to play. If there is something he wants to bounce off of me, fine. But we hired him to do the job because we had confidence he could do it and he's done a great job."

The media has become infatuated with calling this The Rooney Way, but it is common sense. It is too bad we do not have more of that with the Dallas Cowboys.

Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7697

This story was originally published February 4, 2011 at 6:58 PM with the headline "Engel: Common sense is a perfect business model for Art Rooney II."