I recently saw that Cleveland area sports commentator Bruce Drennan called Pittsburgh Steelers fans “so spoiled.”

Well, compared to the Browns up in Cleveland, obviously. Who isn’t “spoiled” compared to them?

Compared to the likes of most franchises when it comes to Super Bowl wins? Again, sure. The Steelers have six. Only the New England Patriots have as many.

But if you are under 45, you don’t remember four of those Super Bowl wins. And even the most recent Super Bowl victory was back in the 2008-09 season.

Just to put it in Cleveland sports terms, Derek Anderson, Bruce Gradkowski, Ken Dorsey and Brady Quinn all got starts at quarterback for the Browns in that same season. Joe Thomas was in his second year with the Browns. The Indians (not yet Guardians) were about to begin an eight-year run without an American League Central crown, and LeBron James was still two years away from departing for the Miami Heat.

So, yeah. It’s been a minute. Even on a Cleveland calendar.

If you want it in a political bracket, Barack Obama had just been elected to the White House for his first term.

I shouldn’t pick on Drennan exclusively. He is just the latest to say what many outsiders in football fan and media circles have been saying about those who support or cover the Steelers for decades now: We are all spoiled.

Type the words “Steelers fans; spoiled” in a social media search and see what you get. Let’s just say that the sentiment is — ummm — pervasive.

Usually, that opinion is expressed with some colorful language over a subtweet from a Steelers fan or media member calling for Mike Tomlin to be fired. As is the case with all things Steelers in 2025, any discussion at this point is seen through the bifocal lens of “Tomlin has never had a losing season” versus “The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game in eight years.”

• Mark Madden: PiratesFest drives home notion the team has no ambition beyond profit • First Call: Steelers reportedly were quick to rebuff trade inquiries about Mike Tomlin; former Steelers coach may get promotion • Proposed changes to ACC championship game create more problems than answers

This conversation about a “spoiled” fanbase is no exception. And, again, from the perspective of Super Bowl accomplishments, of course, we are spoiled compared to the Browns, Lions or Jets. Actually, forget them. We can even talk about franchises that have been to multiple Super Bowls, such as the Vikings or Bills.

But let’s shelve comps to other organizations for a minute. Let’s just compare the Steelers to their own history.

I basically grew up in the 1980s. I was 5 years old when the Steelers won the last Super Bowl of the Steel Curtain era (the 1979-80 season). My earliest sports memories as a kid are from Super Bowl XIV.

Currently, it’s been 14 years since the Steelers last went to a Super Bowl and 16 years since they won one. So, if you are now of legal drinking age — or at least old enough to vote — you are roughly in that same age range I was. The last ultimate success for the Steelers is probably (at most) a misty, watered-colored memory of your formative sports fan years.

At about that age in my life, the agonizing AFC championship game losses in 1994-95 and 1997-98 occurred. There was the painful Super Bowl XXX defeat and a 14-season stretch from 1980-81 through 1993-94 when the Steelers totaled just two total playoff wins.

I didn’t feel “spoiled.” I don’t remember a lot of people referring to Steelers fans as “spoiled” back then.

I remember words like “once proud,” “rebuilding,” “formerly dominant” and “previously elite” being thrown around. I heard phrases such as “close but no cigar” a lot in the ’90s and “clinging to past history” a lot in the ’80s.

Not “spoiled.”

If you are of that age now — in your early 20s — the height of your playoff enjoyment was the Bengals melting down in the Burfict-PacMan game in 2015, plus a home win over Matt Moore and six field goals in Kansas City in 2016-17. Those seasons ended with the privilege of seeing Fitzgerald Toussaint fumbling in Denver and New England smoking your team in the AFC championship game.

You might have some hazy recollections of Big Ben to Santonio Holmes or Antonio Brown burning the Jets and Ravens in the 2010-11 playoffs. Yet, for almost anyone under 25 years old, is that spoiled?

Unfortunately, if you were 20 when the Steelers lost Super Bowl XXX, you had to wait another decade before Super Bowl XL. And it kinda feels like the Steelers are at least that far away right now, doesn’t it?

Sorry, but eight years without a playoff win isn’t spoiled. Lots of lesser franchises — including the Browns (in Pittsburgh) — have won a playoff game during that stretch of time.

A grand total of three postseason victories since 2010-11 isn’t spoiled. Fifteen times over the past 19 seasons, the Steelers have ended the year without a playoff win. For 11 of those seasons, Ben Roethlisberger was on the Week 1 roster.

That doesn’t feel spoiled. That feels like frequent disappointment. That feels like often underachieving. That feels like being embittered.

Does it feel like rooting for the Jaguars, Panthers, Browns, Jets or Giants? No. Of course not.

But should Yankees fans compare themselves to Pirates fans? Should Michigan fans ever compare themselves to Pitt fans?

Only if they are trying to rationalize failure, I guess. After the way 2024-25 just ended for the Steelers, I’m in no mood to do that.

If that makes me spoiled, it doesn’t make me wrong. If that makes me spoiled, then serve me my humility on a silver spoon.

I fear it’s the only silver we’ll be seeing around here for a while.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)