Weird stats are the best. We write about them after every Pittsburgh Steelers game, win, lose, or draw. Unfortunately, there’s been a lot of losses to talk about recently, most of which won’t make anyone feel better. Offense held to under 17 points in four-straight games for first time since 2003? Thanks, I hate it. Pittsburgh the first 10-win team to lose its final four regular-season games since the 1986 New York Jets? Please, make it stop.
A new weird stat won’t make you feel better about the Steelers’ chances Saturday night against the Baltimore Ravens. But it’s one of my favorite “stats of the weird” of all-time.
Pittsburgh is playing a fourth-straight game that’s not taking place on a Sunday. It began in Week 16 against the Baltimore Ravens, a Saturday tilt. The NFL pushed the game up a day for all the Christmas Day teams like the Steelers, creating the difficult but familiar four-day turnaround as a Sunday-to-Thursday contest. That allowed the Steelers to play on a Wednesday against the Kansas City Chiefs. And the NFL made the decision to place the Steelers’ regular-season finale on a Saturday, clearing up the AFC North standings in one swoop thanks to the Ravens and Cleveland Browns playing the game before.
Now, the Steelers are set to play Saturday night against the Ravens. That’s hardly a shock. Since both played this past Saturday, it makes sense to play both this upcoming Saturday. Rather than force a team that played Sunday handle the playoffs on a short week. It doesn’t always work out like that but when the pieces fit, it’s smart.
Still, including playoffs, that means Pittsburgh is going to play four-straight non-Sunday games. Saturday to Wednesday to Saturday to Saturday. Has that ever happened before?
Digging through the Steelers’ year-by-year schedule, yes. It has. In fact, it occurred just one other time across the first four games in franchise history. In 1933, the first four weeks the team ever played were non-Sunday events. Each took place on Wednesday until the team made its Sunday debut in its fifth game. Here’s how Pittsburgh opened its history.
Week 1 – Wednesday, Sept. 20 vs. New York Giants
Week 2 – Wednesday, Sept. 27 vs. Chicago Cardinals
Week 3 – Wednesday, Oct. 4 vs. Boston Redskins
Week 4 – Wednesday, Oct. 11 vs. Cincinnati Reds
Week 5 – Sunday, Oct. 15 at Green Bay Packers
So what gives? Why the quirk? In 1933, Pennsylvania operated under restrictive Blue Laws that prohibited major gatherings like sporting events from being played on Sundays. Opening at home the first four games, the Steelers (called the Pittsburgh Pirates through the 1939 season) had no choice but to play on a non-Sunday. Why a Wednesday was chosen instead is less clear. Presumably, it avoided conflicts with the more popular Pitt Panthers on Saturday (though they played at different venues) and high school games on Friday.
Whatever the reason, Wednesday was the day. Pittsburgh split its home stretch, losing to the Giants and Redskins while defeating the Cardinals and Reds for the franchise’s first two victories.
From Week 5 through Week 8, Pittsburgh hit the road. Because the team was out of state, Blue Laws didn’t apply, and each game was played on Sunday. During the 1933 state elections, those Blue Law provisions were partially rolled back and allowed sporting events to occur on the Sabbath. The team returned for its first Sunday home game in Week 9 though those in attendance weren’t treated to an entertaining game. The Brooklyn Dodgers shut them out 32-0. It would serve as the Steelers’ only Sunday home game that season although they traveled cross-state to play the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Nov. 19. The Eagles sent them home with a 25-6 loss.
By 1934, the organization mostly played Sunday games though three home contests still took place on Wednesday. In fact, remnants of those laws remained on the books as late as 2022 while other Blue Law are applicable today. It’s why car dealerships must be closed on Sunday.
There have been other close calls. I found five occasions in which Pittsburgh has played three consecutive non-Sunday games. The first took place from in 1938 Sept. 16-Oct. 3, playing two Friday games before a Monday matchup. But that stretch was bookended by Sunday games.
Post-merger, it happened in 1975. Three-straight Saturday games, two to close out the regular season plus the Steelers’ Divisional Round win over the Baltimore Colts. But the AFC Championship Game, like today, occurred on a Sunday. Pittsburgh beat the Oakland Raiders before knocking off the Dallas Cowboys in the Super Bowl. The same played out in 1978, the Steelers ending the regular season with a pair of Saturday games, including a Saturday Divisional tilt against the Denver Broncos. Another win, another Sunday title game. Pittsburgh blew out the Houston Oilers to advance and again best the Cowboys in the Super Bowl.
In modern times, three-straight has occurred twice. In 2011, the stretch occurred during the regular season. In Week 14, Pittsburgh played a Thursday night game against the Cleveland Browns. In Week 15, a Monday night game at San Francisco, a game best known for dual power outages and delays. And in Week 16, the Steelers hosted the Rams on Christmas Eve, a Saturday. They closed out the year facing the Browns on a Sunday.
Most recently, three-straight happened last season. As the NFL jumbles up the schedule more and more, Pittsburgh played a Thursday-Saturday-Saturday regular-season stretch against the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, and Cincinnati Bengals.
If Pittsburgh falls to Baltimore in the Wild Card round, its last Sunday game would have occurred in Week 15 on Dec. 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
What does it mean? Like all weird stats, not much. Tough as the schedule is, it’s not to blame for the Steelers’ skid. Baltimore, in fact, has replicated Pittsburgh’s non-Sunday schedule and come out spotless.
But it is a weird stat. One full of history and symmetry. That’s what we like around here. Pittsburgh’s first four games in franchise history have lots in common with its most recent four contests. Pretty cool.
