Rooney Will Be Missed

When the news broke that Steelers owner Dan Rooney was going to be nominated to be the new ambassador to Ireland, the Steelers emphasized how the move wouldn't impact the Steelers' day-to-day operations.

But it will impact the NFL. Rooney withdrew from all his NFL committees this week in preparation for his new job. That means that, with the owners and the players union getting ready to start what are sure to be contentious negotiations for a new labor agreement, Rooney will no longer be around to serve as a consensus maker.

In the past, Rooney has been able to bridge differences between the large market, high-revenue owners like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder and the smaller market, lower-revenue owners like Buffalo's Ralph Wilson. He was the leading force in getting Roger Goodell the commissioner's job, and he got the league to develop rules to increase the numbers of minority coaches.

Rooney will not be pulling double duty over the next few years, and he won't be in Pittsburgh for games. As a former U.S. ambassador explained to the Post-Gazette, there's little time to do anything but your main job.

"If you're the ambassador to Germany, your job is in Germany, not the United States," former U.S. ambassador to Germany Tim Timken said. "So I came home very rarely. I worked seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day. It was a very demanding schedule that required me to be in Germany."

Rooney hasn't had much of a role in the day-to-day running of the team for several years, but his absence will be felt in Pittsburgh as well. While no one will ever match Rooney's father, Art Rooney Sr. as the most beloved figure in Pittsburgh history, Dan Rooney has somehow managed to step right in where the Chief left off.

Eventually he'll be back, but if he serves as ambassador for Obama's full first term, he'll be 80 by the time he gets back to the U.S. At that point after several years away from the team, it's hard to believe he'll comeback to serve any role with the team, so this is likely Rooney's true goodbye to football.