The Pittsburgh Steelers hadn’t been looking amazing over the past several weeks. Star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went down with a knee injury back in week three, and while the team stayed afloat with a 2-2 record while he was away, they still didn’t seem like themselves. That’s to be expected when you lose a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and rotate between the likes of Michael Vick and Landry Jones.
Pittsburgh got Big Ben back this past week, and although the Steelers lost both the game and stud rusher Le’Veon Bell, they at least excited fans with their uniforms. That’s right, the Steelers busted out that “love it or hate it” Bumblebee look, where they look more like a band of pirates that morphed into 1920’s Alcatraz escapees.
All jokes aside, it’s really cool anytime teams sport something other than their normal uni’s and Pittsburgh’s custom football uniforms definitely stray from the norm.
These particular uni’s pay homage to some serious history, as the bumblebee/prison break look stems from the team’s 1934 uniforms. Pittsburgh actually unleashed these in their 80th season and have worn them four times since 2012. Per ProFootballTalk.com, they wore them against the Redskins and Ravens in 2012, against the Lions in 2013 and last year against the Colts. This past weekend they donned them against a division rival for the second time ever – this time the 7-0 Bengals – and they ended up losing.
That’s a mild surprise, as Pittsburgh’s black and yellow striped uni’s have brought them good fortune in the past. In fact, in the four previous games they wore their bumblebee uni’s, Pittsburgh was a solid 3-1. That record is even better when you consider their lone loss was a 13-10 TNF battle with the hated Ravens. Oh, and Ben Roethlisberger was too hurt to play in that game – one where Byron Leftwich was the starter.
Needless to say, the Steelers were pretty good in these uniforms heading into Sunday (dropped 51 points on the Colts last year in them, no less), yet couldn’t get the job done at Heinz Field in their cool looking digs.
It’s not always about how you look, though. The good news is Big Ben is back and healthy and the team does still have veteran running back DeAngelo Williams to fall back on in the wake of Bell’s injury. And this recent loss aside, we definitely will cross our fingers that we’ll be seeing the particular alternates at least one more time in 2015.
Love or hate the Steelers throwback uni’s? Let us know in the comments below!
*photo credit – uni-watch.com
