OwnerThe Rooney Family Division place3rd AFC Central Head coachChuck Noll General managerDick Haley Team MVPLouis Lipps
Record9–7 AP All-ProsRod Woodson (1st team) Start date1989 Home fieldThree Rivers Stadium Team royCarnell Lake
Playoff finishWon Wild Card Playoffs (Oilers) 26–23
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Broncos) 24–23 Pro Bowlers2
OT Tunch Ilkin
CB Rod Woodson People also search for1986 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers were considered a rebuilding team filled with many young players, especially after the release of longtime center Mike Webster in the offseason. The young team showed its inexperience in the first game of the season, when they lost at home to the archrival Cleveland Browns 51–0. The loss marked the Steelers worst defeat in franchise history. The following week wasn't much better, losing 41–10 to another division rival, the defending AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals.
However, the Steelers clinched the final playoff spot in the last week in the season with a 9–7 record. Chuck Noll, in his 21st season as the team's head coach, was named the NFL's Coach of the Year for the only time in his coaching career. Noll was renowned as a stoic character, but in complete contrast was his reaction to Jerry Glanville, the head coach of the Oilers. After the Steelers second meeting, Noll in the post game handshake grabbed Glanville and told him he'd better watch out or he'd get jumped on. This was in reaction to Glanville's earlier comments on how the Oilers field was the 'house of pain' and his prediction that his players would intentionally hurt the Steelers. Despite the personal discord between the two coaches, at the end of the season, Glanville publicly revealed that he would vote for Noll for NFL Coach of the Year.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Steelers would have a memorable come-from-behind overtime victory over the division-rival Houston Oilers 26–23, which saw Gary Anderson kick a game-winning, 50-yard field goal in the extra period. The following week, the Steelers nearly pulled off a major upset against the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium before losing 24–23 on a Melvin Bratton one-yard touchdown run with 2:22 remaining in the game.
Though the Steelers would not make the playoffs again under Chuck Noll (missing in 1990 with an identical 9–7 record and again in 1991 at 7–9 despite a second-place finish that year), the season did set the tone for the team's return to prominence in the 1990s under his successor, Bill Cowher.
Until 2015, it was the last season the Steelers made the playoffs in a season the Super Bowl aired on CBS. Each of the next six such seasons (1991, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012) would see the team missing the playoffs.
Offseason
The offseason was marked with the team deciding not to renew the contract of longtime center Mike Webster. Webster's release marked the end of the Super Bowl-era players on the team. Although Dwayne Woodruff was still with the Steelers and had won a Super Bowl ring during his rookie year, Webster had been the last member on the team that won all four Super Bowls. Webster would be succeeded at center with a young Dermontti Dawson, who was drafted the year before to be groomed as Webster's replacement, and like Webster would go on to an All-Pro career as one of the best at his position.
Meanwhile, the team drafted UCLA safety Carnell Lake in the second round of the 1989 draft. Lake would be a key member of the team's defense through the 1998 season, although his accomplishments would often be underlooked as opposed to his teammate, Rod Woodson.
Week 1 (Sunday September 10, 1989): vs. Cleveland Browns
at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Game time: 4:00 pm EDT
Game weather: 70 °F (Rain)
Game attendance: 57,928
Referee: Johnny Grier
TV announcers: (NBC) Tom Hammond (play by play), Joe Namath (color commentator)
