This offseason has been a unique blend of triumphs and bad news for the Steelers. After overhauling the entire quarterback room and having a strong free agency and draft, the Steelers roster is much more poised to make a playoff run than it was last season. However, the schedule release, amongst other things, have shown the NFL’s desire to make life difficult for the Steelers.

The recent news about “Hard Knocks” following the AFC North toward the end of the season is another slight toward the Steelers, as four of the Steelers six divisional games will be played after recording for the show begins. All six divisional games take place in the final eight weeks of the season, and the other two games in that eight-game span are against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, making this potentially the hardest eight-game stretch in NFL history.

From biased officiating on a yearly basis, to unfair scheduling, to “Hard Knocks” getting in-building access during the final stretch of the season, the NFL always finds ways to make life difficult on the Steelers. But why? Why the Steelers, of all teams? Is it just our imagination, or is there true legitimacy to the conspiracy that the NFL has anti-Steelers bias?

To break it all down, I compiled 10 completely valid, but somewhat satirical, reasons as to why the NFL wants to do the Steelers dirty. Here they are:

1. Pittsburgh is a smaller market than most NFL teams’ cities, despite having one of the largest fan bases. Due to being a smaller market team, the NFL and its colleagues cannot generate as much revenue on game days, as the smaller cities will not yield as much overall money.
2. There is no fan base more loyal to their team than Steelers fans, and they will watch games regardless of how much the NFL tries to screw up their season. Perhaps this is why the NFL chose the Steelers to be one of the teams playing a 1:00 game on Christmas Day on Netflix, because Steelers fans are one of the few fan bases that will likely pay for a Netflix subscription to watch their team play.
3. No team has more than six Lombardi Trophies, and the league does not want a team to have a second dynasty run. The NFL has a Communistic side to them, which desires to bring down the most deserving in hopes of promoting equal outcome rather than equal opportunity. Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes are in a class of “elites,” and this policy does not apply to them, as the G.O.A.T.S. consistently bring in money for the league.
4. The Steelers have historically been a low-drama franchise, and they have not contributed as many headlines for the national media to feast on and discuss.
5. The Steelers are loyal to local businesses over league sponsors. For instance, I do not drink or endorse any sort of alcohol, but generally speaking, local Steelers fans are more inclined to remain loyal to Iron City Beer than they are to Bud Light, the NFL’s sponsor. The same can be said when comparing Primanti Bros to a Subway or Jersey Mike’s, both of which run ads during NFL games.
6. Steelers fans travel better than any other fan base, and hard road stretches or stretches of tough games will always put Steelers fans in the seats, regardless of whether it is a home game or road game.
7. When the Steelers struggle, the media finally has a chance to stir up drama within the locker room, and it gives them something to pick apart and generate clicks on.
8. For the most part, the Steelers are secure and secretive, so they have to use media like “Hard Knocks” to get insight during a crucial point in the season.
9. Money talks. This explains why the NFL is willing to put forward enough money to compensate refs who officiate games with an anti-Steelers edge.
10. Roger Goodell is *definitely* in an anti-Steelers coalition with Robert Kraft, Ozzie Newsome, Jerry Jones, Duke Tobin, and anyone else who has been a Steelers rival in the past 50 years.

There you have it, Steelers fans. You can now speak eloquently to your friends as to why the NFL does not want the Steelers to be a Championship-level team. They are taking Steelers fans for suckers, and they will do what they need to in order to generate the most money and drama they can get from one of the league’s most storied franchises.