Card-Pitt: A Marriage That Went To Hell

65 years ago the 2 teams battling for the Super Bowl championship were one team.

Back in 1944, World War II was still raging and many NFL players were dodging bombs rather than catching them in the European and Asian theater. Wartime sacrifice was greatly effecting the NFL as teams could not even field a team. Some franchises folded while others merged.

The year before, the Pittsburgh Steelers were down to 6 players so owner Art Rooney got permission from then NFL commissioner Elmer Layden to merge with the Philadelphia Eagles, who were also down in numbers. That year the Steagles as they were known had moderate success.

In 1944 the Steelers merged with the Chicago Cardinals to form Card-Pitt. Now the Cardinals were in the middle of a 29 game losing streak so they were bad. Combined with the Steelers it became god awful.

The Card-Pitts were a team of no talent, no chemistry and no clue and finished 0-10.

It got so bad that 3 players on the team were fined for "indifferent play" following a 34-7 loss against the Chicago Bears. In today's terms, they were fined for playing like crap. The players were ticked off and fought with the coaching staff. So much for team chemistry.

Steelers owner Art Rooney called Card-Pitts “the worst team in NFL history.” That they were.

So when you watch Super Bowl XLIII lets hope the game doesn't go down the toilet like there combined efforts did in 1944.