From Facebook Live videos to drug suspensions to coaches in bar fights to contract holdouts, the Steelers have earned the richly-deserved reputation of Team Turmoil over recent seasons.
And yet, despite all those self-inflicted, off-field distractions, they have somehow remained among the upper echelon of NFL teams. Obviously, there has been frustration over not winning that elusive seventh Lombardi for Pittsburgh, but their four straight playoff appearances are still second only to the buttoned-up, "do your job" Patriots.
Yet after Sunday night's humbling 26-14 loss to Baltimore, the Steelers are now a disappointing 1-2-1, their worst mark to start a season since the ill-fated 2013 campaign. If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Steelers wouldn't qualify.
This season just seems to feel different, doesn't it?
All through spring workouts and training camp, the Steelers talked of avoiding distractions and eliminating drama. Yeah, right — that lasted about a week.
Antonio Brown has mocked a beat reporter and then threatened another. Then he requested to be traded. Well, sort of. And then, of course, there's Le'Veon Bell. The all-world running back's contract holdout, which enters its fifth week of the season, has threatened to fracture the locker room.
On Monday night, ESPN.com's Jeremy Fowler reported that Bell plans to return during the Steelers' bye in Week 7. That remains to be seen but, hey, what's another three weeks of drama for the NFL's most dysfunctional family?
None of those off-field storylines, however, have -- or will -- affect the Steelers' on-field play, according to Bud Dupree. The fourth-year pro all but laughed about that.
"People in the locker room, we don't think about off-field distractions," the outside linebacker was telling me Monday. "Everyone was saying with the situation with Le'Veon, 'Oh, that's the reason that we're not focused.' True enough, but Le'Veon did the same thing last year at camp and we prepared to play with him or not.
"Le'Veon's a special player but when he comes, he comes. He's dealing with the business side of football. That's just something that we have to deal with. We have no control of it. He's handling his business and trying to do what's best for him."
Like Dupree, fellow 2015 draft class teammate Jesse James has known nothing but winning and drama since arriving in Pittsburgh.
"It doesn't bother me at all," James was saying. "I think most of my teammates have gotten over that. We have made a point to just focus on what's going on with football and make the most of every opportunity. But we haven't gotten that done yet."
No, the Steelers haven't gotten that done yet.
While the off-field stuff has made for great tabloid and internet fodder, rumor and innuendo, the Steelers' biggest problem to date this season has been a defense that has continued to regress since Ryan Shazier's injury last December. The Steelers boast the sixth-ranked offense -- even after Sunday night's no-show in the second half -- yet it still doesn't quite pass the eye test.
In that sense, this season is a little different than those in the recent past. But the goal, Dupree said, remains the same.
"It's different but we're only in the fourth game," he was saying. "We've got 12 to go to get where we want to be at the end of the season. Obviously, we lost two division games; that has put us in a bind. We have to make sure we don't lose anymore division games.
"We ain't scared. We're going to come here to work on Wednesday with a chip on our shoulder."