NFL confirms MLB's Pirates have impacted Steelers' early-season schedules

Last week, the NFL finally released the full schedule for the 2025 regular season, and all 32 teams around the league, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, found out the date and times of their 17 games and their bye week.

For the the 12th time in the last 13 years, the Steelers will open up their slate on the road, this time taking on the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday Sept. 7 at 1:00 p.m. ET. The last time they hosted a home game in Week 1 was in 2023, when they fell to the San Francisco 49ers 30-7 with Kenny Pickett throwing for 232 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

Why have the home games so infrequent in Week 1 in Pittsburgh? The hometown baseball team is apparently the party to blame.

"It's definitely impacted by the Pirates' schedule," NFL vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North told during a recent appearance on 93.7 The Fan. "Let's say we go two or three years in a row where the Pirates have a home game on the opening Sunday, and so we can't or we won't schedule a Steelers home game that weekend."

The only reason the Steelers hosted the 49ers for the 2023 game was because the Pirates didn't have a home game at PNC Park scheduled that day.

Pittsburgh's football and baseball clubs both played at Three Rivers Stadium from 1970-2000 before it was demolished and Acrisure Stadium (then, Heinz Field) and PNC Park were opened next to each other to host games.

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However, today the two venues share parking lots and considering their locations, the scene could get pretty wild in the area if both sell out and over 100,000 fans are there to attend a game.

Luckily for schedule-makers, the Pirates have been one of the worst franchises in the league over the last decade, failing to make the postseason since 2015 when they lost in the NL Wild Card game.

If the Pirates ever get back to the relevancy, things could get complicated. They may have to give the Steelers more road games earlier in the season or have to work around the MLB schedule more than they are currently.

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