You want the owner of your football team to care about the game, and to care about your team—of course not in equal measure. Fans don’t paint their faces for a rules change, not even for an important one like the Rooney Rule.
There was no owner better than Dan Rooney, maybe ever, at combining the good of the game with the good of his team. And later in life, the good of the country.
Rooney, a Pro Football Hall of Famer for his franchise architecture with the Steelers, for his diplomacy in some bitter league labor disputes and for his historic patience with coaches, a root of Pittsburgh’s greatness, died Thursday at 84.