© Charles LeClaire/Imagn
There’s no arguing that the history of professional sports in the city of Pittsburgh is rich with success. Even despite never having an NBA team, the city has an impressive 16 championships on its résumé.
However, the city is now mired in a 1,442 day drought without witnessing a single playoff victory from any of its three major professional sports teams: the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pittsburgh Penguins, or Pittsburgh Pirates.
That is a drought that is rapidly approaching four years, and Pittsburgh fans are understandably beginning to melt down amid the constant postseason failure.
Pittsburgh Fans Are Getting Angry At Their Teams Constantly Losing In The Playoffs
Somehow, the Pirates have managed to avoid most of the ire. That’s both because they’re currently very promising, with a 13-9 record to start the season and a young roster, and because they haven’t actually played in a playoff game since 2015.
The Steelers and Penguins, however, don’t have that level of leniency from fans.
In 19 seasons under Mike Tomlin, the Pittsburgh Steelers were playoff mainstays, never finishing worse than .500 and making the postseason a remarkable 13 times.
However, Tomlin and the Steelers have lost their last five playoff games in the wildcard round. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 2016 to find the last time the Steelers won a playoff game.
Similarly, the Penguins have had a remarakble 20-year run thanks to legends Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, among others. They made the playoffs every season from 2007-2022.
But the Penguins missed out on the postseason from 2023-25, leading them to fire head coach Mike Sullivan.
This year, the aging core seemed to have found one more push in it under new coach Dan Muse, finishing second in the Metropolitan Division with 98 points.
That set them up with a first-round series against the cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers, who made a remarkable late-season push to claim the final playoff spot in the conference.
Pittsburgh has home ice for the series and looked set to finally get back in the playoff win column.
However, that hasn’t been the case. Philadelphia scored first in each of the first two games en route to a pair of victories, 3-2 in Game 1 and 3-0 in Game 2. And now the natives are growing restless.
It’s now been 1,442 days since a major professional Pittsburgh sports team won a playoff game.
— Josh Rowntree (@JRown32) April 21, 2026
“I’m so f—in sick of it here man. Absolutely depressing times to be a Yinzer,” one fan posted on X.
“Just f—ing sad man. This city deserves more,” wrote another.
Some fans tried to point out that the team’s soccer franchise, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, recently won a championship. But not only is Major League Soccer not considered a major four sport, the Riverhounds don’t even compete in MLS. Instead, they’re a member of the United Soccer League, which is considered the second tier of American soccer.
So no, that absolutely does not count.
In theory, the Penguins really shouldn’t get swept. Pittsburgh has plenty of talent and the Flyers are far from a juggernaut. But they’re only two losses away from that reality. And if it happens, the playoff winless drought is guaranteed to extend over four years.