| 1993 Pittsburgh Steelers season | |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Rooney Family |
| General manager | Tom Donahoe |
| Head coach | Bill Cowher |
| Home field | Three Rivers Stadium |
| Results | |
| Record | 9–7 |
| Division place | 2nd AFC Central |
| Playoff finish | Lost Wild Card Playoffs (at Chiefs) 24–27 (OT) |
| Pro Bowlers | 6
|
| AP All-Pros | 3
|
| Team MVP | Rod Woodson |
| Team ROY | Chad Brown |
The 1993 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the franchise's 61st season as a professional sports franchise and as a member of the National Football League.
The Steelers looked to continue the progress made under second year head coach Bill Cowher. However, the team would take a slight step backwards, finishing 9–7 (three games behind the eventual AFC Central champion Houston Oilers). Despite that, the Steelers clinched a wild card spot, making the playoffs for the second consecutive year. The team would lose to the Kansas City Chiefs 27–24 in overtime in the AFC Wild Card Round of the playoffs, in what is considered one of the best playoff games in NFL history even though the Steelers were on the losing end.
In the second week of the season, the Steelers suffered a shutout loss to the Los Angeles Rams 27–0, in the team's penultimate visit to the Los Angeles area until 2019. The day was highlighted by the emergence of Rams rookie Jerome Bettis running over the Steelers defense. Though no one knew it at the time, it would foreshadow what was to come with Bettis' career—as a member of the Steelers, who would acquire Bettis in a draft day trade with the Rams three years later.
1993 was also the season in which the Steelers began their policy of "blacking out" regular season contract negotiations. Early in the season the Steelers had reached contract extensions with Rod Woodson and Barry Foster and continued negotiations with other players. However, this led to discord in the locker room, and management felt that contract talk was taking the team's focus off of winning. At mid-season the Steelers broke off all contract negotiations and have refused to negotiate contracts during the regular season since.[1]