Second half of season encouraging

• Rooney said he felt head coach Mike Tomlin did a good job of handling the team during the season.

“I think the No. 1 thing I always want to see in a team, and I think that it’s up to the coach to make this happen, is get better as the season goes on,” Rooney said. “I mean, you should your best team at the end of the season. I thought we did that, bringing a rookie quarterback along.There’s no one way to do it right. I think we wind up with a rookie quarterback who got better as the season went on. And I think we’re excited about the future because of that. So you know, I think those things are encouraging the way Mike handled them.”
• With the league having planned to hold a potential Kansas City-Buffalo conference championship at a neutral site had they played each other this weekend because the Bills had only played 16 games, some speculated the NFL could look to hold all of its conference championships at neutral sites in the future.

Count Rooney among those not in favor of such a move.

“I hate the idea,” he said. “I don’t like that at all. It’s my sense that if you put that up for a vote, it wouldn’t pass today but who knows?”

A total of 24 owners would need to vote in favor of such a move for it to happen.

• The NFL announced its host teams for international games earlier this month, and none of the teams the Steelers will visit in 2023 were among those chosen, meaning the team won’t play outside of the United States next season.

The Steelers now haven’t played outside the U.S. since playing the Vikings in London in 2013. But Rooney says that could change soon.

“(We) would like to play a game in Mexico again sometime soon,” Rooney said. “We’ve got a great fan base down there. And we have the right now under this new international program that the league has to have more of a presence in Mexico, and we now have a preseason television agreement down there. Our preseason games are going to shown in Mexico. Our radio broadcasts are on in Mexico, so it’s a…