What team did the Steelers merge with?

The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers merged together to create the “Steagles” during the 1943 season.

The Steagles were the team created by the temporary merger of Pennsylvania’s two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The teams were forced to merge because both had lost many players to military service during World War II.

The league’s official record book refers to the team as “Phil-Pitt Combine”, but the unofficial “Steagles”, despite never being registered by the NFL, has become the enduring moniker. The Steagles 1943 season was the Philadelphia franchise’s first winning season in its history and the second for Pittsburgh’s.

The next season, 1944, the NFL was back on solid footing. The Army had declared that it had enough soldiers and men over 26 years of age would not be drafted, though the league had another problem. With the Cleveland Rams back in operation, the expansion Boston Yanks team in the fold and the Eagles and Steelers back in their separate ways, the NFL had 11 teams, which created a nightmare with divisions and scheduling.

NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden begged for two teams to combine again in 1944. Ten teams made for a perfect league and eleven seemed impossible. The Steelers were still short of players due to the war. Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney was unhappy with the “Phil-Pitt” arrangement, but wanted to keep it intact.

However, Philadelphia refused, so the team merged with the Chicago Cardinals for the 1944 season, creating a team known as Card-Pitt. This “Card-Pitt” team was derisively called “carpet” due to going winless, and the commentary that “every team walked all over them”.

The war ended by the time the 1945 NFL season started, and with the Brooklyn Tigers and the aforementioned Boston franchise permanently merging, there was an even number of ten teams to the delight of owners.

The Eagles, now having enough players back from the war, resumed their traditional operation and continued under Neale, who took home back-to-back coach of the year awards as Philadelphia won consecutive NFL championships in 1948 and 1949.