The 1997 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the franchise's 65th season as a professional sports franchise and as a member of the National Football League. This season was considered a transitional year due to many key free agent losses in the offseason, as well as the first season of Kordell Stewart starting at quarterback. The Steelers finished with an 11–5 record, their fourth consecutive AFC Central top seed, and their sixth straight playoff appearance. In doing so, Steelers head coach Bill Cowher tied Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown with most consecutive playoff appearances to start a head coaching career in the NFL—a record Cowher still co-owns with Brown, as the Steelers missed the playoffs the following season. The Steelers made 572 rushing attempts in 1997, the most in the 1990s. Their 2,479 total rushing yards were the third-most of the decade by any team. The Steelers went into the season introducing a new font style numbers on jerseys matching the ones they wear on the helmets and the Steelers logo patch on uniform. This was the only season where the white away jerseys featured the players last names in black letters. It would switch back to gold lettering with black trim the next season. The Steelers would host the AFC Championship Game for the third time in four years; however, they would ultimately lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. That game was the last playoff appearance for the Steelers during the 1990s and they did not return to the postseason until 2001.

Offseason

The Steelers saw many key free-agents leave the team, the biggest being cornerback Rod Woodson, whose ten-year tenure with the team ended due to a dispute over money with the Rooney family. Woodson would sign with the San Francisco 49ers as a result, though the Steelers would see him again in the following four seasons afterward as a member of the rival Baltimore Ravens. Other free-agent losses included Chad Brown, Ernie Mills, Andre Hastings, Deon Figures, and Brentson Buckner, among others. The team did manage to keep its other prized free-agent besides Woodson, locking up Jerome Bettis (who they had acquired in a trade with the St. Louis Rams the year before) with a four-year deal. The team also had a transition at quarterback. After pushing Bill Cowher play exclusively at quarterback, Kordell Stewart was handed the starting job and dropping his "Slash" role on the team. Stewart would have success with the team this season, but would be inconsistent afterwards. The team also made some minor changes to the uniforms this season, the first changes since gold pants were adopted as part of the white jerseys in 1972. The jersey numbers, previously having the old-style block numbering, were switched to the rounder style (Futura Condensed) as seen on the helmets. In addition, the Steelers logo was added to the left shoulder and the names became single color (black) fonts on the white away jersey. The names returned to gold on black the following year. The uniforms have remained the same since these changes as of 2007.

NFL draft

Personnel

Staff

Notable additions include Paul Wiggins and Mike Vrabel.

Roster

Preseason

Preseason

Schedule

Regular season

Schedule

Game summaries

Week 1 (Sunday August 31, 1997): vs. Dallas Cowboys

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 2 (Sunday September 7, 1997): vs. Washington Redskins

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 3 (Sunday September 14, 1997): Bye Week

Week 4 (Monday September 22, 1997): at Jacksonville Jaguars

at Alltel Stadium, Jacksonville, Florida Scoring drives:

Week 5 (Sunday September 28, 1997): vs. Tennessee Oilers

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 6 (Sunday October 5, 1997): at Baltimore Ravens

at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland Scoring drives:

Week 7 (Sunday October 12, 1997): vs. Indianapolis Colts

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 8 (Sunday October 19, 1997): at Cincinnati Bengals

at Cinergy Field, Cincinnati Scoring drives:

Week 9 (Sunday October 26, 1997): vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 10 (Monday November 3, 1997): at Kansas City Chiefs

at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Scoring drives:

Week 11 (Sunday November 9, 1997): vs. Baltimore Ravens

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 12 (Sunday November 16, 1997): vs. Cincinnati Bengals

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 13 (Sunday November 23, 1997): at Philadelphia Eagles

at Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia Scoring drives:

Week 14 (Sunday November 30, 1997): at Arizona Cardinals

at Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona Scoring drives:

Week 15 (Sunday December 7, 1997): vs. Denver Broncos

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Week 16 (Saturday December 13, 1997): at New England Patriots

at Foxboro Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts Scoring drives:

Week 17 (Sunday December 21, 1997): at Tennessee Oilers

at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium, Memphis, Tennessee Scoring drives:

Standings

Playoffs

Game summaries

Both of the Steelers post-season matchups were rematches from the regular season. The Steelers had a first-round bye, then faced the AFC East champion (and defending AFC champion) New England Patriots at home. The game, which was a homecoming for young Patriots players & Pittsburgh area natives Ty Law and Curtis Martin (Martin was in fact playing in his last game with New England before signing with the New York Jets that offseason), was also a rematch of the previous year's AFC Divisional matchup, which took place in Foxborough. After defeating the Pats, the Steelers would lose to the eventual Super Bowl XXXII champion Denver Broncos 24–21 in Elway's last trip to Pittsburgh.

AFC Divisional Playoff (Saturday January 3, 1998): vs. New England Patriots

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

AFC Championship Game (Sunday January 11, 1998): vs. Denver Broncos

at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Scoring drives:

Honors and awards

Pro Bowlers

See: 1998 Pro Bowl

All-Pros