The practical consequence of the current ownership dilemma in Pittsburgh is that the four Rooney brothers not named Dan have full control over the future of the franchise.

If they sell their shares to an outsider like Stanley Druckenmiller, the Rooney influence will sink to third on the hierarchy, behind Druckenmiller’s 64 percent and the McGinley family’s 20.

It’s hard for us not to wonder whether the other four Rooney brothers — Art, Jr., Tim, Pat, and John — truly care about whether a Rooney maintains controlling interest in the team.  From their perspective, they’re cashing in their chips.  If they can get substantially more from a stranger than they can get from Dan and his son, Art II, sentimentality and tradition will take a back seat.

And then there’s the reality that Dan has been running the show for years, even though he owns no more of the team than any of the other four Rooney brothers.  Could there be, at a certain level, some internal resentment toward Dan for all the years that he has basked in the limelight while the rest of them have been pushed to the background?

Sure, family ties should overcome such matters.  But families fracture over far more petty things than the value of 16 percent shares in a billion-dollar business. 

Given that the Rooneys routinely prefer to keep their business quiet and their cards close to the vest, the mere fact that this issue is on the table (heck, there’s even a story about it on the team’s official web site) suggests to us that it’s a real problem, and that the end result very well could be that Dan Rooney and Art Rooney, II are part owners answering to a stranger to the organization who has the money to pay Dan’s four brothers full and fair value for their interest in the team.

Meanwhile, we’ve got a PFTV segment regarding the issue.