As the Pittsburgh Steelers continue one of their more impressive on-field performances in franchise history (given the crippling schedule and rash of crippled players), the family that has owned the franchise for its entire history is very close to working out a deal that will keep the team under the control of Dan Rooney and his son, Art II.  To get there, however, the NFL will be expanding what we had believed to be a bright-line rule regarding franchise ownership.  (More on that later.)

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Dan Rooney and his four brothers have “virtually comes to terms” on a restructuring that will be presented to the NFL’s finance committee next week.

Then, once 24 of 32 owners give their approval, the transaction will be finalized.

“I think the deal is as done as it can be,” John Rooney said.  ”But until you see the money, I guess no deal is done.” 

For this deal to be done, the league will allow Dan Rooney and Art II to count as one person, in order to satisfy the rule that one person must own at least 30 percent of the franchise.

Bouchette also writes that one of the four Rooney brothers, Art Jr., will retain some ownership of the team.  We assume that this will happen only if he sells any interest he has in gambling activities that violate league rules, since we’ve previously been told that no owner of a team, no matter how small his or her share, may own any interest in league-prohibited gambling enterprises.  As one league source told us, a partial owner in an NFL team isn’t permitted to own a single share of stock in a publicly-traded company that owns one or more casinos.

Then again, the revision to the 30-percent rule makes us wonder whether any other rules are being adjusted.

Currently, each of the five Rooney brothers (the sons of founder Art Rooney Sr.) own 16 percent of the team.  A group of Rooney relatives own the remains 20 percent.

Prior to 2006, the Rooneys owned dog-racing and horse-racing tracks, which did not violate NFL rules.  (And we still don’t understand that at all, unless the league believes that an animal-racing establishment technically constitutes, you know, a zoo.)  In 2006, slot machines were added to one or more of the tracks, putting the operations on the wrong side of league rules.

Some league insiders were perplexed by the NFL’s failure to force the Rooneys to choose immediately between their interest in the team and their interest in league-prohibited gambling activities.

Though our guess is that the sale will easily muster the 24 votes, we wonder whether any teams will oppose the move due to discomfort with the notion of expanding the 30-percent rule to include two persons.  Unless the rule is being formally revised, the move will serve only to heighten concerns that two sets of rules exist.