Nonsense? Yes, you could say that about Steelers season

The truth is finally out. The world has learned that at least one notable member of the Steelers organization leans toward defiance and delusion. Antonio Brown? Well, yeah. But I’m thinking of team president Art Rooney II.

I wasn’t in the room when Rooney addressed reporters Wednesday, but it sure sounded like he spoke defiantly, or at least defensively (good to see somebody plays defense around here) when asked about the perception of his team’s season as a “circus.”

“It’s nonsense,” Rooney said. “We didn’t achieve our goal of winning the division, but we finished half a game out and had a lot of opportunities to get there.”

Who’s he kidding? The Steelers collapsed like Jenga blocks. They crumbled in historic fashion

down the stretch, even managing to lose to the ridiculous Oakland Raiders.

One could euphemistically characterize it as finishing “half a game out,” or one could simply tell the truth: The Steelers blew a 2½-game lead with six games left, mostly on account of incompetence and dysfunction.

I mean, their best player quit before the final game, right?

Their quarterback was made to wait when he could have played in Oakland, right?

The way this season ended served as an appropriate encore to the way last season ended — with one of the more embarrassing home playoff losses in franchise history.

Losing big games, however, does not a circus make.

The circus part is everything else that has transpired since the beginning of last season. And for Rooney, Kevin Colbert or Mike Tomlin to minimize the breadth of the clown show is an insult to the team’s loyal fans.

Is this still a highly respected franchise? Of course it is. Big picture, yes. But it’s a punch line at the moment. Both can be true. Every single day brings a new socialmedia fracas (the latest involving Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and … wait for it … Bruce Arians).

That Rooney would scoff at the “circus” reference defies belief. His own players have referred to the team as “Kardashians” (Jesse James, to pennlive.com) and “a reality show” (David DeCastro, to me).

In the past 16 months alone, we have seen:

• The coach guarantee an AFC championship game appearance that never happened.

• The team botch its national anthem plan to the point where fans were burning jerseys.

• A decorated veteran linebacker (James Harrison) force his way out of town by acting like a selfish jackass, then rip Tomlin to the point where he invited Brown to his house and made a video mocking the coach.

• The star running back (Le’Veon Bell) sit out the season and make his most notable public appearance in a racy strip-club video.

• Brown arrive at training camp in a helicopter, mysteriously disappear for a week, threaten to break a reporter’s jaw, be accused of tossing furniture off his 14th-floor balcony (nearly hitting a toddler), drive 100 mph on McKnight Road, skip work the Monday after throwing a sideline tantrum, basically quit the team the week of a huge game, mock Rooney via social media (and have several teammates “like” the post) and ignore his boss’s calls to this day — and then have Rooney say Wednesday that Brown was not a major distraction “until the last week of the season.” Anything else?

Well, another receiver (Martavis Bryant) jealously ripped a teammate, demanded a trade and got suspended; the quarterback publicly shredded Brown last year and criticized him this year for running a bad route; then-offensive coordinator Todd Haley injured his hip in a bar fight; and the offensive linemen eviscerated Bell as a player “who doesn’t give a damn” (Ramon Foster). Oh, and Brown was recently seen dressed up as a cartoon hippopotamus. And all of that is just the stuff we know about. Circus?

What circus?

On the other hand, Rooney gave hope to those demanding tangible action when he sidestepped a question regarding Tomlin’s expected contract extension.

I’m betting Tomlin still receives an extension this summer, as is customary with two years left on his deal. But when asked about it, Rooney said, “Those are things we’ll get to sort of later in the offseason.”

That was in sharp contrast to his response regarding an extension for Roethlisberger, who has one year left on his deal.

“I think we feel good about trying to extend his contract,” Rooney said.

Here’s hoping Rooney keeps that Tomlin extension in his pocket. Tomlin hasn’t earned it. He certainly hasn’t earned a raise. He has taken two talented teams nowhere the past two years. He has won all of three playoff games in the past eight years, one a gift from the idiot Bengals.

Tomlin, too, has helped create a permissive atmosphere in which Brown and others figure they can do and say whatever they please. He is the ringmaster of this particular circus — and how he ever believed he could escape Oakland without using Roethlisberger is unfathomable.

What’s more, Tomlin should have told Brown to stay home for the Bengals game. The fact Brown received his game check is sickening. The players union might have pushed back, but Tomlin should have suspended Brown that Saturday and challenged any union pushback (perhaps scoring his first successful challenge in three years).

Denying an extension would be the best way for Rooney to make the atmosphere around here a little less comfortable — and make it known that he is highly dissatisfied with the state of the team.

But is he?