Steelers Chief of Staff Missed Packers Game for Medical Situation

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ chief of staff had a medical situation turn up ahead of the team’s preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers.

During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on August 14 after securing a 28-9 victory in his first game as the head coach of the Steelers, Mike McCarthy stated that Steve Scarnecchia was attending to his situation and that the team had to adapt as a result.

“We were really challenged last night,” McCarthy said. “Our ace, Steve Scarnecchia, had a medical situation that he was attending to. He’s my chief of staff, and he’s the guy that’s in charge of everything, especially the little things. A challenging opportunity for us as a coaching staff, football operations, especially the first game out the door. There was a lot of running around, frankly, behind the scenes and making sure we had everything buttoned up.”

During his post-game press conference, McCarthy alluded to the fact that there were some circumstances the staff was working through behind-the-scenes from an administrative perspective.

“We had some things that we had to adjust to today because of things that happened last minute today administratively,” McCarthy said.

Steelers Pass First Test Under McCarthy

Having to go through his first contest in Pittsburgh without Scarnecchia certainly complicated matters for McCarthy and the rest of the staff, as he relayed to McAfee.

Scarnecchia’s situation is unclear at the moment, though an update may follow once the Steelers resume training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe on August 14.

Given his 16 prior seasons of experience in the NFL before arriving in Pittsburgh this offseason, five of which came as a chief of staff with the Atlanta Falcons (2024 – 2025) and New York Jets (2021 – 2023), Scarnecchia’s been tasked with handling a ton of responsibilities alongside McCarthy.

In his absence, there was more to juggle for McCarthy and company in what was his homecoming, and they battled through the adversity en route to a win over the Packers.

While there were far too many careless penalties committed throughout the night, McCarthy’s offense generated 385 yards while both Will Howard and Drew Allar showed plenty of promise in their professional debuts.

The Steelers’ defense showed up in a major way too, limiting Green Bay to 160 yards of total offense while recording five sacks.

Pittsburgh has to straighten up in a couple of areas, but it was still an undeniably successful start to the preseason.

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