Card-Pitt was the name for the team created by the temporary merger of two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Cardinals, during the 1944 season. The teams were forced to merge, because both had lost many players to World War II military service. After the season, the merger was dissolved and with the war over by the start of the following season, traditional operations resumed for both teams. Together, the two teams did poorly as the combined team finished with a 0-10 record in the Western Division. Sportswriters called the team the "Car-Pitts" (carpets). Previously in 1943, the Steelers had combined with the Philadelphia Eagles as the "Steagles".

Sixty-five years after merging for a season, the Steelers and Cardinals (now based in Arizona) met in Super Bowl XLIII.

In 1944, the Boston Yanks joined the NFL. The Cleveland Rams had just re-joined the league, after finding themselves unable to field a team in 1943. This left the NFL with 11 teams. The league found it impossible to come up with a schedule that would meet the approval of all teams. So NFL commissioner Elmer Layden contacted Art Rooney and Bert Bell of the Steelers and requested that their team merge again. Rooney agreed, on the condition that at least half of the team’s home games were played in Pittsburgh at Forbes Field.

Training camp began August 15, 1944, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, under the direction of the team’s co-coaches, Walt Kiesling of Pittsburgh and Phil Handler of Chicago. Before the start of camp, the coaching staff made the questionable decision of going with a “T” formation offense. Some of the Steelers' players had been exposed to the ‘T’ a year earlier, while with the Steagles; but the Cardinals had used it very little. Card-Pitt also lacked a dependable quarterback for the season. However, everyone went into the season optimistic.

Card-Pitt opened the regular season portion of its schedule on September 24, 1944, at Forbes Field against the Cleveland Rams, who were led by former Steelers head coach Aldo Donelli. The team played in front of a crowd of 21,000 spectators. During the game, Cleveland started with a 16-0 score, however, Card-Pitt came back and took the lead. However, late in the fourth quarter, with the game in hand, a bad punt resulted in a Cleveland touchdown and win with a final score of 28-23. The very next week at Forbes Field, Card-Pitt won an exhibition game against the New York Giants for a final score of 17-16.

"Why don't they call themselves the Car-Pits? I think it's very appropriate as every team in the league walks over them."

—Irate fan letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

However, two days before the team's second regular season game against Green Bay, quarterback Coley McDonough was drafted into the U.S. Army. The Pittsburgh Press gave the team little chance of defeating the Packers. The Packers and Don Hutson ended up defeating Card-Pitt, 34-7. However, the quarterback that replaced McDonough, a 155-pound rookie named Johnny McCarthy, from Saint Francis College near Pittsburgh, flourished at the position during the loss.

The third game of the season saw the team against fellow Western Division bottom dwellers, the Chicago Bears. Injuries and war had ravaged the Bears' roster, depriving them of MVP quarterback Sid Luckman and coach George Halas. Card-Pitt had a good chance of winning this game. However, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Card-Pitt's effort throughout the game could be summed up as "pitiful". In fact, the coaching staff became so irate over the Chicago game, that Kiesling and Handler fined Johnny Butler, John Grigas and Eberle Schultz, $200 apiece for "indifferent play". The players, already fed up with the coaches' strict, dictatorial style, rallied around their teammates and basically went on strike, refusing to practice on Tuesday, until the fined players received a fair hearing. These actions led to a meeting between the players and Rooney. The outcome of the meeting resulted in Grigas and Schultz agreeing to pay their fines and return to practice. Butler was suspended indefinitely and eventually waived, to be claimed by Brooklyn. Rooney later rescinded those fines, except for Butler's.

"The worst team in NFL history."—Art Rooney, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers

That week, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports editor, Al Abrams, helped slap the team with a fitting, memorable nickname. In his column, Abrams quoted a disgusted fan as writing, "Why don't they call themselves the Car-Pits? I think it's very appropriate as every team in the league walks over them."

After losing a rematch against the Giants, the team played Washington. Wearing bizarre blue jerseys, instead of the normal Chicago Cardinal ones, the entire Card-Pitt team found themselves in brawl with the Redskins, midway through the game. Soon, police stormed the field, to break up what had become a near-riot. Coaches Kiesling and Handler found themselves in the middle of the brawl, while Rooney, a former boxer, dashed about halfway across the field to join his team, before it dawned on him that for an NFL owner to get into a fight with opposing players would be a breach of protocol. The Redskins would go on to win the game, 42-20. Card-Pitt's Cliff Duggan found himself with a $200 fine for his role in the fist fight. However, an upset Rooney volunteered to pay Duggan's fine for him.

After losses against the Rams, Packers and Lions, Grigas left the team to go home to Massachusetts. He had gone 0-2, in winning the league rushing title. During 1944, while in the running for yet another title, he discovered that years of losing had taken its toll and retired. His team was left to be defeated by the Bears, 49-7. Grigas, despite his sudden departure, was named to the New York Daily News all-pro team. Shouldering almost the entire offensive burden for much of the year, Grigas rushed for 610 yards, an average of 3.3 yards per carry. The team had gone 0-10 for the season, tying the Brooklyn Tigers for the league's worst record. The day after the season ended, the merger of the Chicago Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers was dissolved.

Since 1944, only four teams have gone winless in the NFL for an entire season: the 1960 Dallas Cowboys (0-11-1), the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-14), the 1982 Baltimore Colts (0-8-1) and the 2008 Detroit Lions (0-16). In the case of the Colts, the season was shortened by the 1982 NFL Players Association strike. Both the Cowboys and Buccaneers were expansion teams, the year they went winless.

How bad were they?

"The season couldn't have turned out any worse than this one."—Bert Bell, co-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, reflecting on the 1944 season

Card-Pitt punters averaged just 32.7 yards per kick, an NFL record for futility that still stands today. The team was 0-2 in field goals; Conway Baker missed 4 of his 15 extra point tries. Card-Pitt completed only 31 percent of their passes, resulting in just 8 touchdowns. They also threw 41 interceptions in 1944, which is still the third highest total in NFL history. McCarthy threw 13 of those interceptions and completed 0 touchdown passes. His QB rating was only 3.0. They were also the worst run defense in the league and opponents outscored them, 328-108.

Eberle Schultz's fortunes turned most quickly, he went from a winless 1944 season to a NFL championship with Cleveland, the following year. John Grigas, after going AWOL, finished his career by spending three years with the Boston Yanks, leading the team in rushing in 1946. Don Currivan, played alongside Grigas for those three seasons, ranking third in the league in receiving in 1947. He also saw action with the Los Angeles Rams club, which lost to Philadelphia in the 1949 NFL Championship game.

Tackle Chet Bulger and center Vince Banonis would be a part of the 1947 Chicago Cardinals championship team, while Banonis would also help the Detroit Lions to league titles in 1952 and 1953. Card-Pitt's assistant coach, Buddy Parker, coached those teams.

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