The arrangement was made necessary by there being a shortage of numerous players due to World War II military service, and was dissolved upon completion of the season.

Card-Pitt finished with a 0–10 record in the Western Division, which led sportswriters to derisively label the team the "Car-Pitts", or "carpets".

NFL commissioner Elmer Layden contacted Art Rooney and Bert Bell of the Steelers to request that their team again merge as a potential solution for the scheduling issue.

Cleveland was considered a logical choice based solely on geographic location, but Layden felt it unfair to ask the Steelers to merge with a team that had been defunct a year earlier.

The merged team would compete in the tougher Western Division, which included the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.

Training camp for the merged team began in Waukesha, Wisconsin on August 15, 1944, under the direction of co-coaches Walt Kiesling of Pittsburgh and Phil Handler of Chicago.

Card-Pitt opened the regular season portion of its schedule in front of 21,000 spectators at Forbes Field on September 24, 1944, against a Cleveland Rams team led by former Steelers head coach Aldo Donelli.

Quarterback Coley McDonough was drafted into the U.S. Army two days before the team's second regular season game, a contest against Green Bay.

[3] Card-Pitt then met the Chicago Bears, a team missing MVP quarterback Sid Luckman and coach George Halas among a roster that had been depleted by the war and injuries, in the third game of the season.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Card-Pitt's effort against the Bears "pitiful", and the coaching staff became so irate that they fined Johnny Butler, John Grigas and Eberle Schultz $200 apiece for "indifferent play".

Upset with the coaches' strict, dictatorial style, the team refused to practice until the fined players received a fair hearing.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports editor Al Abrams then quoted a disgusted fan as having written, "Why don't they call themselves the Car-Pits?

Only five teams since 1944 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 (strike shortened) 1982 Baltimore Colts (0–8–1), the 2008 Detroit Lions (0–16) and the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0-16).