Pittsburgh Steelers QB Big Ben meets new offensive coach, demography of talks unknown – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers’ new offensive coach, Todd Haley, and the quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger are reported to have taken the important first step towards developing a workable relationship between them in the future.
A couple of days after the quarterback confirmed that he had not being approached by Haley since his joining, some media reports now claimed a meeting has taken place between them, recently.
Both of them have met, sat down and talked, the reports said, without disclosing anything about the length and agenda of the discussion.
Earlier, Ben told a local newspaper that he had not received any call from the new coach and they have not come into contact with each other in any other form.
Roethlisberger refrained from commenting on the potential future relationship between him and Haley and if he would not have any problem while working with the new official.
During a media call last week, Steelers’ vice president, Art Rooney II, said that he had spoken to Big Ben and the quarterback was said to be willing to meet and work with the coach.
Ben did not clarify Rooney’s statement, either confirming or rejecting it, and the prevalent mood around the issue indicated that the player might find it difficult to work with Haley.
It became more imminent due to the fact that the VP’s statement about the quarterback was in an apparent attempt of refuting the reports of controversy around disputed departure of their former offensive staff, Bruce Arians.
Following Arians’ retirement announcement, Roethlisberger along with the head coach, Mike Tomlin, was displeased over the decision.
Both were reported to be equally unhappy over hiring of former Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach, Todd Haley, as Arians’ replacement.
Amid all the prevalent atmosphere of dissent, the communication deadlock between the new coach and player was seen to be inevitable.
Big Ben had highlighted the stalemate by emphasising that he had not been contacted by the new official, reflecting well on the point that the player himself would not be making a call first to establish a communication link with him.
Now some sections of media have pointed out the impasse to be over and reported a meeting taken place between them. The time, place, length and agenda of meeting are not disclosed by any of those reports.
In any case, the move turns out to be a welcome step in an environment of stiffness prevailed at the Pittsburgh and is expected to set tone of future relationship between the two.
Interestingly, Haley had pinpointed a day earlier that the quarterback was in a transition phase and that he was looking forward to help him out to be a better player in the future.
Tags: