Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin takes responsibility of replacing Bruce Arians with Todd Haley
More than a month to the controversial departure of Pittsburgh Steelers’ former offensive co-ordinator, Bruce Arians, head coach, Mike Tomlin, has admitted that the decision of the change was his and not of anyone from the upper management.
Arians announced the so called retirement from the coaching role before joining the Indianapolis Colts for similar role.
Steelers’ management had claimed that the decision of the retirement was Bruce’s own and none of the team’s officials had any influence or say in it.
However, some commentators did not buy the management’s claim and noted that the official was let go on refusal of renewal of his agreement, which was due to expire later in the year.
A couple of reports pointed out at the vice president, Art Rooney II, to be the main force behind the controversial decision of Arians’ retirement.
The credibility of all those reports was proven when Bruce came out of his so called retirement to join Colts for the similar position within a week.
Rooney then was quick to respond to the media reports of controversy within the team over the official’s move, and said that the decision of replacing Bruce with Todd Haley was collective one.
He went on to say that coach, Mike Tomlin, had particularly contributed towards the final decision of Bruce’ departure and Haley’s hiring.
The head coach, who did not say anything about the topic for about a month, has now come up with the statement that it was his choice to replace Bruce with Haley. He further said that he was not going to apologise to anyone over the decision.
He said:
"I'm not going to apologize for change. I hired Todd Haley as well, which is your next question, which is a funny one to me. Don't get me wrong. Art Rooney owns the football team. He can do what he wants but those directives did not happen.”
Arians’ departure had come as a surprise to many, and particularly to quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. The QB is said to be closer to the coach and did not look much happy over his sudden exit from Pittsburgh.
Mike Tomlin, in the meantime, has backed Haley to be as good as Bruce and said that the coach was going to enjoy good relationship with the players.
Tomlin added:
"I thought that it was time for change. We're moving into a situation here where we have an opportunity to grow and develop some young talent offensively.”
He has also backed younger players to emerge as leaders following exit of some veterans such as Hines Ward, who became the subject of the team’s campaign to slash players' salary expense.
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