Pittsburgh Steelers on signing of former Kansas City Chief’s coach Todd Haley as offensive staff – NFL News
The Pittsburgh Steelers are reported to have shown an interest in the former Kansas City Chief’s coach, Todd Haley, to replace their so called retired offensive co-ordinator, Bruce Arians.
Reports in some sections of media claimed that the coach has been approached by Steelers’ management and his appointment might come into effect in the near future.
Steelers former offensive coach, Bruce Arians, has announced retirement about a couple of weeks ago, which was turned out to be a controversial decision made by the coach in absence of an alternative choice in view of his team’s refusal to renew his deal.
Arians has recently come out of his controversial retirement to join the Indianapolis Colts for a similar role, proving the credibility of the news that had highlighted the controversy around his decision of calling it quits from the game.
He is now being replaced most probably by Chief’s former head coach, who himself had been sacked by his team, following their dismal showoff in the regular season.
He was let go by the Chiefs with the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season almost halfway through.
"Timing in these situations is always difficult. There never seems to be a right time," Chiefs' chairman and CEO, Clark Hunt, said at the time.
"We just felt the inconsistent play the team has experienced throughout the season, including yesterday's game, made today the right day to do it."
The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the 2011 NFL season with 12 victories and four losses (12-4). Their run of the season was finally ended with their loss of the wild card game against the Denver Broncos.
Following the end to their past season campaign, Steelers’ management apparently refused to extend the deal of their offensive coach, and without any other choice, Arians informed the head coach, Mike Tomlin, of his retirement.
The team at one stage was atop the American Football Conference (AFC) North division, tied with the Baltimore Ravens.
Since the Ravens won twice earlier in the season, they got away with the advantage of tie breaker and eventually claimed the divisional title.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs had a rather poor season. They were down at 5-8 when they sacked their coach, Todd Haley, and despite that there were some clear opportunities for them in between to have performed better they completely failed to capitalise on those.
Their CEO apparently seen too many injuries problems affecting the team’s performance during the season, while rueing the failed chances.
"We've had one of those years where we've had injuries, and injuries to key players, but that's typical in the National Football League," Hunt said then. "As a team, you have to find a way to overcome that, and we just weren't able to do that this year.”
Haley’s appointment will come as the only major change in the Steelers in the offseason.
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