Tomlin is firing the wrong coaches

[Ojb81]

This team is so fucked

 

[GNG]

Speaking of Munch... Heard he turned down an interview in Miami for the HC vacancy.

Tells me he's only going to pull up anchor for the "right fit". ie Denver.

Green Bay is looking for an OL coach.

 

[Ojb81]

Green Bay is looking for an OL coach.

He already went to Denver

 

[GNG]

He already went to Denver

I know.

 

[Ojb81]

I know.

So why mention green bay?

 

[GNG]

So why mention green bay?

Because they were looking for an OL coach.

 

[Ojb81]

Because they were looking for an OL coach.

it's not pertinent to the thread

 

[GNG]

it's not pertinent to the thread

Indirectly it is.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Indirectly it is.

Don't you have a packers thread to go post about?

 

[GNG]

Don't you have a packers thread to go post about?

Not right now because I'm busy posting on the Cowboys thread but thanks for asking.

 

[Ojb81]

Not right now because I'm busy posting on the Cowboys thread but thanks for asking.

 

[SteelersPride]

im still kinda shocked on saxxon. so dumb. Took bell to another level. And like @FaCe-LeE-uS posted. Took jaylen samuels who never had more than 19 carries in a game at ANY LEVEL hes ever played. to rumbling over the pats at least. NOt great RUSHING in the other games, but still, the guy is a pass catching and short yardage back

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

im still kinda shocked on saxxon. so dumb. Took bell to another level. And like @FaCe-LeE-uS posted. Took jaylen samuels who never had more than 19 carries in a game at ANY LEVEL hes ever played. to rumbling over the pats at least. NOt great RUSHING in the other games, but still, the guy is a pass catching and short yardage back

Yea I'd still like to hear an explanation from Tomlin on why this happened. Of course we aren't going to hear Saxxon's side of it. Because we wouldn't like hearing what he would have to say, and they know it.

SO we lose 2 of our best position coaches (Munch & Sax), keep Butler, and our best skill position talent (AB) wants to be traded.

What a shitty offseason, and we are only 2 fucking weeks into it so far... lmao. Can't wait for what the next 7 months holds.

 

[Yo Tee]

Is the front office really okay with the decisions being made here? I mean, seriously. These are shit decisions.

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

Is the front office really okay with the decisions being made here? I mean, seriously. These are shit decisions.

Do you not understand how the Steelers' front office works? Not disagreeing the decisions are shit before you go off on that tangent.

None of these decision would go forward without the agreement or at least approval of the front office. And that means the Rooney's, they are the front office.

 

[Yo Tee]

Do you not understand how the Steelers' front office works? Not disagreeing the decisions are shit before you go off on that tangent.

None of these decision would go forward without the agreement or at least approval of the front office. And that means the Rooney's, they are the front office.

I know that. Which is why I asked, rhetorically, asked if they are actually okay with the decisions being made. The problem is that the people making decisions think these are the right ones to be making.

 

[GNG]

 

[Psych-Ward]

I know that. Which is why I asked, rhetorically, asked if they are actually okay with the decisions being made. The problem is that the people making decisions think these are the right ones to be making.

 

[Superbelt]

Tim Benz: Art Rooney II's take on Steelers 'circus' is pure 'nonsense'

Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II had his annual season-ending powwow with the team’s local print outlets Wednesday.

He made one comment that was so far from true, it couldn’t see the truth with the Hubble telescope.

Rooney was asked about the perception that his team is a circus and full of distractions.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s nonsense,” Rooney said .

I’m told he actually made that statement with a straight face and with no fingers crossed.

This year alone, the team’s helicopter-ridin’ star wide receiver skipped practices and meetings — twice — and was sent home for the season finale. He mocked the coach on Instagram with a former team icon, too.

In between those moments, Antonio Brown set a new land-speed record on McKnight Road, threatened a reporter, accused another of racism, threw another sideline tantrum and was in the news for throwing furniture off a balcony.

That team icon — James Harrison — has been on a crusade to undermine coach Mike Tomlin’s authority. Yet he was brought back to Heinz Field for the Super Bowl XLIII 10th anniversary celebration and was given a standing ovation on Rooney’s field.

Another team legend — Rocky Bleier — declared he was “done” with the team on Facebook, then recanted. The starting quarterback openly questioned the draft and criticized his receivers on a few occasions.

All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell seemingly welched on an assumed plan to play on a franchise tag, tied up $14.5 million in unpaid cap space and then spent the next few months intermittently mocking the club, laughing at his absence from it and flirting with other organizations.

Meanwhile, his teammates ripped the running back and raided his locker in front of the media.

On the field, the kicker who signed a five-year contract extension in the offseason had a season-long meltdown, and the team blamed an X-ray machine for a loss against the awful Oakland Raiders while gagging away a 7-2-1 record to miss the playoffs.

After that, valued offensive line coach Mike Munchak jumped ship for the same job in Denver, and outside linebackers coach Joey Porter was fired.

Following Porter’s dismissal, reports — from someone who works for the team’s website, radio network and flagship station — were that Porter “was trying to pit the defense against the offense in a divisive manner.”

That was just in 2018.

It’s to say nothing about the previous two years of national anthem fiascoes, Facebook Live streams, substance suspensions, social media gaffes, water-cooler tosses, poorly planned NBC interviews by the head coach, Porter’s arrest on the South Side, “Tequila Cowboy Todd” on the North Side or bad playoff predictions by Bell.

But, no, nothing to see here. Not a circus. What a preposterous insinuation by the ink-stained media!

If I were Bell, this is where I would insert the “laughing-out-loud” and “chin-scratching-monocle” emojis.

Remember the last time the real circus came through town and that camel got looseat PPG Paints Arena? That circus was less chaotic than Rooney’s Steelers.

Unfortunately, it appears that ringmaster had more control than Tomlin. Yet Rooneydidn’t dismiss the idea of giving the head coach an extension.

Here’s the truth. The Steelers are becoming everything they used to loathe.

In Pittsburgh, we used to scoff at the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s and the Cincinnati Bengals of the last 15 years. Now that the likes of Bell, Porter, LeGarrette Blount and Martavis Bryant are gone (or all but gone), the police-and-drug element of that comparison no longer holds. But the dysfunction sure does.

We’ve spent decades poking fun at the Cleveland Browns. Now the teams tied each other this year and had similar records. The Steelers were left begging for their help to make the playoffs in Week 17.

We chuckled at the other team in the state when Terrell Owens got suspended by Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, then called a news conference so he could do shirtless sit-ups in his driveway on television.

Pittsburgh’s version of T.O. stands five inches shorter, wears black and gold and donned a fur coat on the sidelines of a potential playoff-deciding game. Otherwise, they have become indistinguishable.

For now, he’s still on Rooney’s payroll, too. Hopefully, not for long.

The owner sure made it sound as if he wants to get rid of Brown during his comments Wednesday.

“There’s not many signs out there that is going to happen,” Rooney said when asked whether Brown could remain on the team.

That would go a long way toward taking down the big top over “Barnum & Bailey on the Ohio.”

But if there is no circus, why would the Steelers need to trade A.B.?

Well?

If there’s no circus, you aren’t moving a clown. You’re just moving a really good receiver.​

 

[Superbelt]

Joe Starkey: Yes, Mr. President, the Steelers are a circus — and it’s time to make the ringmaster accountable

The truth is finally out. The world has learned that at least one notable member of the Steelers organization leans toward defiance and delusion.

Antonio Brown?

Well, yeah.

But I’m thinking of team president Art Rooney II.

I wasn’t in the room when Rooney addressed reporters Wednesday, but it sure sounded like he spoke defiantly, or at least defensively (good to see somebody plays defense around here) when asked about the perception of his team’s season as a “circus.”

“It’s nonsense,” Rooney said. “We didn’t achieve our goal of winning the division, but we finished half a game out and had a lot of opportunities to get there.”

Who’s he kidding? The Steelers collapsed like Jenga blocks. They crumbled in historic fashion down the stretch, even managing to lose to the ridiculous Oakland Raiders.

One could euphemistically characterize it as finishing “half a game out,” or one could simply tell the truth: The Steelers blew a 2 1/2-game lead with six games left, mostly on account of incompetence and dysfunction.

I mean, their best player quit before the final game, right?

Their quarterback was made to wait when he could have played in Oakland, right?

The way this season ended served as an appropriate encore to the way last season ended — with one of the more embarrassing home playoff losses in franchise history.

Losing big games, however, does not a circus make.

The circus part is everything else that has transpired since the beginning of last season. And for Rooney, Kevin Colbert or Mike Tomlin to minimize the breadth of the clown show is an insult to the team’s loyal fans.

Is this still a highly respected franchise? Of course it is. Big picture, yes. But it’s a punch line at the moment. Both can be true. Every single day brings a new social-media fracas (the latest involving Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and … wait for it … Bruce Arians).

That Rooney would scoff at the “circus” reference defies belief. His own players have referred the team as “Kardashians” (Jesse James, to pennlive.com) and “a reality show” (David DeCastro, to me).

In the past 16 months alone, we have seen …

— The coach guarantee an AFC Championship Game appearance that never happened.

— The team botch its national anthem plan to the point where fans were burning jerseys.

— A decorated veteran linebacker (James Harrison) force his way out of town by acting like a selfish jackass, then rip Tomlin to the point where he invited Brown to his house and made a video mocking the coach.

— The star running back (Le’Veon Bell) sit out the season and make his most notable public appearance in a racy strip-club video.

— Brown arrive at training camp in a helicopter, mysteriously disappear for a week, threaten to break a reporter’s jaw, be accused of tossing furniture off his 14th-floor balcony (nearly hitting a toddler), drive 100 mph on McKnight Rd., skip work the Monday after throwing a sideline tantrum, basically quit the team the week of a huge game, mock Rooney via social media (and have several teammates “like” the post) and ignore his boss’s calls to this day — AND THEN HAVE ROONEY SAY WEDNESDAY THAT BROWN WAS NOT A MAJOR DISTRACTION “UNTIL THE LAST WEEKEND OF THE SEASON.”

Anything else?

Well, another receiver (Martavis Bryant) jealously ripped a teammate, demanded a trade and got suspended; the quarterback publicly shredded Brown last year and criticized him this year for running a bad route; then-offensive coordinator Todd Haley injured his hip in a bar fight; and the offensive linemen eviscerated Bell as a player “who doesn’t give a damn” (Ramon Foster). Oh, and Brown was recently seen dressed up as a cartoon hippopotamus. And all of that is just the stuff we know about.

Circus?

What circus?

On the other hand, Rooney gave hope to those demanding tangible action when he sidestepped a question regarding Tomlin’s expected contract extension.

I’m betting Tomlin still receives an extension this summer, as is customary with two years left on his deal. But when asked about it, Rooney said, “Those are things we’ll get to sort of later in the offseason.”

That was in sharp contrast to his response regarding an extension for Roethlisberger, who has one year left on his deal.

“I think we feel good about trying to extend his contract,” Rooney said.

Here’s hoping Rooney keeps that Tomlin extension in his pocket. Tomlin hasn’t earned it. He certainly hasn’t earned a raise. He has taken two talented teams nowhere the past two years. He has won all of three playoff games in the past eight years, one a gift from the idiot Bengals.

Tomlin, too, has helped create a permissive atmosphere in which Brown and others figure they can do and say whatever they please. He is the ringmaster of this particular circus — and how he ever believed he could escape Oakland without using Roethlisberger is unfathomable.

What’s more, Tomlin should have told Brown to stay home for the Bengals game. The fact Brown received his game check is sickening. The players union might have pushed back, but Tomlin should have suspended Brown that Saturday and challenged any union pushback (perhaps scoring his first successful challenge in three years).

Denying an extension would be the best way for Rooney to make the atmosphere around here a little less comfortable — and make it known that he is highly dissatisfied with the state of the team.

But is he?​