Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is certainly not happy about offensive coordinator Bruce Arians being let go and he has spoke out about today to two different media outlets. Roethlisberger, who is currently in Hawaii practicing for the Pro Bowl game on Sunday, told Fran Charles and Marshall Faulk of the NFL Network in regards to the departure of Arians, “Well, anyone that knows about the Pittsburgh Steelers, it\’s family, from the top to bottom, from the Rooney\’s all the way down to the training staff, to equipment staff. Everybody. So when you lose a family member it always tough and I say that, whether it\’s a coach, a player, if we lost a trainer it\’s hard for us because we\’re all family. I don\’t know if you can ever replace a guy like that, but you have to, its a business. The powers that be made decisions and we live with it and we go with it and change is not always easy and the Steelers are a team that don\’t do a lot of change. The head coaching staff hasn\’t really been much different for a long time. So its going to be definitely different for us, but we love Bruce, I love Bruce, we\’ve got a great relationship, and all of the offensive guys do, we just have to see where we go from here.
Just a short time later a report surfaced from Scott Brown and Shawn McCullough after they too talked to Roethlisberger. They report that Roethlisberger told them that when he returns from Hawaii he will seek out team president Art Rooney II to find out what direction the Steelers offense will move in now that Arians is gone. Roethlisberger was quoted in the article as saying, “When I get back I\’m going to go up to Mr. Rooney\’s office and ask him what he wants from me, what he wants from this offense, because I think that\’s a viable question for him. He\’s our owner and our boss, so I really would like to know kind of what he wants and where he sees our offense going because I\’d like to tell him where I see us going.” Roethlisberger seems to question what Rooney meant in his interview with the Pittsburgh media, when Rooney said that the Steelers starting quarterback needs to “tweak” his game. Roethlisberger told Brown and McCullough that he thought the offense was close to putting it all together as well. In regards to the Arians departure, Roethlisberger told Brown, “I think the (Steelers\’) mind was made up and B.A. was kind of ready to move on as well.”
We all knew it was only a matter of time before Big Ben made his comments on the departure of Arians and he certainly is not being shy about it or the comments made by Rooney in regards to his style of play. The Steelers have not yet made an announcement of who will replace Arians as the offensive coordinator and you can bet that Roethlisberger will think he deserves a big say in that choice. The Steelers are not an organization that lets the tail wag the dog, so this could get real interesting as we get further into the offseason. I do not believe we have heard the last from Roethlisberger on this either. The Pro Bowl game is Sunday and he will certainly have a camera in his face during the game. Stay tuned.
You can listen to some audio below:
[audio:http://cbspittsburgh.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/ben-roethlisberger-1-26.mp3]
