The Pittsburgh Steelers have certainly produced a lot of news since their 2018 regular season came to an end and fortunately that seems to be slowly dying down some with four weeks remaining until the 2019 NFL Draft takes place. With all that has been said by a few former Steelers players in running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receiver Antonio Brown the last several weeks during interviews, the leadership of both quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and head coach Mike Tomlin are once again being questioned by media and fans alike.
On Thursday, Steelers cornerback Joe Haden was a guest on ‘Total Access’ on the NFL Network and he was first asked to confirm that he’s behind Roethlisberger.
“Oh, for sure,” Haden said.
Haden was then asked about Tomlin and what he believes the head coach’s pulse of the Steelers locker room currently is.
“Man, he has complete control of the team,” Haden said of Tomlin. “You know, you have two totally different situations with Le’Veon and with Antonio. You know, it is what it is. It’s a business and you can’t blame Coach T for that.
“I think that he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever played for. You can only ask for honesty. He keeps it real with you, he lets you know exactly where you stand. He lets you know exactly how he feels about you. If you ‘re productive, even if you’re not. So, he treats everyone fairly, but I’m going to say everybody doesn’t get treated the same.”
Haden saying that Tomlin treats his players fairly, but not the same, shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone at this point as the Steelers head coach has admitted to that being his coaching style for several years now. Tomlin even confirmed that again earlier this week when interviewed at the league’s annual meetings in Arizona.
“I treat people fairly,” Tomlin said on Monday. “I don’t aspire to treat everyone exactly the same.”
As far as all of the drama that’s gone on so far with the Steelers since the 2018 regular season ended, Haden was asked on Thursday if he’s now sick of it.
“You know, definitely hearing about it from the outside,” Haden said. “You know, it’s a lot, but, just being in the team, talking to my guys, talking to JuJu [Smith-Schuster], talking to Cam [Heyward], we’re just really excited and we just can’t wait to get back to football.”
I’m sure Tomlin and Roethlisberger both can’t wait to get back to football as well.
