Fresh off of coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl LV against the Kansas City Chiefs, head coach Bruce Arians has been a busy man this week as he is understandable doing quite a few interviews. One of the interviews that Arians did was with Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times and during it he had quite the comment about the team he used to coach for several years, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Arians was asked during his interview with Farmer about the level of loyalty he has to players he coaches and if you have seen any of his past interviews on television or the internet, you won’t have any problems picturing him vocalizing his response to the question.
“I’ve been accused that that is a fault,” Arians said. “Got fired in Pittsburgh because I was too loyal to Ben [Roethlisberger]. If that’s a problem, you’ve got the problem. I don’t have a problem. I get very close to my quarterbacks. My dad taught me one thing: You have your name and your loyalty, and those are the most important things you have.”
Can you picture Arians saying that? I certainly can.
Is Arians’ overall response to the question and his specific remark about the Steelers and him being close to Roethlisberger a bit surprising? Absolutely not. After all, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that Arians was “retired” from the Steelers due mainly to him getting too close to Roethlisberger in his five years as the team’s offensive coordinator. He’s even said that very thing in other interviews over the years. Arians and Roethlisberger, by the way, are reportedly still close to this very day and that’s not too surprising as well.
Ever since Arians was effectively run out of Pittsburgh, he’s had quite the retirement as he’s been a head coach for two different teams and three if you count him being the interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. He’s worked with a lot of other great quarterbacks since leaving Pittsburgh as well.
The Steelers are now on their third different offensive coordinator since Arians “retired” as the job now belongs to Matt Canada, who joined the staff in 2020 as the team’s quarterbacks coach. He takes over for Randy Fichtner, who was effectively “retired” after the Steelers were bounced from the playoffs by the Cleveland Browns. Fichtner, who succeeded Todd Haley as the Steelers offensive coordinator, was accused more than just a few times of being too close to Roethlisberger during his three seasons as the head of the offensive side of the football.
In closing, it was good to see Arians finally win a Super Bowl this past Sunday and even though it meant Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady winning yet another one as well. I’m sure Arians is even closer to Brady now since Sunday’s Super Bowl win.
