The Pittsburgh Steelers have always been a family-oriented organization. Ties to Pittsburgh run strong, and oftentimes, when somebody is hired to the team, you can trace the dots back to some form of a connection to the organization. The Steelers new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, is no different.
In a one-on-one interview with Missi Matthews, Smith was asked about those connections and if he leaned on guys like Mike Munchak, Mike Vrabel, or Mike Mularkey throughout the hiring process with Pittsburgh.
“A little bit,” Smith said in a video of the interview posted on the Steelers’ website. “But those are conversations I’ve had through the years. There’s so many people that have Pittsburgh connections that it’s kind of a dream come true to be able to work here. I’m somebody that loves the history of the game, and I could even take it back to when I was able to work for five weeks with Tom Moore.”
Moore served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator for the Steelers in the late 1970s and all throughout the ’80s. Smith and Moore crossed paths with the Tennessee Titans when Smith was the offensive quality control coach in 2012, and Moore was briefly brought on as an offensive consultant.
“Those five weeks, I developed a relationship with Tom,” Smith continued. “The one thing that hit home to me, he’s like, ‘I don’t know why people don’t study Chuck Noll more, and Tony Dungy.’ Mike Mularkey was the same way. Mike got to play here at the end of his career, and then he coached here, and he was adamant about learning about Chuck.”
Smith’s work ethic is a major theme in every account of him as a coach. Talking about studying Noll, a beloved Hall of Fame coach in Pittsburgh, will serve him well and endear him to fans of the team. But that only scratches the surface of his connections back to the organization.
He talked about Mike Vrabel, Dick LeBeau, Ken Whisenhunt, Russ Grimm, Ray Horton, and Lou Spanos. All of those coaches have either played for or coached in Pittsburgh, and Smith has crossed paths with them throughout his coaching career. These are connections that Smith said influenced his decision and his desire to come to Pittsburgh.
“There’s so many connections,” Smith said. “I could go on and on…everybody, to a person, talks about how special it is to work here in Pittsburgh. I don’t know many places like this in all professional sports.”
Smith said himself, “this is a relationship business,” and that proved to be true with his hiring to the organization. He checked many of the boxes with his quarterback experience and previous NFL coordinator experience to match head coach Mike Tomlin’s hiring criteria that he laid out in his end-of-season press conference. Perhaps equally as important, he already has a great idea of the culture that the Steelers have sought to maintain for decades through his many connections to the team.
Check out Alex Kozora’s comprehensive deep-dive on Smith for a closer look at his connections and what he will bring to the organization as the offensive coordinator.
