Todd Haley has been in the news quite a bit more as of late, and for reasons outside of his offensive (please use both meanings of that word) playbook. It seems as if the legal community is catching up with Todd and his wife for some of their indiscretions that stemmed from their move to Pittsburgh.
The widely publicized housing snafu in which the Haleys allegedly trashed a home that they reneged on buying, including removing some major appliances, has led to the coming forward of an Oakdale man claiming that the Haleys haven’t paid him his exorbitant $10,000 fee for dog-sitting the Haley’s wonderful pets whilst they were hotel-bound.
The Haleys are not denying that Nick Fiscante played foster dad to the pooches, but they are saying that Mr. Fiscante “does not have a boarding license and runs an illegal and filthy facility”. Mr. Fiscante claims that he was doing the Haleys a favor in watching the beloved Belvederes for the extended period of time.
While all of this canine chicanery appears to be a “he said/she said” kind of situation, the fact of the matter remains that a judge ruled in Mr. Fiscante’s favor because the Haleys did not show up for the hearing. Is being a Steelers coach more important than taking care of any legal issues, whether they are factual or heresay?
I cannot honestly remember the last time that the Steelers fired any of their coaching staff mid-season, going back as far as before the Cowher era, but this seems like a prime opportunity to break this streak. I have said for years that the Rooneys do character, not characters, and Mr. Offensive Coordinator has absolutely placed himself firmly into the latter of these two categories. These kinds of activities are usually reserved for the younger, dumber members of the NFL, those players fresh out of college who have led entitled lives. One would think that Haley has been seasoned long enough to know how to avoid these situations.
As stated previously, the housing issue has been alleged, not proven or ruled upon. The dog issue, however, HAS been ruled upon, and the verdict is that the Haleys seem to have taken advantage of one of the citizens of Western PA for their own gain.
All of these off field distractions can’t be conducive to developing a quality offensive scheme that plays away from the Steelers weaknesses (the left side of the offensive line, for example) and to their seemingly few strengths. At 0-4, now would be the prime time to seek help for the position of Offensive Coordinator. Maybe it’s time to cut your losses, Mr. Colbert, Mr. Tomlin, and Mr. Rooney. In retrospect, there have been some poor choices made the last couple of years as far as coaching hires as well as with the draft. If this is going to be the “rebuilding year”, it’s time to remove the weaker links and try to replace them with something stronger. What better place to start than as close to the top as possible?
