After the 2011 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians parted ways. The Steelers tried to pass it off as Arians’ retirement, but in a recent profile on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Arians confirmed what most already knew: He was fired. And he was “pissed” about it.
According to Arians, he was told by head coach Mike Tomlin that a new contract was coming. Then, Arians told journalist Andrea Kremer, a different kind of call came.
“(Tomlin) said, ‘I can’t get you the money,’” Arians said. “I said, ‘Okay.’ He said, ‘No, I can’t get you a contract.’ I said, ‘Are you firing me?’ He said, ‘No. . . .’ … Well, it’s just a matter of words, Mike,’ … If I don’t have a contract, I’m fired.’”
Tomlin then said he would fly down to talk to Arians face-to-face, but Arians told Tomlin not to waste the time and the money. And that was it. After eight years with the Steelers organization, he was replaced with Todd Haley, and Arians went to the Indianapolis Colts.
At the time, Tomlin released a statement that said: “Bruce Arians has informed me that he will retire from coaching. I appreciate his efforts over the past five years as the team’s offensive coordinator and for helping lead our offense to new heights during his time with the Steelers. I am grateful to Bruce for contributing to our success and wish him nothing but the best in his retirement.”
During a visit to PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, Kremer said she contacted the Steelers to get a comment. “And they said, ‘Look, this is ancient history for us. Mike’s already talked about this.’ But (they) made it clear that this was Mike Tomlin’s decision, to fire Bruce Arians.”
In March 2012, Tomlin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “More than anything, I’m not going to apologize for change. That’s football. I think all of us in this industry understand that, and our intentions are that it changed for the better.”
Arians and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had always been close, and Arians thought this might have been the reason he was fired. Arians first started in Pittsburgh in 2004, the same year Roethlisberger was drafted 11th overall. Even after Arians left Pittsburgh, he and Roethlisberger have remained close; Arians has called Roethlisberger a “second son.”
After Arians left the Steel City, Roethlisberger told AZCentral Sports, “He coaches the way players want to be coached. … He’s a player’s coach and just knows how to relate to the guys — the way he talks to them, the way he acts, all the fun things that he does. … He knows how to do that with the guys. And then he knows how to be strict and get on guys when he needs to.”
“I had done a good job,” Arians said. “It was a damn good job. I was pissed. But again, time heals things.”
Arians certainly has done well for himself since leaving Pittsburgh. He was named Coach of the Year in 2012 as the offensive coordinator for the Colts and interim head coach, filling in while Chuck Pagano was on leave of absence to fight leukemia. Arians won the award a second time, in 2014, as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, where he has spent three very successful seasons.
But while Arians still loves Roethlisberger (the two have houses down the street from each other in Georgia), Arians doesn’t appear to carry any love for his former team.
The Cardinals’ T-shirts currently carry the words “trust,” “loyalty” and “respect.” At one point, Arians told Kremer, “Yeah, well, those are words that I don’t think are on the Steelers’ jerseys.”
The full Arians profile airs on HBO at 10:00 p.m. EST.
Image credit: USATSI
