Bruce Arians Was ‘Forced Out’ By Steelers

Added on Jan 25, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

When former Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive coordinator Bruce Arians announced his retirement recently there was some head scratching. The team had been a highly ranked offense during his tenure and he had the public support of franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. But like so many things in professional sports, there’s ‘more to the story’. According to Arians he retired only after he was rebuffed by management who declined to offer him a new contract.

Arians has been instrumental in transforming the Steelers’ offense from a run heavy unit to a more pass oriented attack to better feature Roethlisberger. The Steelers dipped to #12 in the NFL’s offensive rankings this year after finishing in the top tier during the past three seasons and now team President Art Rooney II wants to reprise the ‘blue collar identity’ on offense. That’s the apparent motivation for getting rid of the respected Arians.

Arians suspects that this difference in philosophy was the motivation for his ouster but says that only the Steelers’ brass can answer it for sure:

“I can’t answer that question. Only the people there can. That’s the business. I know the job we did as a staff. I don’t have any regrets.”

Apparently his former quarterback and current neighbor Ben Roethlisberger isn’t pleased with the move:

“He’s not happy, but that’s part of the business. He is happy for me.”

Roethlisberger has publicly expressed support for Arians at various points in his tenure.

Arians has been Mike Tomlin’s only offensive coordinator during Mike Tomlin’s five year tenure with Pittsburgh. He says that he’s interested in continuing his coaching career either as a coordinator or a head coach if the opportunity presents itself. He reportedly has spoken to several teams about coaching jobs but as of yet none of these discussions could be characterized as serious. Many Steelers fans are unhappy about the move to force out Arians, thinking he’s been made the ‘fall guy’ or ‘scapegoat’ for Pittsburgh’s premature playoff exit and inability to generate offense against the Denver Broncos in the wildcard game. To be fair, Pittsburgh went into the game with a poor tactical plan on defense and a slew of injuries on both sides of the ball.