Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger didn’t mince words about the 2023 team and his former head coach, Mike Tomlin, during his recent podcast Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.
The 7-6 Steelers are in the playoff hunt. But many of their games haven’t been pretty this season. The body language and attitude of wide receivers George Pickens and Diontae Johnson have been widely criticized.
Roethlisberger hits the Pittsburgh Steelers “tradition” could be over
According to an ESPN transcript of Roethlisberger’s comments, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback said he thinks the “tradition” of the Steelers could be over. Roethlisberger called out Tomlin for poor decisions in the Steelers’ upset loss to the 3-10 New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football:
“You can’t afford in the second half of games to burn silly timeouts and to not have them late in the game,” Roethlisberger said. “To me, that’s bad coaching.”
He added: “There’s some feel you have to have in those situations because timeouts can be so valuable, as we saw in this game. If we have one more timeout there, we get a completion, we can work the middle of the field and all you got to do is give Boz [Chris Boswell] a 60-yard chance.
Give him a chance and he’ll tie the game. I like my chances in overtime because they scored all their points early and the momentum had shifted.”
Roethlisberger complained about the lack of leadership on the team. Players aren’t challenging their teammates on the sideline to be better. And the culture shift points to leadership at the top.
Tomlin’s should be safe after this season. But it’s clear Tomlin and his staff will need to do some soul-searching in the offseason to repair the locker room. Those comments from Roethlisberger are harsh, but the legendary Steelers figure didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.
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