In a recent interview, Cardinal coach Bruce Arians admitted that he was still "pissed" after the Pittsburgh Steelers decided to fire him as offensive coordinator back in 2011.
Almost five years later since Arians' departure from the Steelers, Arians became a subject of an interview for HBO. Host Andrea Kremer, who did the interview also reached out to the Steelers to get their side of the story. While most people believe that Mike Tomlin was simply executing orders and acted simply as messenger, the Steelers said otherwise.
"We did contact the Steelers, and we asked them if they had a comment on this," Kremer said during a Tuesday visit to PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. "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."
Prior to the former Pittsburgh offensive coordinator's notorious "retirement," Mike Tomlin promised Arians that he would convince the front office to give him a pay raise following the team's offensive success after placing 17th (2007), 22nd, 7th, 14th and 12th in total offense. Unfortunately for Arians, not only did he not get a raise, the front office also refused to renew his contract.
Tomlin previously said in 2012 that the firing of Bruce Arians was a result of a "moving into a situation" where the team would have the "opportunity to grow and develop some young talent offensively."
"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," said Tomlin as previously quoted in a report by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Despite keeping the ugly details of his Pittsburgh exit, Arians finally decided to unveil what transpired back then from his own perspective. The former offensive coordinator and now Cardinals coach apparently still harbors grudges against his former team.
"[Tomlin] said, 'I can't get you the money,'" Arians said, CBS Sports reported. "I said, 'OK.' He said, 'No, I can't get you a contract.' I said, 'Are you firing me?' He said, 'No,'" Arians said. "Well, it's just a matter of words, Mike, OK. If I don't have a contract, I'm fired.'"
Up to now, Arians can't seem to comprehend why the organization decided to fire him. He did speculate that the infamous retirement may had been caused by his close relationship with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger back then- something that many in the Steelers organization certainly did not approve of.
"...I had done a good job," Arians said per NFL.Com. "Maybe not the right image, but it was a damn good job. I was pissed. But again, time heals things."
Despite his disappointment, his Pittsburgh experience certainly made him a great coach. Arians was awarded NFL Coach of the Year after succeeding Chuck Pagano as Colts head coach. Prior to taking Pagano's coaching duties, Arians first served as an offensive coordinator for the team. He finally got full-fledged coaching job with the Cardinals in 2013 before nabbing the NFL Coach of the Year award again the following year.
