Steelers Off Season Silence…..

The Pittsburgh Steelers front office obviously has no idea that Steelers Nation survives on constant news and quotes.  We, the ever hungry fan base, need all the red meat you can throw at us concerning the future of Our Team.  There is no longer an off season for the athletes and now there is no longer an off season for the hobbled followers; we need news….. Or gossip….. Or sniping amongst teammates…. Or a player/coach/front office three way war of words.  Something to chew on.  Surely the Steelers know there is a 24 hour news cycle that cannot subsist merely on facts and the promise that things are going smoothly in the season that begins when the regular season ends.  The days of “No news is good news” are dead and gone; blogs must be filled, Tweets must be Tweeted.

The Other Season started out great guns; the BARR (Bruce Arians Retirement Ruse) was handled publicly and awkwardly like it should have been.  Dignity was kept to a minimum and there was backtracking and false bravado aplenty (Ben’s Pro Bowl promise of a sit down with Art II).  I bet the exchange went a little something like this:

Art Rooney II “Good morning, Ben.  I heard there was something you wanted to talk to me about”.    

Ben Roethlisberger “Absolutely, Sir.  I wanted to make sure that you knew how much I enjoy playing football for the Steelers and that I will do anything I can to help this team”.   

 Art Rooney II “Thank you, Ben.  Will there be anything else”? 

Ben Roethlisberger “No, Sir. You have a great day”.

But that really wasn’t much of a dust up, was it?  BA was the offensive coordinator after all and although he was a lightning rod locally, he didn’t really move the national needle much.

The Steelers have locked the doors, drawn the shades, and unplugged the phones, just like the good old days.  We have no idea what they are doing with the veterans, the free agents, the veteran free agents.  They are woefully over the salary cap.  The draft is fast approaching and that pesky salary cap means right now, they couldn’t sign anybody they selected anyway. 

They have chosen to remain mum on both the Mendenhall situation and the Hines situation (both are similar to “the Bonnie Situation” in that they will have to be dealt with soon).

Mike Tomlin may or may not have had the anatomical double whammy of simultaneously having his toes stepped on and his head gone over in the hiring of Todd Haley.  Let’s not forget that Mike T. is in the last year of his contract (nobody wants or needs a “Tomlin situation” (*see Bonnie situation)). 

The beauty of blogging is that I, as a blogger, don’t need a bunch of troublesome facts to do my job.  Random bullshit is my stock and trade.  The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, need to keep the miscues to an absolute minimum from here on out.  The less interesting The Other Season is for them, the better.

I guess you can follow me on Twitter @davebuzard1