From the day Todd Haley was hired as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator, questions have been raised about whether he and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would get along. Roethlisberger says for the most part, they’ve gotten along just fine -- but he does admit there was one “incident” between them.
Roethlisberger told Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he and Haley had a problem during the Steelers’ Week One loss to the Broncos, but Roethlisberger says he made a point of not allowing the issue to escalate.
“We had one little incident,” Roethlisberger said. “I walked away. I’ll leave it at that. I walked away.”
That incident aside, Roethlisberger says he and Haley have gotten together just fine. In fact, Roethlisberger thinks the media have made too big a deal out of their personal relationship.
“People really did make a big deal about it,” Roethlisberger said. “I heard Cris Carter [on ESPN] ask, ‘Why doesn’t Ben embrace the change and want to get better?’ That’s ridiculous. I’m all about getting better. I never said the change was going to be bad or good. I just said it was a change. It was what it was.”
If Roethlisberger and Haley can limit themselves to one incident, then the change in the Steelers’ offense will have gone more smoothly than most people predicted.