UPDATE: Pittsburgh Steelers Senior Director of Communication Burt Lauten released the following statement on rumor that Art Rooney II left the Bills game early:
My sources (which includes myself and every media outlet, coach and player that saw him walk through the postgame locker room) can confirm he didn't leave the game early. This is blatantly false.
There are rumors that Art Rooney II didn’t stay through the entire Steelers game on Sunday night.
Andrew Fillipponi said on Wednesday’s PM Team that he has heard rumors that the team’s owner left during the second half of an ugly loss to the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium.
“It’s a rumor,” said Poni. “Someone didn’t send me a picture of him (leaving the stadium) . . . I don’t now for sure if he heard the way fans were sounding or if he hated how the game was going and couldn’t bring himself to watch it through an that prompted his exit.”
Poni adds that either way, it makes you think that the owner of the team didn’t want to stay through the whole game.
Fans were heard chanting “fire Tomlin” loudly in the second half as the game slipped away from the Steelers.
On his podcast this week, two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger said that it might be time for Tomlin and the Steelers to move on to each other.
Retired, longtime Steelers writer Ed Bouchette, who doesn’t speak in hyperbole said “I do think it’s time” for Tomlin to step down or move on from coaching the Steelers, on a Post-Gazette podcast.
As Adam Crowley pointed out on The Fan Morning Show that none of Tomlin’s former players that now hold positions in the media have come to his defense.
The Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo said a mutual parting of ways between the team and Tomlin is “something that could happen.”