Super Bowl LV winning coach Bruce Arians says he got fired in Pittsburgh at the Steelers offensive coordinator because he was too loyal.
Speaking to the L.A. Times, Arians said he was fired in 2011 because he was “too loyal” to Ben Roethlisberger.
“If that’s a problem, you’ve got the problem. I don’t have a problem. I get very close to my quarterbacks. My dad taught me one thing: You have your name and your loyalty, and those are the most important things you have,” Arians told writer Sam Farmer.
Arians came to Pittsburgh in 2003 as the wide receivers’ coach and after helping the team win Super Bowl XL, he became the team’s offensive coordinator under Mike Tomlin in 2007, helping the Steelers once again win a Super Bowl.
But while he may have been let go in 2011 for being too loyal, Roethlisberger was exposed, a lot, in Arians’ offense.
He was sacked 47 times in 2007, 46 in 2008 and a record 50 times in 2009.
Arians was known for wanting to run big plays and while that would sometimes pay off, it also left his quarterback exposed.
There were reports at the end of the 2010 season that Arians was about to be given the door, but something changed in a week that kept him there for one more year before his contract was not renewed after 2011.
Now, 11 years later, Arians has his first Super Bowl championship with Tom Brady and the Bucs and the Steelers have a lot of work to do in the offseason if they want to go for one more Lombardi before Ben retires.