Former Steelers executive and former Bills GM Doug Whaley joins The Fan Morning Show live in-studio from 9-10 am every Wednesday. Whaley knows the organization, the people involved and how NFL locker rooms operate.
He laid out the reasons why Mike Tomlin is treading into some dangerous territory in how he's handling Ben Roethlisberger this season.
"Now, you've got to stay with me here…Urban (Meyer) and Tomin are trending in the same direction," said Whaley. "As the coach, you're the CEO. You set the culture. Now, the vision is from ownership. The CEO is the culture. They're going to preach that being in the NFL is a privilege not a right, accountability, transparency, don't be the story, make it about the team."
"Obviously, we know what Urban Meyer did. But, those players in that locker room know who should be playing and who's really hurting the team.
And if you start preaching that we're a team and the standard is the standard, but you're not living up to what you're preaching…they're going to, one, lose interest. Then soon, just tune him out altogether and start losing respect."
"So he's trending in that way and he has to be very careful of how he handles the situation."
What Whaley is referring to goes beyond just having that tough conversation to bench Ben Roethlisberger. It's having that decision impact the entire team and Tomlin's leadership of it.
"In that situation, you have to not only talk the talk, but you have to walk the walk. In that locker room, those guys know better than us out here and any of the fans what the true essence is behind the issues that are holding them back."
"If it's Ben, then they have to address that. Maybe he's addressed it to the team and said, 'Hey, out publicly, this is what I'm going to say.' But we're going to fall behind Ben until he shows us that he can't."
Mike Tomlin said Tuesday in his weekly press conference that Roethlisberger is "absolutely" the best quarterback to lead the offense right now and mentioned, "what he's done" as part of the answer. Whaley gave an interesting analogy as to what the relationship between Ben and the Steelers is right now.
"It's about being in that loveless relationship but you've been in that relationship for so long and you're comfortable. You don't want to break up with it because your lives are so intertwined that it's easier to stay with that person than to break up with them. That's where the Steelers and Mike Tomlin are with Ben."
