A new profile of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians has dusted off questions regarding one of the most notorious retirements in NFL history. Arians clearly was fired, and it becomes even more clear from the interview of Arians and his wife from Andrea Kremer of HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel that the focal point of their frustration was and is Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
It nevertheless had been believed by many that Tomlin was simply the messenger, and that the decision had been made about his head. The Steelers say otherwise.
“We did contact the Steelers, and we asked them if they had a comment on this,” Kremer said during a Tuesday visit to PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. “And they said, ‘Look, this is ancient history for us. Mike’s already talked about this.’ But [they] made it clear that this was Mike Tomlin’s decision, to fire Bruce Arians.”
Kremer also explained that Arians believes Tomlin’s hands were tied. Still, the fact that Tomlin received a contract extension not long after Arians was let go made Arians believe that he’d been sold out -- especially since Arians believed that he and Tomlin were tied together.
Cardinals T-shirts currently carry the words “trust,” “loyalty,” and “respect.” Said Arians at one point to Kremer: “Yeah, well, those are words that I don’t think are on the Steelers’ jerseys.”
Tune in to HBO tonight at 10:00 p.m. ET for the full Arians profile. Also, check out the PFT Live podcast at iTunes or audioBoom for the full Kremer interview.
