Colbert addresses Steelers’ perceived discipline issue
LATROBE — Kevin Colbert met with a small group of reporters Thursday, as he does annually at Saint Vincent College. The Steelers’ general manager keeps print reporters abreast of the clerical information they’ll need to understand the coming roster moves.
But this time, Colbert — after providing 30 minutes of background — took on-the-record questions that dealt with roster weaknesses, expectations for the absent Le’Veon Bell, the filling of the crater-sized hole at inside linebacker left by the injury to Ryan Shazier, and any other question for which he might be able to provide insight.
Only one question caused the normally stoic Colbert to become emotional, and it was probably the question he was hoping would be asked:
Q: Have there been any external discussions about players tweeting, talking about other teams, running to meetings, etc.?
It became clear soon enough that this issue — exacerbated by James Harrison’s recent comments about a perceived lack of discipline under Mike Tomlin — has been on Colbert’s mind.
But he started his answer with a chuckle.
“No,” Colbert said. “Honestly, a lot of that stuff was made into stuff that really wasn’t a concern. I had no question about our mental preparation, our internal organization, how our team was run. Sure, guys do different things that maybe you don’t like. Coach talks to them about ‘No team business on social media.’ He does a great job of understanding — Coach Tomlin understands a generational player. He understands younger guys. We have to manage what a lot of that stuff is, but a lot of the stuff — the team turmoil and all that nonsense — that wasn’t a concern of ours.”
Fans have grumbled about what they perceive to be a lack of discipline after last season’s running “soap opera”: Bell’s “stayout” of training camp, the national anthem snafu in Chicago, Antonio Brown flipping over an empty Gatorade bucket on the sideline, Ben Roethlisberger saying he may have lost his skills after the first loss to Jacksonville, Roethlisberger’s passive-aggressive criticisms of then-coordinator Todd Haley, the release of Harrison after, well, his own poor sense of discipline at meetings, Tomlin discussing New England before playing Green Bay, and Bell’s 2018 contract demands prior to the playoff game.
Colbert believes these bits of “drama” were overplayed by the media and bought whole as distractions by fans.
“We are always critical of who we are, what we do,” Colbert said. “We always review it. We talk about it. But it’s not like it’s a formal ‘Guys, we have to do THIS.’ No, we always want to be better at what we do on the field, off the field, team attitude. The players got to take some of that on themselves. We can draft them. Coach Tomlin can coach them. But when they’re out there, it’s up to them. A lot of this falls on all three aspects of this thing.”
Three aspects?
“Offense, defense, special teams,” Colbert said, before adding, “Personnel, coaching, players. It’s a whole thing. But there’s no concern whatsoever about our team’s attitude, discipline, all that other stuff that gets talked about. Absolutely no concern. I’m very comfortable working with this organization. People don’t see Coach Tomlin in a meeting room. They don’t hear Coach Tomlin talk to his team and watch them pay attention. They don’t see him in a one-on-one meeting with a player, whether the player’s doing something good or bad. We get into their personal lives a lot, because he cares about them as people as much as he does as players. I think that’s very uncommon for his position and the demands that are made on him. He’ll go beyond the professional demands to make sure he’s doing the best he can for the player personally.”
It was pointed out to Colbert that some of the players took exception to, for instance, Mike Mitchell talking about New England before beating Jacksonville.
David DeCastro, for one, was upset about that after the playoff loss. Ramon Foster was still upset when he reported to training camp.
“Right. And that’s because we lost a critical game,” Colbert said. “When you lose a game, you’re not happy and you are going to look at different things. I’m sure he wasn’t happy with his performance, my performance, coach’s performance. No one’s happy, and they may pick out certain things. But to think that we weren’t prepared for that game, I don’t agree with it. We got outplayed that day in all three phases. That is the simplicity of it. Whether it was preparation, I don’t believe any of that. It was what happened once we hit the grass in all three phases.
“But, yeah, it’s personnel, it’s coaching, it’s players. It always is. Did we get the right guys to win that playoff game? No. Did we have the right game plan? No. Did our players play good enough? No. Give Jacksonville credit. They played a great game and beat us. End of story.”
Colbert was asked about beating the Patriots this year but he didn’t take the bait.
“What about them?” he asked.
They’re the team to beat.
“No,” Colbert said. “We’ve got to beat Cleveland.”
The Steelers play the Cleveland Browns in the opener. If the lesson needed to be learned, consider it done.