Former Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley has been hired as the Steelers new offensive coordinator, replacing Bruce Arians, the team announced today.

Source: post-gazette.com - Steelers/NFL

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Financial details and the length of the deal were not released by the team.

“I am excited about the opportunity to come back home and work for a tremendous organization,” Haley said in a statement. “It is an honor to work with the Rooney family and Coach Tomlin and continue the success that has become synonymous with the Steelers. My father has so many fond memories both from his playing days and his time in the personnel department with the team, and I look forward to helping bring more championships to Pittsburgh and to being a part of one of the storied franchises in the NFL.”

Haley has a good resume, including three years as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Before then, he was offensive coordinator in Arizona and worked with Kurt Warner when the Cardinals got to the Super Bowl against the Steelers in 2008.

According to the statement, “[Haley] is the son of Dick Haley, who spent 44 seasons in the NFL including serving as the Steelers’ director of player personnel from 1971-90.”

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Filed under: Football, Sports, Steelers, Syndicated Sports Tagged: Bruce Arians, NFL, Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburgh Steelers, Todd Haley

Source: CBS Pittsburgh » Steelers

It was reported earlier Tuesday TE Weslye Saunders will be suspended for the first four games of the 2012 season, but without confirmation of whether it was for the league's substance abuse policy (drugs, narcotics, etc) or the league's steroid and related substances policy (HGH, anabolic steroids, etc.).

There are at least two writers suggesting Saunders' alleged positive test came not from PEDs or drugs, but rather, a therapeutic drug in which contained an ingredient on the league's list of banned substances.

Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweeted Tuesday he had information regarding the suspension, and suggested a suspension may be out of line.

Fellow Tribune-Review writer Mark Kaboly had a pair of tweets along the same lines, but much more aggressively.

Kaboly's second tweet, coming soon after the first, was far more revealing.

The NFL has run into this issue in the past, and with a player currently on the Steelers roster.

As Georgia Tech running back Jonathan Dwyer prepared for the draft in 2010, his agent, Robert London, notified every NFL team his client took Adderall, a medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is amphetamine salts. London told teams Dwyer's drug test would come back positive for amphetamines.

As he suggested, Dwyer's test came back positive. Instead of concealing that information as a therapeutic exemption, which the league considers it to be, provided the player has the proper prescriptions for the medication (which is a Schedule II Controlled Substance in the United States, meaning you cannot possess it without a prescription, and that prescription must be hand-written from a doctor), the information somehow made its way into the public.

Dwyer's failed test came in the same report and was released to the media in the same way as former USC TE Anthony Davis, who tested positive for marijuana.

Dwyer was thought to be as high as a second-round draft pick in 2010. He fell to the sixth round. Perhaps that wasn't because of the drug test (his weight was more of a concern at The Combine that year), but the negative attention brought to him certainly didn't help his situation.

This isn't to suggest the NFL's anti-drug rules are inappropriate. It's the idea it is in the position to potentially and powerfully damage the lives of innocent people. The league should be candidly aware of the amount of media coverage it receives and with that, it has a responsibility to ensure privacy of those matters to the highest level of its ability. He took the appropriate steps to inform the league of the medication he was prescribed, and notified them his drug test would come back positive for amphetamines. The league failed Dwyer, if not from a legal sense, then from an ethical one.

Kaboly and Kovacevic are strongly suggesting Saunders' case is very similar, if not the same. It's highly unlikely they would go as far as they did if Saunders had tested positive for something illegal. Plus, amphetamines are covered under the league's substance abuse policy, which would mean a suspension would be warranted in the event of a third failed drug test by Saunders.

Perhaps the information regarding his suspension was prematurely released from a veteran reporter (Aaron Wilson) who reported Saunders would be suspended. As we've written, a player can be suspended for four games (the amount of time Wilson reported) for violating the league's substance abuse policy for a third time, or for a first violation of the league's policy on steroids and related substances policy.

If it's a therapeutic drug, and this is indeed Saunders' third failed drug test (taking Wilson's information as accurate), it suggests a lack of communication between the league and Saunders, or a simple situation where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

The substance Saunders allegedly tested positive for won't formally be released to the public, we can only look at situations like Dwyer's when we read such compelling but intentionally vague information from two beat reporters.

All of this suggests there is something boiling under the surface, and perhaps Saunders has something of a battle ahead of him.

Just ask Vikings DT Kevin Williams how far the NFL is willing to go to protect the validity of their drug policies.

Source: Behind the Steel Curtain

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have named Todd Haley as their new offensive coordinator, it was announced today. “I am excited about the opportunity to come back home and work for a tremendous organizatio...

Source: Pittsburgh Steelers : News

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Tight end Weslye Saunders, who played in all 16 regular-season games in 2011, has been suspended by the NFL for the first quarter of the season. The Steelers confirmed the suspension today but did not give a reason for the punishment.

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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Steelers TE Weslye Saunders has been suspended for the first four games of the 2012 season, according to Scout.com reporter Aaron Wilson, and other sources.

There is no word on the reason for the suspension, but it's likely for one of two things: a third violation of the league's substance abuse police (two prior violations are confidential, the third results in a four-game suspension), or a violation of the league's policy on anabolic steroids and related substances, in which a first offense is subject to a minimum four-game suspension.

Simply put, it's either his third failed drug test or his first failed banned substances test. Either way, it'll be his first suspension, and the first Steeler to be suspended for either violation.

Saunders, a talented but troubled tight end, went undrafted in 2011 largely due to the problems he stirred up off the field. He was suspended for a game by South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier for what he called a violation of team rules. Spurrier stressed it had nothing to do with an NCAA investigation into Saunders' attendance at a party which was later found to be promoted by an NFL agent.

Saunders eventually missed the entire 2010 season amid the NCAA investigation and his draft stock plummeted.

He hadn't been connected to any off-the-field issues through his rookie season publicly, and was seen as a young player on the rise. He is expected to make a bigger impact on the team's offense this season, but this suspension will push him back quite a bit, possibly leading the Steelers to re-consider the chance they gave Saunders as a UDFA last season.

Former Steelers WR Santonio Holmes was suspended for four games, but was traded to the Jets before that suspension took place. Holmes was also suspended for a game in 2008 by the Steelers, not the league, following a marijuana possession arrest.

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for six games (with it reduced later to four games) for conduct detrimental to the league, and LB James Harrison was suspended for a game in 2011 for a helmet-to-helmet hit onBrowns QB Colt McCoy.

Source: Behind the Steel Curtain

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New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick gave clear instructions to his defensive unit: Let the runner score. Playing the odds and inviting critics, the calculating coach told his players to get out of the way, open a wide path for Ahmad Bradshaw and give Tom Brady a chance to win the Super Bowl in the final 57 seconds. Unusual? Certainly. Crazy? Not at all.

Source: post-gazette.com - Steelers/NFL

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For years, his peers spoke on his behalf. They told stories of his toughness and listed his accomplishments and detailed his statistics. Today, those voices have been heard. Today, Jack Butler was ...

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Saunders missed his senior season at South Carolina after he had lied to NCAA investigators over an inquiry into improper contact with agents. It led to his draft stock eventually Read more [...]

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