Steelers adept at staying focused
won’t be addressed further.”
Haley declined to take any questions about the incident in which police say his wife, Chrissy, was also involved. There were reports that Haley was shoved to the ground by an unknown assailant after he and his wife had dinner and drinks New Year’s Eve at Tequila Cowboy.
No charges have been filed and Haley returned to work with the Steelers Wednesday. He has been able to walk around and coach with only a slight limp.
It is not expected to hurt the team’s performance one bit. Not for a team that has been through so much this season.
“It feels like it always does,” Haley said of the Steelers being able to overcome distractions. “Once we step into this building everybody’s really focused on trying to be the best we can be.
“We got a tight group of guys and I think when you have outside things that could fracture you it either divides you or brings you closer together. In our case, we’ve just grown tighter as a group. When you’re tight, you care about each other, you’re usually at your best.”
This latest will go down as a rather minor interruption for an organization that has experienced more serious ones all year long.
Haley hurt in a New Year’s eve incident? Paltry compared to what happened to Ryan Shazier Dec. 4. Haley’s experience is merely another in a long line of dramatic events that have occurred around the Steelers but so far has not knocked them off track.
“Other than the Chicago game — that was kind of weird, I’ll admit that — for the most part it’s kind of been like things are made a bigger deal than they are in here,’’ David DeCastro said. “Everyone in herekind of slaps them off and moveson with life. We go with what’s in front of us, the games. The other stuff is noise,if you will.”
Ramon Foster said Mike Tomlin has treated this “elephant in the room” like he did the other one with Tony Dungy — he spoke right up about it from the get-go.
“He doesn’t make a big deal out of it. It starts with him. He respects the fact that he knows we’ll probably talk about stuff in small circles but it’ll never get out. Stuff that has gotten out it’s just one of those things when we come to work on Wednesday, it’s a done deal. Guys find ways not to take stuff onto the field. His main thing is ‘Take the Field.’
“He kind of acknowledged it at one point ‘With everything that’s going on, you guys continue to just play football when it comes time to do it.’”
They have done just that, compiling a 13-3 record that tied for the best in the NFL and earned them a No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs and a bye this weekend into the next round, when they play Jan. 14.
“As a whole group, we grew up as a team,’’ said Le’Veon Bell. “We had things off the field and guys kind of bonded and talked about it. Whatever problems that were going on in the locker room we weren’t necessarily putting it out in the media. We tried to solve them.”
Bell included his preseason-long holdout and the request to be traded by Martavis Bryant, among other season-long “distractions.”
“That was the biggest thing for us. We were able to get over our problems, whatever it was — social media, me holding out, Tav with the whole trade talk and things like that. We had lot of things, the anthem. We all resolved that inside our locker room by ourselves.
“And obviously, we’re a talented group.”