Colbert: ‘Turmoil’ on Steelers wasn’t a concern at all

preparation, our internal organization, how our team was run,” he said.

“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,’ a lot of that nonsense. That wasn’t a concern at all.”

Although Tomlin, Mike Mitchell and Le’Veon Bell (at the least) talked about playing the Patriots in the AFC championship before they could reach that point, Colbert does not believe that affected their performance in their 45-42 playoff loss at home to Jacksonville, which then advanced to face New England.

Some players — most outwardly David DeCastro — complained afterward about teammates looking ahead. Colbert dismissed that as disappointment over the loss.

“That’s because we lost a critical game and when you lose a game you’re not happy and you look at different things. I’m sure [DeCastro] wasn’t happy with his performance, my performance, coaches’ 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’s the simplicity of it. Whether it was preparation or ... I don’t believe any of that. It was what happened once we hit the grass in all three phases — offense, defense, special teams.

“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. But give Jacksonville credit, they played a great game and beat us. End of story.”

Those who think the Steelers lack discipline are not close enough to see what goes on, Colbert said.

“I’m very comfortable working with this organization, with a head coach that — people don’t understand. They don’t see the Coach Tomlin in a meeting room. They don’t hear a Coach Tomlin talk to his team and watch them pay attention. They don’t see him in a oneon-one meeting with a player, whether a player’s doing something good or bad. They don’t see him projecting.

“We get into their personal lives a lot because he cares about them as people, and 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 a player personally as well.”

For all the coaches’ and front office personnel’s attempts in all those areas, Colbert said there’s another group that must be involved as well.

“The players have to take some of that on themselves, you know what I mean? Look, we can draft them, Coach Tomlin can coach them, but when they’re out there, it’s up to them.”