Not everybody was thrilled by the hiring of Mike Tomlin. Perennial Pro-Bowler Alan Faneca let it be known that he was disappointed the Steelers didn't offer the job to offensive line coach Russ Grimm.
"When Cowher retired, everybody in the league wanted two of our guys, so you'd think we would want at least one of them."
First of all, Faneca is a straight shooter who usually says what's on his mind. The fact that he wanted Grimm, who was his positional coach, to be hired is hardly unreasonable. Secondly, does anybody else remember the last time Faneca made similar remarks to the new-guy-in-town Ben Roethlisberger? Asked if he was excited about Roethlisberger replacing the injured Tommy Maddox in 2004, Faneca had this to say:
Obviously Faneca is not challenging Tomlin in quite the same way, but I sure hope Tomlin uses the guard's comments as motivation just like Big Ben did during his rookie season.