Steelers’ three-ring circus concludes with Todd Haley’s New Year’s Eve incident

Wake me when this ends.

This bad dream. This week-to-week drama filled, trailer park circus that has become the 2017 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Just when you thought it was safe to pick up a sports page, flip on sports radio station, or click onto a website (hopefully ours first) and decompress from the wild ride this team took us on, rest easy Steeler Nation, it’s Todd Haley to the rescue!

I waited until Wednesday afternoon to gather more information on the subject since, you know that’s what you should do when writing a story. Rushing to get something out that doesn’t have all the latest information is helpful when writing an opinion on a subject which I did not directly see, or was even near.

Not that you need to know all the facts. In today’s world, a tweet or text from somebody who says they saw something happen seems to be good enough to call it news!

With that said, as Tuesday rolled along and the story of Todd Haley being involved in some sort of dust up at a Pittsburgh bar located right across from Heinz Field called ‘Tequila Cowboy’, it became quite clear that this, above all the other circus-like events that have taken place to date should not shock me.

It didn’t.

As I scanned local talk radio, you got the usual hot takes on what was alleged to have happened. One radio show took a call from a guy who claimed to be there, telling a tale of how Haley’s wife ‘got into it’ with no less than three males at the scene, hitting each of them before the cops supposedly cuffed her.

The caller also claimed to have photos of the altercation. The radio host asked said caller to email them over, and he obliged. A quick check of his radio blog showed nothing posted as of 12pm Wednesday.

There were reports that Haley was arrested. That it was a domestic case. That Haley was hurt, that he suffered an injury to his hip. I think an alien invasion took place also, but I can’t corroborate it, but I’m sure somebody on Twitter already has.

Am I really writing about this?

Checks 2018 calendar. Sees the Steelers are still playing football.

Guess that answers that dumb question.

In a day and age where racing to get a story first supersedes getting it right, the one thing that came from the aftermath of all of this is that Todd Haley and, for that matter, his wife, have done their job to keep the drama-train running at full speed during the Steelers’ off week.

We still aren’t sure if Haley is hurt. The Pittsburgh Police said to a WTAE-TV reporter he was not injured, like was first reported and backed up by Burt Lauten, the head Steelers PR man.

Is this really the Steelers and not the 90’s Dallas Cowboys we are discussing?

Before I get all high and mighty about all of this, I want to say that Todd Haley and his wife should be allowed to go out and enjoy dinner and drinks after a game, not to mention on a New Year’s Eve.

Now having said that, Todd Haley has to know he’s a celebrity, or at least a well-known football coach in a city that has (at times) an unhealthy fixation with his employer. Given the off-the-field allegations that have swirled around Haley and his wife in the past, maybe, just maybe giving a little more thought into where to ring in the new year could have been applied in this situation.

It’s not like he was facing a 3-point deficit with under 30-seconds to play, with the ball and planning for only one play in one of three scenarios that could lead to needing more plays called.

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Maybe Todd Haley will learn a lesson from this. Perhaps Art Rooney II can have a talk with his employee and remind him decisions like this have only and handful of scenarios and they all pretty much are bad.

I’m seriously going to hide in a cave until next Sunday. Perhaps by next week there will be actual news to report on and not this crazy circus the Steelers have run all season.

When he’s not fighting Jedi-Scum across the galaxy, John Phillips finds time to write opinion columns for BTSC. He’s been a member of the community since 2014, slightly shorter than his joining the Galactic Empire in secrecy.