Mark Madden's Hot Take: Blaming the offensive coordinator a relatively new pastime

I’ve been listening to sports talk radio since it started. (The first local show was probably Myron Cope’s, which started in 1968. John Cigna also dabbled.)

The Steelers have been through a lot of quarterbacks in that time.

When the quarterback faltered back when — whether it was Terry Bradshaw, or Bubby Brister, or Neil O’Donnell, or Kordell Stewart, or Tommy Maddox — hosts and callers never blamed the offensive coordinator. You rarely heard his name mentioned. Few knew who he was.

But now, it’s a phenomenon: The Steelers’ offensive coordinator is Public Enemy No. 1.

Hey, maybe it is Matt Canada’s fault, or Randy Fichtner’s before him.

Maybe it’s scapegoating, or exaggeration, or mostly fiction.

Maybe it’s the quarterback’s fault, or the head coach’s, or lack of adequate talent.

Maybe Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen are going to run the AFC for the next 10-12 years. Like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger before them.

Sure, times are different now. Bradshaw called his own plays. But Stewart didn’t.

The game’s different, but it’s still football.

You currently just don’t want to blame the head coach, not very much, and you don’t want to blame the quarterback at all. (The former is at least partly dictated by knowing the head coach will never be fired.)

But do you really think the Steelers’ offensive philosophy and game plan is autonomously dictated by Canada? You’d have to be an absolute fool to believe that.

By the way, Bradshaw didn’t even have an offensive coordinator till 1983, his last season, in which he played only one game. It was Tom Moore. Here’s betting Bradshaw didn’t listen to him.

Actually, now that I’ve looked it up, I do vaguely recall a bit of complaining about offensive coordinator Ray Sherman in 1998. Kevin Gilbride, too, in 1999-2000.

I may have participated. It’s a long three hours, or whatever my show’s length was back then.