Steelers owner sorry Grimm 'got wrong impression' about post

The Pittsburgh Steelers denied a rumor that assistant Russ Grimm was offered the head coaching job last weekend before the club withdrew the deal and offered it to Mike Tomlin instead.

Three sources close to the club indicated the Steelers first offered Grimm the job last Saturday, told him a contract was in place and that he could tell his family he would be the successor to Bill Cowher. And they did this, sources said, despite reports that Minnesota assistant Mike Tomlin would get the job.

By the following afternoon, however, Grimm was told the Steelers had decided to "go into another direction," which is when news of the hiring of Tomlin started to gain momentum.

Not exactly true, said Pittsburgh president Arthur Rooney II.

"We did discuss an offer Saturday," said Rooney. "So that part is true. Obviously, we made Russ a finalist and felt he could do the job. He was a very serious candidate.

"And we did discuss numbers Saturday. That's also true. But we also discussed numbers with Mike Tomlin's people, too. And the discussion of numbers was something we wanted to have out of the way before we made a final decision on it.

Mike Tomlin got the job, though reports had the job going to Russ Grimm. (AP)

"We did tell Russ nothing would be final until Sunday. I feel bad if he got the wrong impression."

Rooney said he didn't recall anyone telling Grimm it was OK to notify his family that a decision had been made because, as Rooney said, one had not been made -- until Sunday afternoon.

"We didn't want to do anything until we finalized things," he said. "I believe what he was told was that he could tell people that we talked about an agreement, but that there was nothing further."

According to sources, Grimm was devastated by his failure to gain the job and wasn't sure he wanted to continue coaching. Rooney confirmed he spoke with Grimm Monday and said that Grimm notified him he would like to be released from his contract with the club.

Rooney said he agreed to allow teams to speak to Grimm, but that he remained under contract with the Steelers.

Subsequently, the Cardinals hired Grimm on Tuesday as assistant head coach/offensive line coach. The Cardinals are coached by Ken Whisenhunt, who was Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator last season.