It's been 13 months since Terry Bradshaw described Steelers coach Mike Tomlin as a "great cheerleader, not a great coach."

Here are the facts: Tomlin just finished his 11th season in Pittsburgh and in that time he is 116-60 in the regular season to go along with seven playoff appearances, two Super Bowl appearances and one Lombardi Trophy. Also a fact: Tomlin, like every other coach not named Bill Belichick, is susceptible to suspect late-game decision-making. We saw it most recently in the Steelers' loss to the Jaguars in the divisional round.

That said, Tomlin is one of the NFL's best coaches, which is reflected in his longevity and his record. But Bradshaw, the Hall of Famer who won four Super Bowls with the Steelers, has some weird issue with the coach and the organization, which again manifested itself last week after the team parted ways with offensive coordinator Todd Haley and promoted wide receivers coach Randy Fichtner.

"Haley was a great play-caller," Bradshaw told Sporting News' Vinnie Iyer. "They had great success together. For the life of me, I have not figured out why they fired Todd Haley. Didn't they put up 42 points against the Jaguars?"

To be clear: Haley wasn't fired. His contract expired and the Steelers didn't renew it. There were also reports of friction between Haley and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has a much better relationship with Fichtner. And while that may not be a legitimate reason to let Haley walk, it's entirely different than the Steelers firing him because he was terrible at his job. That's just not true and Roethlisberger confirmed as much last week.

"Look at the track record -- top-5 offense every year I thought was very impressive," the quarterback said. "What he brought to us with the playcalling, things like that, was awesome. I thank him for everything he did and now we get to play him twice a year and we'll see what happens."

Haley was hired by the Browns shortly after leaving the Steelers.

Meanwhile, Bradshaw continued his misguided line of thinking.

"It would seem to me more like the head coach has to recognize the people he's hiring to run that defense aren't doing the job," Bradshaw said. "Firing Haley made no sense. What did he do wrong? That's why he was hired right away by Cleveland. It will take a while for (Ben) and the new coordinator to get their rhythm together. Each coordinator sees things differently, so it will be a different way of calling plays in the same offense. We'll see how fast they adjust to it."

The Steelers lost their best player, linebacker Ryan Shazier, to a serious back injury in December and the defense was never the same. That, too, may have had something to do with Keith Butler not being able to run the defense he envisioned before the season. Either way, fair or not, Tomlin will be continue to be criticized until the Steelers can beat the Patriots, something they failed to do in Week 15 -- and the AFC Championship rematch never materialized because the Steelers fell at home to the Jaguars in the divisional round.

No word if Tomlin will issue the same rebuttal he did a year ago, the first time Bradshaw weighed in on the state of the franchise, but we'll revisit them here anyway for the sheer comedy value.

"I appreciate the support, but criticism and critique are very much a part of our business and it's an element of our business that, as a competitor, I embrace," Tomlin said in Dec. 2016. ... "Now that being said, terms like 'cheerleader guy,' to me, maybe fall outside the bounds of critique or criticism. They fall probably more into the area of disrespect and unprofessional. But what do I know? I grew up a Dallas fan, particularly a Hollywood Henderson fan."

For those not old enough to get the reference, Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson played for the Cowboys from 1975-1979, and famously joked Before Super Bowl XIII against the Steelers that Bradshaw "couldn't spell cat if you spotted him the c and the a."