How do you know it’s been a slow off season thus far? Steeler Nation is still facing all kinds of hullabaloo over anonymous comments regarding LaMarr Woodley’s level of fitness. Ryan Clark has had his say on the matter. Antonio Brown has even commented on the matter.

Brown said: “For guys to throw a guy like LaMarr Woodley, a Pro Bowl player, under the bus just shows you the men we had in our locker room. And it’s something that we want to get corrected for 2013 …

“It you are going to speak out about something, be a man and claim it. But don’t go in the newspaper speaking out about our Pro Bowl linebacker and not mentioning your name. Then other guys supporting it … it goes to show you that we wasn’t a team in 2012. So some of the things we got to iron out and we’re looking to get those things corrected.”

And now former Steeler Hines Ward wades into the discussion on the state of the Steelers locker room.

“When you lose so much leadership in the locker room, that’s when things present itself like that,” Ward said. “Guys start finger-pointing, calling out other guys. That is not the Steeler way. We’ve always had a rule: We are a band of brothers. We’ve always collectively kept everything in house. … But there was no finger-pointing and calling each other out. That’s a total disarray, a locker room in disarray.”

Ward has a point, although it may be lost in the sour-grapes overtones of his remarks. Like this year, the Steelers faced age and salary cap issues in the off season. Team leaders like Ward, James Farrior, and Aaron Smith were cut as a result. It seems that losing the long-standing offensive (Ward) and defensive (Farrior) in one off season may have been too much for this team to handle.

It’s time for someone on this team to take a stand and reign in the locker room situation. Yes, we know there are issues in the locker room. Players don’t need to tell me that there are issues in the locker room. I figured that out when an anonymous player went into Mean Girl mode. Hopefully there is someone working behind the scenes to get the Steelers house in order. It’s bad enough they are being compared to the Jets.