Life Comes at You Fast - Steelers Eliminated, Tomlin Steps Down
Screenshot via The Pivot Podcast Youtube Page.
Well…that sucked really bad. In truth, since that playoff loss to the Cleveland *expletive* Browns, this has sucked really bad. The league has literally dawned a new era in the meantime, and everyone that was around the last time the Steelers were truly relevant has retired or is on their way out. That’s a tough pill to swallow. This post isn’t going to have very many smart football observations, nor will it have any speculation about who the next head coach of the team is going to be, so if that’s what you’re looking for, perhaps check back later this week. For right now, I’m just going to focus on the last few days and how it makes me feel about the team moving forward. Just in case you’re not interested in 1000 emotional words from a grown ass man, I can save you some time: I’m feeling optimistic.
Monday Night’s 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans was as thorough an ass beating I’ve seen in a Steelers playoff loss, to be honest. You can certainly have your pick of any of the last 4 playoff appearances they’ve had, but this one felt like the worst to me. It’s apropos that Mike Tomlin chose to step away from coaching literally 12 hours after the game ended, not that I think he’s a bad coach or somehow not built for this. In fact, now that he’s gone, I’ll argue the opposite: I don’t think there was anyone more built for this specific assignment over the last 19 years than Mike Tomlin. The assignment of being Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Think about the gravity of that, and the shoes that he had to fill back in 2007. And he led us to two Super Bowls in his first four years.
I’m sick of this narrative that he inherited his ring from Bill Cowher…that’s just a stale and decrepit take. I think, perhaps, the HUMAN element of football is often lost on the average fan. Beyond Xs and Os, the right head coach is responsible for managing the attitudes of an insane amount of humans from players to assistant coaches to equipment managers to players families to etc etc etc, I could go all day long. The head coach is responsible for managing a lot of personalities, and not for nothing, but some of them are named Antonio Brown and Chase Claypool. And Deebo. And I love James Harrison forever, but can you imagine being a first year head coach and your first assignment is this big sumbitch…
One thing I’ve become SO accustomed to, and maybe yinz can relate maybe not, is that seemingly every player wanted to be a Pittsburgh Steeler so they could play for Mike Tomlin. The impact he has had on the players he has coached is undeniable in his league-wide reputation given the sheer number of players he’s dealt with over the years. We need to accept that as we sit here today, there’s probably a significant number of players that no longer want to be on our roster. I’m speculating, not speaking for these men, but you tell me who from this list you think still wants to be here now that Tomlin is gone: Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, DK Metcalf, Jalen Ramsey, Kenneth Gainwell - obviously Aaron Rodgers is gone, and there’s 21 other players I haven’t mentioned that are now unrestricted free agents. In my opinion, scenarios exist where none of these guys are on this roster in 2027 as insane as that may seem.
To some degree, people are right that Steelers fans are about to learn a tough lesson about the rest of the league, I just think people are wrong about the lesson that will be learned. In recent years, we’ve gotten outcoached quite often from an Xs and Os perspective (especially in the playoffs), but I think that’s because of Tomlin’s stubbornness in what is comfortable to him, not because he doesn’t know ball. With that being said, I don’t think it’s going to be hard to replace what Mike Tomlin brings from a game-planning and an Xs and Os standpoint. There’s guys all over the league and elsewhere that could probably do a better job. But not every building has a head coach that everybody wants to play for. Mike McDaniel and Brian Flores are tremendous football minds in their own rights - I’d be thrilled to have them on board as OC/DC - but as we’ve seen with their stints in Miami, not everybody wants to play for those guys. And when you’re trying to recruit free agents…where do you think is the more attractive destination: Miami or Pittsburgh? Mike Tomlin has been the big selling point for this place for a while now. It won’t be like this forever, but for right now, we have no selling points besides dusty trophies. We better go out and find some real ball LOVERS in this year’s draft, or 2026 will easily be the worst year of my Steelers fandom.
To be clear, as much as I love the guy, it was time for Mike Tomlin to go, and if 2026 is the worst year of my fandom, that is okay. That’s the cause and effect of this great business. It’s better than being the (roughly) 14th best team in the league for the 11th year in a row. And who knows, maybe we have some kinda Ben-Johnson/Chicago-Bears-like turnaround and the doom and gloom will be for naught. I actually have some excitement about following along with this head coaching search - I’ve never really had to do that. But mostly, I’m just sad. Another chapter of my childhood comes to a close, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that the next hire is almost certainly not going to be as in-tune with human beings as Mike Tomlin was. That’s a crucial part of coaching, and I think the Steelers will ultimately suffer for it in the immediate future.
If you’ve made it this far into the post, then you’re probably an absolute sicko like me, and I appreciate you for joining me in fandom. The night is always darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.
To Mike Tomlin: you’re Canton-bound, brother. On September 27, 2015, I was screaming at you to get your attention before a game against the Rams, and you threw me a peace sign. It wasn’t much, but I was giddy as all hell, and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time. Crazy to think that was over a decade ago. Without question: the coolest coach in the history of the league, and my favorite coach of all time. Thanks for the memories.
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