Over his 19 seasons as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin uttered many memorable phrases, cliches, metaphors and so on. One of those that immediately resonated this week with me was when he talked about his team “not seeking comfort” in certain things. Oddly enough, I can’t help but wonder if this wasn’t part of the problem for Tomlin and his players.
In Mike DeFabo’s excellent piece today in The Athletic, he details the final meeting Tomlin had with his players. It came less than 24 hours after yet another playoff failure but was different. It was different, because ‘Coach T’ told them he was done. The reaction of the players was something I found interesting and almost fascinating. You rarely hear professional athletes react to a coach leaving the way T.J. Watt and Joey Porter, Jr reportedly did. These reactions are typically more relatable to high school or college coaches walking away, not the pro guys. But that’s when it hit me, maybe this has been part of the problem all along.
Back in 1519, Hernan Cortes arrived in the New World and reportedly burned his ships (he actually sank them and used them for parts but I digress) in an effort to motivate his men. With the ships gone, there was no turning back. The men either fought for their survival in this new place or they died. In other words, Cortes was not ‘seeking comfort.’ I realize that a moment such as this and coaching a professional football team are two different things but I think you see where I’m going.
T.J. Watt is on record as stating that staying in Pittsburgh and playing for Mike Tomlin was the major factor in his most recent deal. “I don’t want to play for anybody else than Mike T” was the actual quote. It was no surprise therefore that Watt’s very audible “No!” when Tomlin made his announcement was the first thing that DeFabo mentioned. Other players soon followed and that led to a line at the door which resembled a receiving line at a funeral. My point in this and the Cortes story is pretty simple; this team got too comfortable.
That doesn’t mean that they weren’t dedicated or that they didn’t put in the time. It means that when you get too comfortable, your guard drops. You stop doing the little things that got you where you are. Things become too relaxed and in a game where every play and every second matters, that is something you just can’t do. I have no doubt in my mind that when those players – especially the veterans – heard they would have a new coach in 2026, that ‘comfortable feeling’ went away immediately.
New practice plans… New offense, new defense… Are we still going to Latrobe for Camp? I have no doubt those thoughts were almost instantaneous in many of these guys simply because change often brings new things. And new things can be scary. Look, there are a lot of reasons why the Steelers have dropped seven straight postseason games so I’m not suggesting in any way that this was the only culprit.
I honestly believe Mike Tomlin himself knew this. It’s why he talked about “not seeking comfort” in certain things but there are moments when the hardest things to realize are right in front of our face. Tomlin’s team wasn’t meant to be comfortable but that’s exactly what they became.
