How many dimes would you have if you got one for every time you heard a media person say “Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season?” The answer is that you would have a bunch of dimes. Like, a seriously large amount of dimes to be honest. And while that tidbit of information is both important and to be respected, it’s something that A. You never hear Mike Tomlin himself discuss and B. No one close to the Steelers cares about because it doesn’t mean a thing if you aren’t winning playoff games.
The national media has a massive infatuation with Coach Tomlin and why shouldn’t they? He’s a great guy and a damn good football coach. They also cover 31 other NFL teams and they swing by the Steel City once or twice a year, get their sound bytes and move on. They then portray themselves to know everything there is about Tomlin and the team while missing a lot of the underlying issues.
Below is an excerpt from long-time NFL writer Peter King. For years, King wrote ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ for Sports Illustrated and now he does ‘Football Morning in America’ for Pro Football Talk/NBC Sports. Few journalists today are as connected as King is. The following is an excerpt from his weekly piece where he answers fan mail.
Not a Tomlin fan. From Ed Borkowski: “As a 50-plus year Steeler fan I wish you media guys would stop exalting Mike Tomlin. It’s like a parent bragging about a child never failing elementary and secondary school with a C average. He has no coaching tree, can’t win a challenge, plays down to the competition, waits three years to replace a useless offensive coordinator, wastes more talent than any head coach ever. Has had no playoff success except with Bill Cowher’s team. All I want is to replace my dinosaur head coach with an aggressive younger head coach who has some creativity.”
King’s Response: Ed, I was in Pittsburgh Thursday for the Steelers’ loss to New England, and you’re certainly not alone. Listening to talk radio a bit on my trip and feeling the fans there Thursday—with a second straight home loss to a bad team—I wonder if owner Art Rooney might be thinking of changing coaches. But I’m shocked, overall, at the lack of respect for a coach who has averaged 10.9 wins per year in 17 seasons. A “C average”? That’s insane. If Tomlin hits the open market, you’ll see how many owners in the NFL would be chasing him. Having said that, after seven years without a playoff win, and with the struggles now, and with the loafing you see on multiple plays from would-be star receivers, I do think it’s a legit question about whether he’s reached his expiration date with this franchise. But I’ll tell you why—if Tomlin would be on board with hiring an aggressive and cutting-edge offensive coordinator this off-season—I think he should stay.
One: He has not lost the team. The players still respect him, though he’s got to get more consistent effort from Diontae Johnson and George Pickens.
Two: It’s hard to win in the NFL. That sounds elementary, but it’s odd to me that so few people respect how hard it is to keep a team in contention every single season, and the Steelers have been first or second in the division in 13 of his 16 full seasons. Bill Belichick has eight losing seasons in 29 years of head coaching. Tomlin has zero in 16 seasons, with this one still in the balance.
Something else in the Tomlin column:
Tomlin post-Ben Roethlisberger: 16-14, .533.
Matt LaFleur post-Aaron Rodgers: 6-6, .500
Belichick post-Tom Brady: 28-35, .444
Arthur Smith post-Matt Ryan: 13-17, .433.
Joe Judge/Brian Daboll post-Eli Manning: 24-39-1, .383.
No one cares about the history, which I get. Do people care about free agents who come to Pittsburgh, in small or large part, because they want to play for Tomlin? Patrick Peterson did. I do think Tomlin’s got to have a plan for the offense that isn’t just cosmetic, and for trying to save Kenny Pickett. If he does, I’d vote for a contract extension for Tomlin. That’s important, in my mind. If he doesn’t, if he just wants to shuffle the current offensive staff without choosing an overhaul, then it might be time to move on. [END]
Let me be crystal clear here, I’m not advocating one way or another that Mike Tomlin no longer be the head coach after this season. I have always believed that a person can be in one place too long and I wonder if Tomlin isn’t in that position as King also opines. However, what King points out here is fair but as is the case with most in the national media, he’s missing the larger point.
Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers do not care that Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. This is not how he or we measure success. Not even close as a matter of fact. We care about winning postseason games and getting to Super Bowls. This is not some other NFL city where being 9-4 gets you a parade, this is Pittsburgh where the standard is much greater than that.
King also misses the boat when he talks about free agents. While it’s terrific that other players like Patrick Peterson want to play for Tomlin, how often has that ever led to success during his tenure? Peterson is a future Hall of Famer who is on the down-side of his career. How does this help get to postseason victories and Super Bowl appearances? Larry Ogunjobi wanted to play for Tomlin and so did many other veterans in recent years. Know how many postseason wins they’ve experienced? ZERO.
King also compares Tomlin to Bill Belichick citing that Belichick has had several losing seasons during his 29 years of being a head coach. What he fails to mention is that Belichick (who is 9-3 all-time against Tomlin) also has six Super Bowl Titles to Tomlin’s one. You think we Steelers’ fans would gladly have a couple of awful seasons in exchange for a few more Lombardi Trophies?? You’re damn right we would.
As for his stats on ‘success after franchise QBs have left,’ again those are fair numbers, but King also omits Pete Carroll after Russell Wilson and John Harbaugh after Joe Flacco. For the record, Carroll is 15-15 since Wilson left and Harabugh has done quite well since Flacco left.
King’s overall opinion on Tomlin largely echoes that of many in the national media where bits and pieces are used to prop up positions. Unfortunately many of these national folks don’t have the time to truly get information necessary to offer positions other than what is “popular.” For the record, I like King. I’ve read him since he took over for the late Paul Zimmerman many years ago but sometimes he and many others just don’t get the whole story. Steelers Nation knows what it has in Mike Tomlin and just because ‘every other franchise would scoop him up immediately’ doesn’t mean a damn thing to those of us tired of average seasons and no playoff wins.
