It’sobvious that Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II isn’t influenced by what he reads in columns like this one, or what he hears on sports radio.
If that was the case, he probably would’ve fired Mike Tomlin before Maurkice Pouncey’s game-opening snap was done sailing over Ben Roethlisberger’s head in the 2020 playoff loss to Cleveland.
However, if Rooney doesn’t listen to the fans or those of us in the media, maybe he’ll listen to Kyle Dubas. Because when the Penguins general manager was speaking about “parting ways” with the franchise’s longtime head coach named “Mike,” for a moment I started to get confused about which coach was being discussed.
“Two things can be true,” Dubas said Monday afternoon. “Someone could be a great head coach, and they’ll move on to become a great head coach on their next stop. And it could also be time for change here. That’s the conclusion that I come to.”
I blacked out when Dubas said that. I had an out-of-body experience. I wasn’t sure if he was still addressing hockey writers about severing ties with Mike Sullivan, or if he was phoning into a talk show to tell Rooney II why he should fire Tomlin.
That’s because I have said, heard, read and written exactly those same lines about Tomlin about 10,000 times over the past eight years.
Rooney needs to understand those words are just as true and accurate when they come from Dubas’ mouth — as a pro sports GM — as they are when they’re spewed forth by John Q. Yinzer on a postgame show or by yours truly in this column.
“Someone can be a great coach, and it might be time for them to go elsewhere and reapply,” Dubas reiterated. “You could use whatever analogy you want. Sometimes the class needs a new professor, and sometimes the professor needs a new class. … I think it’s just time.”
Yeah. Exactly. Did you catch that, Mr. Rooney? Keep that in mind in January if your team falls short of a playoff win for a ninth straight year because the same logic applies to Prof. Tomlin.
Essentially, Tomlin and Sullivan are the same person. Both men had championship-level success very early in their careers. Neither has had any playoff success for most of the last decade. Both teams have become stagnant and stale under their leadership without much hope of immediate improvement.
However, both men will get new jobs almost immediately once they become available. Sullivan is probably going to wind up with the Rangers, Bruins, Islanders or Canucks. The Bearsfruitlessly tried to trade for Tomlin this offseason. Trade rumors about him going to Washington were advanced after the 2023 season.
The Penguins aren’t allowed to get compensation for Sullivan. The Steelers would be for Tomlin. Rooney should’ve investigated that possibility with Chicago more than he did. He didn’t, because he’s petrified of the prospect of moving on from Tomlin.Rooney is scared of the Steelers having a losing record without him, and he is paralyzed by the prospect of what Tomlin might do elsewhere.
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And, yes, the reality is if Tomlin had gone to Washington or Chicago, he probably would’ve made them better — just as Dubas acknowledged Sullivan would probably do at his next stop in New York, Boston or Vancouver.
Did anyone really think the Penguins would be an Eastern Conference playoff threat under Sullivan next year, though? Anything more than a contender for a wild card at best? I didn’t.
With or without Aaron Rodgers, does anyone see the Steelers being better than their usual nine or 10 wins and another first-round playoff loss? I don’t.
Still, here we are with franchise satisfaction so long as they don’teven dip below .500, even with the likelihood of a ninth straight year without a playoff win.
As if 9-8 is really all that different from 8-9. As if qualifying as the seventh seed is all that much better than if the Steelers missed out on their annual first-round thrashing in Baltimore, Buffalo or Kansas City.
Since 1969 there have been five popes. Soon, I’ll have to update that reference to six. Yet there have still only been three Steelers head coaches in that span.
At the end of the 1991 season, Dan Rooney and Chuck Noll determined that it was “just time” for Noll to “step back and see what the flowers smell like.” Bill Cowher decided it was “just time” to walk away from coaching after an 8-8 campaign in 2006, one year removed from a Super Bowl win.
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Those men retired. Tomlin is 53 and has already been on the Steelers’ sideline for 18 years. Noll was almost 60 with 23 years of coaching the Steelers under his belt. Cowher actually left at 47. But given his late-first wife’s health issues, the age of his daughters and a burgeoning television career, Cowher made the right move for himself.
It doesn’t appear Tomlin is close to that point in his life. Same for Sullivan. They’ve both done championship work here. They’ll likely do good things elsewhere.
That doesn’t make Dubas’ theory wrong. In fact, you could make a really good argument that it was “just time” for both men to “reapply” their skills elsewhere years ago. I’ve called for it in both cases, and I’m certainly not changing my tune now that Sullivan is gone, despite the uncertainty that now exists over who his successor will be.
Just … not Torts, please, Kyle?
Rooney, though, I bet will need a lot more convincing to make a similar move on Tomlin. Much more than just one 8-9 season. Maybe even more than multiple 4-13 seasons.
That said, if Rooney is driving home after a loss at Acrisure Stadium next year, and he’s listening to the postgame show, and some guy named “Kyle from Cranberry” calls in, don’t change the channel.
Take a minute to hear what he says.