We’ve reached the point where many former Pittsburgh Steelers players, national media members and Mike Tomlin true believers are finally ready to admit that it’s time for a change at the head coaching position in Pittsburgh.
After 18 full seasons — 14 of which have ended without a playoff victory.
• Former Steeler Ben Roethlisberger on his “Footbahlin’” podcast: “You don’t fire a guy like Coach Tomlin,” Roethlisberger said. “He’s a Hall of Fame head coach. He’s respected. What you do is, you come to an understanding and agreement. It’s like, ‘Hey, listen, I think it’s probably best for both of us.’ … Give him a statue.Do whatever you’ve got to do, because he deserves it. But it’s time to find that next guy.”
• Former Steeler and ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark: “Mike Tomlin is not getting this team prepared to play up to their potential. There should be a conversation between Mike Tomlin and Omar Khan. Not if we should fire Mike Tomlin. I’vesaid this time and time again: Mike Tomlin is unfireable. In my opinion. But maybe it’s best that Mike Tomlin’s voice is elsewhere. Maybe it’s best that you tear this entire thing down.”
• NFL Network personality and renowned Tomlin apologist Rich Eisen: “I am wondering if everybody goes back to their separate corners and decides that’s where we’re going to stay. In separate corners. And that the Steelers and the Tomlin administration are over,” Eisen said Monday. “I’m not laying this on the coach.I think the coach isasdynamiteas they come.I wonder if he’s sitting around wondering, ‘This isn’t working for me.’”
• ESPN’s Adam Schefter: “If a change ever occurs there, it’ll be because Mike Tomlin doesn’t want to be back there,” Schefter said Monday on the “Pat McAfee Show.” “They are not firing Mike Tomlin. That’s not going to happen. We are not going to get one of these announcements that the Steelers have relieved Mike Tomlin of his duties.”
Welcome to the party, fellas. Grab a beer. Stay a while. At least you are finally willing to engage the notion of the Steelers moving on from Tomlin after eight straight seasons without a playoff win.
But we need to get away from this new narrative before it begins. We need to nip this new verbiage in the bud before it grows.
This “It’s up to Tomlin to leave” nonsense needs to stop.
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The excuses to keep Tomlin used to be:
• Don’tyou know Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season?! (Yes, we have all heard that. At this point, I think there is a sign at the new airport informing people from out of town if they are somehow unaware.)
• Who else would the Steelers get if they fire Tomlin?!(Um, somebody else. Just like he was somebody else when he replaced Bill Cowher, and Cowher as somebody else when he replaced Chuck Noll.)
• What if Tomlin goes somewhere else and wins a Super Bowl?!(So what if he does? He ain’t winning another one here.)
Now the new rebuttal against the calls to fire Tomlin is to agree with the need for a change but demand that Tomlin initiate or at least cosign on the move.
Are we serious? Why? What if he doesn’t want to leave? What if he prefers to stay? What if he likes his current contract and rate of pay?
Is Art Rooney II not allowed to fire him if he ever wanted to? Doesn’t he own the franchise?
We really don’t have to take the incremental step from “The Steelers would be insane to fire Mike Tomlin” to “It’sOK for the Steelers to move from Mike Tomlin, but only if Mike is OK with it too.”
No.Give it a rest.
It’s as if all of these people are arguing for the divorce, but only if Tomlin is the one who files the papers.
That’s a joke.
Let’s start with you, Adam Schefter. Why can’t/won’t/shouldn’t the Steelers fire Mike Tomlin? Why is a change only possible if Tomlin may eventually decide that he “doesn’t want to be back there.”Why can’t Rooney make a coaching change if he thinks it’s best for the franchise that he owns, independent of Tomlin’s opinion?
Big Ben, why don’t you “fire a guy like Mike Tomlin?” How come? You were a Hall of Fame-bound QB. Eight of your last 10 healthy seasons ended without a playoff win under that coach.
Let’s worry about Tomlin deserving “a statue”down the line. Right now, he deserves a pink slip.
Ryan, in the words of Cousin Eddie from “Christmas Vacation”: “You serious, Clark?”
The “conversation”between Tomlin and Khan doesn’t need to happen. The conversation needs to occur between Tomlin and Rooney, and it needs to be a one-way street.
And, Rich Eisen, if youaren’t“laying it on the coach,”then who are laying it on? Who is in charge if not Tomlin?
The owner? The same owner who apparently isn’t even allowed tomake a decisionon relieving one ofhis employeesof his duties until that employee is done “sitting in his own corner”and finishes deliberating if “this is working”for him?”
What are we talking about? What bizarro dimension of reality is this? Why does a coach who has lost 11 of his last 17 games and all five of his most recent playoff games get to write his own ticket out of town? How does that work?
Look, I agree with all four of those guys in one respect. Rooney isn’t going to fire Tomlin this year. And, honestly, he probably has the same mentality that all four of them do — that it’s up to Tomlin exclusively to write his own final chapter in Pittsburgh.
Whenever he wants that to happen.
But just because all those guys agree doesn’t make it right. Tomlin has made plenty of wrong decisions over the past eight years.
Deciding on his own exit strategy shouldn’t be the next one.
Listen: Tim Benz and Jeff Erickson host their latest fantasy sports podcast