Do not count The Grandstander as being among the hordes of football fans who all think that they are as smart as, if not smarter than, Vince Lombardi, gasbag sports radio talk show hosts, and sportswriters who love to fire coaches. I have always been and will always remain a big fan of Mike Tomlin who yesterday stepped down as the Steelers head coach after 19 seasons at the helm. This was not a firing (the Steelers have not fired a head coach since 1968). This was Mike Tomlin's decision, and I am glad of that. No man who has served an organization so well for so long should be fired. This editorial in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says it far better than I.
Having said that, I can't say that this isn't a good thing to be happening at this point in Steelers history. After nineteen years, the message may get old and the ears in the room just might stop listening.
Tomlin took the Steelers to the Super Bowl twice in his first four years with the team, winning it once, but simple arithmetic then tells you that the team hasn't been to the Super Bowl for the last fifteen seasons. That is not "the Standard" that Tomlin himself had always set for his teams. As we all know, Tomlin had never had a losing season in his 19 years at the helm. As Art Rooney II said in his statement yesterday, that is an accomplishment that may never be duplicated. However, nine seasons that have featured an 0-7 record in the playoffs, with none of the losses being close ones, is not a small sample size, so perhaps it is time for new look for the Black and Gold.
On the topic of that non-losing seasons streak, let me point out that since Ben Roethlisberger retired, the Steelers have competed with these guys at quarterback, the most important position in the game: Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, and Aaron Rodgers. Trubisky and Rudolph are capable back-ups, Pickett was a terrific college QB at Pitt, but a busted first round draft pick who is now playing on his fourth team in four years, the jury may still be out on Fields, and while both Wilson and Rodgers are future Hall of Famers, they were pretty much washed up when they got to Pittsburgh. If the Steelers could put up winning records and make the playoffs with those guys at QB, surely Mike Tomlin deserves some of the credit for that.
So now the search begins for a new head coach. In his press conference today, Rooney made it clear that no one on the current staff is a candidate for the job. The Post-Gazette floated a number of names this morning of guys who would be interesting candidates. I am not qualified say who the right guy might be, but I hope that it will be a younger guy with some innovative ideas, much in the vein of what Sean McVey brought to and is still delivering to the Rams here in this decade. One of the names in the PG this morning that was interesting to me was former Steelers player (and Super Bowl hero) Antwaan Randle El, now the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for the Bears. If nothing else, Randle El could teach the knucklehead wide receivers that the Steelers have been attracting how to act.
As we all know, the Steelers have had only three head coaches in 57 seasons. All of those hires, Chuck Noll in 1969, Bill Cowher in 1992, and Tomlin in 2007 produced Super Bowl victories, and all of them were made under the supervision of Dan Rooney. Well, Dan left this world in 2017, and Steelers fans can only hope that Art II will have the same magic touch when it comes to selection the Next Guy. Oh, and it will really help a whole lot if the team could somehow find that quarterback who will be the "next Terry" or the "next Big Ben".
As for Mike Tomlin, reports are that he has no interest in coaching in 2026, so perhaps he wants to recharge for a year before returning to the sidelines. Or perhaps he might want to do a television gig, The networks will fall all over themselves to sign him up to deliver his patented "Tomlinisms" every week. Whatever he does, I'll be watching and wishing him well, and will always be grateful for what he brought to the Steelers for these past nineteen seasons.
Farewell, Coach.
No comments:
Post a Comment