The NFL’s Most Perplexing Victory Squad
Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for 17 years, has been the subject of an incongruence in recent years. It operates along these lines: If you tune in to a call-in radio programme broadcasting from Western Pennsylvania, you will hear people portraying Tomlin as a lacklustre player who is unworthy of leading one of the NFL’s historic teams. You may get a different impression, though, if you observe how NFL players look up to Tomlin or hear NFL coaches discuss how he practices his profession. Tomlin is like Vince Lombardi, only more flamboyant.
There’s a new but connected contradiction this season. Every week that goes by, that number solidifies into part of Tomlin’s legend: the Steelers win the game, not the football team’s territorial struggle. They became the only team in NFL history to have a winning record despite being outgained in yards in all eight of their opening games. They are now the first club to sit above.500 after being outgained in each of their first nine games. They have a small margin of error at 6-3, right in the middle of the AFC playoff competition. Tomlin is accountable for fielding a team that is unable to move the ball or prevent its opponent from doing so consistently.
Tomlin is a suitable coach to lead a poor team with one of the best records in football. If there wasn’t enough fodder for debate on whether Mike Tomlin is to blame for the Steelers’ success, failure, or both, this wouldn’t be a Mike Tomlin year. Everyone is correct enough: Tomlin is obstinate and bears some of the blame for the Steelers’ numerous missteps during his leadership. If one measures a coach by his or her capacity to prepare any group of fifty-three players for a single Sunday game in a vacuum, he’s also among the greatest football coaches in history and among the best in the profession at the moment. Tomlin is a legend and a pain in his own ass.
Football fans hold Tomlin in the greatest regard imaginable. Tomlin is “the model of consistency in this league,” according to head coach of the Green Bay Packers Matt LaFleur, who made this statement to reporters last week. “If you ask any coach or player in the league, I don’t think there’s anybody that won’t respect him,” he continued. This feeling is typically evident in postgame handshakes, as rival players approach Tomlin in a manner evoking the reception Tom Brady experienced in his latter years in the league. Another frequent occurrence is former Steelers speaking with the media and sharing the lessons they learned from Tomlin. Journeyman backup Joshua Dobbs is currently the talk of the Twin Cities thanks to his productive fill-in job with
It’s simply inconceivable to see Tomlin as anything other than an all-time coach when you combine those personal qualities with the fact that he consistently wins more games than he loses and won a Super Bowl in 2009. It’s incredible what he’s accomplished this season with a really dismal Steelers club. It’s among the best stretches anyone has ever accomplished in terms of coaching alone—taking the players you have and winning games with them in spite of their shortcomings. Furthermore, Tomlin ought to receive more praise because the Steelers have missing a number of their top players for sizable stretches of the now-half-completed season. He has experience with this; in 2019, he led the Steelers to the postseason until the final week of play.
