Head coaches come and go with regularity in the National Football League, but not in Pittsburgh.
There might not be a job in the entire country with less turnover than that of the head coach of the Steelers.
From 1969 to 1991, Chuck Noll guided the team to four Super Bowl trophies. Then, Bill Cowher followed the Hall of Famer by steering the franchise for 15 years, which included another Super Bowl title two years ago.
Thirty-eight years. Five Lombardi Trophies. Two coaches.
Cowher retired after the team finished 8-8 last season so he could spend more time with his family and work as a football analyst for CBS. The Steelers surprised many by choosing Mike Tomlin, the former secondary coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and defensive coordinator of the Vikings, over popular in-house assistants.
The team?s ownership family, the Rooneys, has a penchant for loyalty, but Tomlin said that he can?t rest on his previous triumphs if he wants to have a long career at the helm of one of the game?s most successful franchises.
“They?re great people to work for, make a great environment to come to work everyday,” Tomlin said. “You don?t approach it, as just because there?s been great job security here, that you take that element of it for granted. We?ve got to win games. We?ve got to compete.”
So far, that?s exactly what the 35-year-old has done since being hired Jan. 22. He has guided the Steelers to first place in the AFC North Division with a record of 5-2, just ahead of the Ravens (4-3) who face Pittsburgh at Heinz Field on Monday night at 8:30 in front of a national television audience on ESPN.
But Tomlin refuses to compare himself to Noll and Cowher, whose names are revered with civic pride in the Steel City.
“The standards that I set for myself and this team are higher thanany of those that will be imposed by anybody else,” Tomlin said. “We don?t worry about living up to ghosts of the past. We?re just trying to win championships like everybody else, and we appreciate the opportunity we have. We come here every day. We intend on doing that, pursuing that, and the chips fall where they fall.”
In little time, he has carved out a niche in blue-collar town as a tough-love disciplinarian who is also one of the guys.
“I think part of being a coach is being what you need to be in certain situations. And, by that, I mean sometimes guys need a pat on the back, sometimes, they may need a proverbial kick in the butt,” Tomlin said. “I just think that that?s what coaching is. In terms of a style or culture that I try to portray to our football team, we?re a fundamentalist football team, meaning that we focus on how we do what we do, as opposed to what we do. We?re not going to try to trick anybody. We?re going to try to win by execution.”
It has not gone unnoticed.
“I don?t watch them that close to see the difference between coach Cowher [and Tomlin], I just know they?re playing the type of Steeler football they?ve always played,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “[They] play great defense, run the ball very well and do the things they?re doing.”
