Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin appeared on The Pivot Podcast on Tuesday with Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. Tomlin is known as the king of the press conference and is one of the most entertaining coaches in the NFL at the podium. Tuesday's appearance gave people the opportunity to see him in a relaxed atmosphere and it is a fantastic watch. You can find the entire podcast on YouTube here.
An hour into the interview, Crowder addressed one of the most infamous incidents in Tomlin’s career.
"Coach I got to ask you man, I’m friends with Jacoby Jones. Why you try to trip that man on the sideline?"
"People that know me and know the level of respect that I have for the game and the men that play it, then I don’t feel the need to explain it to them. And those that don’t know me, I just assume they think the worst to me. I don’t care. You know what I mean? But, man, like, heck no, man. I wasn’t interested in getting run over, man. Like, it was one jumbotron in that stadium, and I like to see the contour of the coverage unit and the kick return unit come together. And so, I’m routine, to be quite honest. I’m routine in a lot of stuff, but I stand on the line. I watch the ball get kicked. I make sure that we’re not offsides, and then I watch the jumbotron. And so, in that instance, we were kicking left to right, and the jumbotron was behind our kick unit, and so we kicked the ball off, and I’m looking up at the contour of the deal, and somebody falls down."
YouTube: The Pivot Podcast
The incident in question happened on Thanksgiving night in Baltimore on November 27th, 2013. Jones was in the process of breaking a huge return for the Baltimore Ravens when depending on your perspective. Tomlin and Jones came into contact along the Steelers sideline. Tomlin continued:
"And so, when somebody fell down, almost, like, leaned in on the jumbotron, you know what I mean? We got trouble. And then I saw a double team block, and I said, oh, no. So, I’m looking at the jumbotron. I was watching TV. Like, I’m watching a horror movie. Like, oh, no, that’s bad. Okay. What people don’t talk about is the stuff that on the jumbotron is backwards. It’s flipped. And so I’m watching the jumbotron. It looks like he’s running up the right sideline, but actually he’s coming up our sideline. So, I’m processing it. I’m serious. Once the ball got kicked, I’m locked in on the jumbotron. I’m watching the structure of it break down, and it has got my attention, and I’m looking at man, I’m walking at it, and I’m looking, and in my mind, I’m thinking, he’s going up their sideline, because the jumbotron pictures backwards. I didn’t realize I was in danger, man, until I saw myself on the jumbotron. No joke. I saw myself under jumbotron. I dodged Jacoby because I saw myself. I never saw him. I was like, Oh. And he went by me. Yeah, I saw myself as he was running down the sideline. I came into the jumbotron, but it did make him step inside, and that gave a better angle for the tackler. Certainly, I don’t deny that. And I paid $100,000 for that mistake."
Tomlin who is a long-time member of the competition committee in the NFL reiterates that he had no malicious intent during the play. Ultimately the Steelers lost the game 22-20 that night and it did not change the outcome for the Ravens. The national media called for draft picks to be taken from the Steelers and treated the incident for a few days like it was Spygate. New England Patriots fans in and around Bristol, CT especially were conveniently exaggerating the scandal as the worst incident in the NFL’s recent history. Tomlin addressed the incident and apologized, then paid his fine and moved on. It was an isolated incident in an otherwise stellar coaching career that is the epitome of integrity.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? Do you believe Mike Tomlin’s explanation? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.
