Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin Is The Catalyst To Jumpstart Meaningful Player Safety Reforms Before It Is Too Late

The legacy of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a rich tapestry of success. It is filled with Lombardi Trophies, division titles, and players in the Steelers Hall of Honor and the professional football Hall of Fame. Dan Rooney pioneered the Rooney Rule that forces teams to at least go through the machinations of interviewing minority candidates for head coaching positions. The Steelers organization has been a change agent in the NFL for decades.

It is, of course, a little more complicated than that. The Steelers have sometimes ushered in change for less than the noblest of reasons. Mel Blount was so good at what he did on the field by Super Bowl X, that the NFL decided to even the playing field. After Blount beat the Dallas Cowboys star wide receiver Drew Pearson like a drum all over the gridiron, the league made it illegal to touch a receiver more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. It forever changed offense in the NFL.

The 1970s Steelers were a great dynasty, but rumors of widespread steroid use escaped into the media as the roster thinned near the end of the decade. Jim Haslett confessed to steroid use in 2005 as a Buffalo Bills linebacker. The former Rookie of the Year conveniently blamed Pittsburgh.

“It started really in Pittsburgh,” Haslett claimed. “They got an advantage on a lot of football teams. They were so much stronger, late 70s, early 80s. They’re the ones who kind of started it. You had so many people using them because they were legal.”

Football banned steroid use in 1983. It was not specifically because of the Steelers' success. The NFL’s favorite punching bag, the Los Angeles Raiders, were in the midst of a renaissance, and the late Lyle Alzado became the poster boy for the change. The whispers about the unfair advantage the Steelers had from steroids echoed in a quarter-century Super Bowl drought.

The most significant change the NFL has made in the Super Bowl era is the player safety initiatives in the last decade. It has little to do with actual player safety and much more with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the lawsuit from veteran players who routinely had been denied disability despite valid claims. Justin Strzelczyk’s death in 2004 led to Dr. Bennet Omalu linking his death to CTE along with Andre Waters, Terry Long and Steelers Hall of Fame center Mike Webster in a report published in 2007.

On Wednesday, the inevitable other shoe finally dropped. The Mercury News, a daily newspaper based in San Jose, CA, published an editorial calling for the statewide ban on high school football. It cites a Boston University Study in conjunction with the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson’s research released on Friday that playing organized tackle football gives you a 61 percent greater risk for Parkinson’s disease or disease-related symptoms.

California is one of the country's most extensive pipelines for college football.  The state has tried to outlaw youth football in the past. Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2019 Assembly Bill 1 that severely restricted how youth football teams could practice as a compromise to a previous version that would have outlawed the sport for 12 and under players. The law went into effect in January 2021. No matter where you land on the political scale, football fans should take these rumblings seriously.

Mike Tomlin Thinks Steelers 2010 Defense Was Responsible For The NFL Player Safety Initiative

Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is one of the most respected voices in the NFL. When he appeared on the Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast, he told his former quarterback and his co-host Spencer T’eo that the 2010 Steelers might have been the most responsible for the NFL player safety initiatives. James Harrison was frustrated to near retirement, and the Steelers' refusal to ratify the 2011 CBA was seen in some circles as a protest for throwback football.  

Mr. Spock told James T. Kirk quite famously in the last Star Trek movie they did together that ‘only Nixon could go to China.’ For that very reason, Tomlin is the perfect voice to lead meaningful reforms in player safety. He loves hard-nosed football. Tomlin embraces as much contact as is allowed in the current NFL. He has watched from the sideline as Ryan Shazier’s career ended on a routine tackle gone wrong. Any reform that comes with Tomlin's endorsement would be meaningful. 

Tomlin is a fantastic communicator, and no matter what anyone thinks of his recent performance as the Steelers head coach, even the staunchest Tomlin critic will agree he is the undefeated world champion at press conferences. Fans and critics might not like the answer they get, but Tomlin is blunt. He doesn’t sugarcoat answers to spare anyone’s feelings, and now more than ever, the NFL needs Tomlin’s clarity. The best part is, he would not have to stop coaching the Steelers.

Tomlin’s current presence on the competition committee puts him in the perfect position to change the game. His reputation for coaching physical football should lend weight to any recommendation. It might require him to get in front of a microphone more during the offseason. Still, if players and coaches want meaningful changes that will actually make a difference, Tomlin is the man to be at the forefront and then communicate with the media.

The NFL is observing as the current rebuttals to the Boston University study make their rounds to determine what's most effective. Currently, the players are just bigger and faster in 2023, and the equipment can't keep up. There is some truth to that, but Pat Freiermuth and Kenny Pickett's oversized helmets seem safer and much more advanced than what was available even three years ago. 

The fact is that the league has meaningful equipment options. The soft covers players wear in training camps all over the NFL do an excellent job of limiting concussions in training camps. Why are they not being used in games? The cold hard truth is that the NFL's brand recognition might look less shiny on the side of the softcover. 

The NFL is interested in the money they make from the game of football. Players are interested in making money playing the game of football at the highest level. Fans are interested in paying money to watch the highest level of football. When player safety starts impacting fantasy football and gamblers, the NFL will be forced to take it seriously. 

The current collective bargaining agreement runs until 2030, so the NFLPA needs more leverage to force change. Based on the history of that organization, it is questionable how effective it could be. Tomlin and the competition committee are the best hope for the league to effect real change that players and coaches would support. Change that fans would tolerate and that owners could live with. The NFL needs leadership on this issue. It is time for the Steelers to provide it. 

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Do you believe Tomlin and the competition committee should take charge of player safety? Let me know what you think. Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubasq. 

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