The Pittsburgh Steelers crashed back down to earth after winning the Super Bowl in the 2005 season. The team posted an 8-8 record, missed the playoffs, and Head Coach Bill Cowher decided to step away after the 2006 season. After a search for a new coach, Minnesota Vikings Defensive Coordinator Mike Tomlin was chosen to be the new leader of the franchise. Larry Foote was a veteran on the team and was excited to play for the young and energetic coach.
Keith Srakocic / AP
Steelers linebacker Larry Foote tries to tackle Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor.
Foote, who now serves as the pass game coordinator and inside linebackers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joined Chris Mack of 93.7 The Fan on the Oh Mamma podcast. While the show focuses primarily on the exploits of the legendary 2008 Steelers defense, Mack asked how he and some of the other veterans on the team adjusted to the change at head coach in 2007.
Foote said that, initially, the team was excited to have a young coach coming in. To put into context just how youthful Tomlin was, Foote's partner in crime at linebacker, James Farrior, played against Tomlin in college. In 1994, Tomlin's last season at the collegiate level and Farrior's first, Farrior's Virginia Cavaliers stomped Tomlin's William & Mary Tribe by a score of 37-3.
"We were excited for a new beginning," Farrior said of Tomlin's hiring. "He's a young coach. He's a Black coach. We thought the world of that. We were excited about his future."
Things were going to change very quickly in Pittsburgh for Foote and the other players who had gotten used to a light schedule of offseason activities under Coach Cowher. A young Coach Tomlin had arrived, and he was bringing a new intensity to training camp with him.
Steelers Veterans Get A Culture Shock With Tomlin
The rules and environment were going to be quite different for the team. Foote said that the things they could get fined for changed, but the worst adjustment for him was the training camp.
Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (Twitter / X: @JSKO_PHOTO)
Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin has dialed back his intense training camp, in part due to rule changes, but he still has the same fire here at the 2022 camp.
In 2020, Ed Bouchette, then of The Athletic, wrote that Tomlin came in and "took over a veteran team that had won a Super Bowl 17 months earlier and treated them as if they were recruits at Parris Island."
According to the esteemed Steelers writer, Tomlin scheduled 15 days of twice-daily practices with no day off over the first two weeks of training camp. That started a week earlier than usual because the Steelers played in the Hall of Fame game against the New Orleans Saints. He also spoke to numerous players who were shocked by the abrupt nature of the differences under the new coach. Foote said that the worst of it was having two practices a day and that they were hitting in the morning.
"We used to stay up late playing cards and video games because we knew that the morning was going to be a light walk-through," he said. "With Cowher in my previous six years, we never hit till the afternoon."
Foote posited that Tomlin was "trying to break them from the old ways." He said he felt the coach was doing things specifically to spite them. Nose tackle Chris Hoke had another theory for the coach's motivations.
“I think he was trying to come in and see who his players were,’’ Hoke told Bouchette. “Cowher knew who would and who wouldn’t. I think Coach Tomlin needed to see that for himself. He needed to push guys and drag guys and see if he could depend on them.”
The team started the season 9-3, with things looking pretty. In their three losses, the team had lost in overtime to the New York Jets, by a touchdown to the Arizona Cardinals, and by a last-second field goal to the Denver Broncos. Pittsburgh lost in the Wild Card Round 31-29 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Josh Scobee kicking a field goal to take the lead with :37 seconds left. The Steelers got the ball back with :29 seconds left. Ben Roethlisberger stood in the pocket and fumbled before he fell to the ground, giving Jacksonville the game.
All-time great guard Alan Faneca also spoke to Bouchette. He and Hoke agreed that the tough nature of practice from training camp into the season wore the team down for the stretch run. Tomlin adjusted to the team a little more for the 2008 season, and they won the Super Bowl.
What did you think of this story from Foote? Have you heard about how difficult Tomlin's first camp was before? Comment below!
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