Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin's Promised Change Backfires Into Furious Feeding Frenzy On Pittsburgh Radio

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The Pittsburgh Steelers have been the face of hard-nosed, physical football for decades. Even in the days they were a laughingstock before the Immaculate Reception, Eugene “Big Daddy” Lipscomb and Ernie Stautner struck fear into opponents. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin paired that toughness with talent, resulting in six Lombardi Trophies.

Tomlin has come under fire from Terry Bradshaw, Ben Roethlisberger, countless fans, and local media for his recent missteps. Retaining Matt Canada has flipped him out of the frying pan and into the fire. The once impenetrable mystique at the podium is failing Tomlin. Only the most myopic fans are buying into Tomlinisms as an answer at this point.

Strong Allegations That Steelers Protect Mike Tomlin From Tough Questions

Donny Chadrick, better known as Donny Football on The PM Team w/Poni & Mueller, suggested on social media after the Houston Texans game that the organization was protecting Tomlin from tough questions. Coach Tomlin had his weekly press conference on Tuesday and issued a confusing statement about the root cause of the controversial fourth down call. Andrew Fillipponi and co-host Chris Mueller dragged gasoline out to the fire their producer started on social media with their response to the explanation.  

“Here is what’s so effed up about that answer,” Fillipponi responded to Tomlin’s explanation for the worst play call in the Tomlin era. “He admits they can’t really run a good play there because of the injuries that they have. You admit Boz [Chris Boswell] is pretty much automatic. Which is it?”

The bombastic host can be prone to sensationalism, but Tomlin’s answers on Tuesday were severely lacking and contradictory to his previous statements about down and distance. Tomlin’s suggestion that his first instinct was to kick the field goal, based on how the play turned out, was the correct call. He just didn’t make it. 

Fillipponi suggested that the Steelers head coach would have been better off citing analytics and the win probability theory as his reason for the ridiculous call. His co-host Mueller, who usually is more even keel with his observations, cut off the train of thought forcefully. 

“Zero chance. No chance in h***, he says go look at the win probability,” Mueller jumped in. “If he had said that, I’d have possibly fallen over dead from shock. We had big mo on our side. That’s why we called a shotgun something or other.”

Mueller and Fillipponi are not even pretending to give Tomlin the benefit of the doubt based on his press conference. After stating their opinions, they turned to Chadrick for his thoughts on the Tomlin press conference. The duo asked for the producer’s opinion of the answers and got an even harsher critique of the Steelers head coach.

“He’s a total BS machine like no other,” Chadrick said. “Today was the very tippy top of that. I just think it is getting to the point where people are starting to realize just how bad it is. He will say anything to paint some kind of picture that it is really not as bad as we think. I think it is even worse by him kind of saying it's not on me, it’s just our players weren’t ready to go.”

Tomlin declared at his press conference that the return of padded practices was the change he alluded to at the postgame press conference on Sunday. The Steelers' current coaching staff is horrific, and Tomlin is blaming the toughness of his players for the Houston loss. Fillipponi summed it up perfectly.

“We had a college intern here this summer who’s not old enough to remember the Steelers winning a Super Bowl,” Fillipponi concluded. “That should put it in perspective right there. He has a high school diploma, he’s in college, and he’s not old enough to remember. That’s how long it’s been.”

Ridiculous talking points from the national media are masking the Steelers' current drought of success. Suggestions that .500 football is good enough to appease Steelers fans is a dumb argument that is wearing thin. Chadrick drove home a point that the organization would do well to consider.

“We are getting to the point that we hear all the time about the Pirates being a laughingstock. They don’t win anything around here,” Chedrick observed. “We are getting to the point that an entire generation of Steelers fans have the Pirates and the Steelers on the same wavelength. Because neither team has won anything in their lifetime.”

The vaunted Steeler Way is still intact. The painful fact is that Art Rooney II and Tomlin have strayed away from the path. Dan Rooney would never have allowed the Steelers to be out-schemed so consistently. Tomlin has lost his way, and nobody in the organization seems interested in reeling him in.

A growing segment of fans have started calling for a change in ownership. That is not going to happen. Omar Khan is the best chance to save Tomlin from himself. It is time to consider that the looming fact that Tomlin is not under contract beyond the 2024 season might not be an accident. The real question is how much longer can a team with a national fan base like the Steelers ignore the fans' growing discontent with the on-field product?

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Do you think the Steelers are on the wrong track and sliding into irrelevancy? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq. 

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