The Pittsburgh Steelers are lucky enough to have one of the best head coaches in the NFL in Mike Tomlin. Tomlin is largely known for his tenure as the head coach in Pittsburgh, where he has never had a losing season and led his team to two Super Bowl appearances, but he also had a successful career as an assistant coach before leading the black and gold. Tomlin had two stops in the NFL prior to being the leader of the Steelers, and that was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings.
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Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin during his time as the Defensive Backs Coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Tomlin served as the defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay from 2001 through 2005, he then became the defensive coordinator for the Vikings during the 2006 season. With just a year of experience as a coordinator, Tomlin was hired as the head coach of the Steelers ahead of the 2007 season. Despite not being a head coach, Tomlin made a large impact on his players while in Tampa Bay and Minnesota, with one of those players being Hall Of Fame cornerback Ronde Barber.
Barber sat down with Jon Gruden on Friday and the two talked about their time together in Tampa Bay. Gruden was the head coach in Tampa Bay from 2002 through 2008, so the former coach worked closely with Tomlin. Barber gave a lot of praise to Tomlin for helping him get to the Hall Of Fame.
"To me, he's [Tomlin] my number one." Barber said. "There's a reason why he put my gold jacket on for me. The Hall of Fame wanted you to have a sitting gold jacket guy put your jacket on. I was like, you know what, I'll have John up there with me, Lynch be up there with me, but I want Mike to put my jacket on. What Mike gave me was this level of 'I think you are the best to ever play your position', he told me that."
Barber was inducted into the Hall Of Fame as a part of the class of 2023. Every player who gets inducted gives an enshrinement speech after getting their ceremonial gold jacket placed on them by an NFL figure who made a large impact on them, and Barber chose Tomlin for that honor.
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Steelers' Mike Tomlin with Ronde Barber as they host a golf tournament benefitting William & Mary.
Barber was one of the best cornerbacks of his generation. He recorded 47 interceptions, 14 touchdowns, 28 sacks, and 1,251 tackles in his 16-year career. He also made five Pro-Bowls and was named an All-Pro in five different seasons, four out of five of those seasons were while he was playing with Tomlin as his position coach.
Tomlin has always been lauded as a player's coach, a coach who cares about his players and takes time to know each of them to know how to motivate them specifically. This clearly didn't start once he got to Pittsburgh, as he has been doing this no matter what level of coach he was. Barber's comments and the former cornerback choosing to have Tomlin be a part of his enshrinement is a testament to how loved Tomlin is by his players.
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Steelers' Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson on the sideline during a game against the New York Jets in 2024.
Steelers' Mike Tomlin Is Still Finding Ways To Give His Players Confidence
Tomlin has put on a coaching clinic during the 2024 season as he has had to handle a delicate quarterback situation with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields both being starting-caliber players. The start of the season could have been difficult on Wilson, who had to sit back with an injury for the first six weeks of the season while Fields played well as the starter. This came after two rough seasons with the Denver Broncos for Wilson, where his confidence was torn down by Sean Payton before ultimately being benched.
Pittsburgh's head coach had a bit of a project on his hands with Wilson, and he handled the situation perfectly. One of Wilson's former teammates spoke out about how Tomlin instilled a ton of confidence in Wilson, exactly like he did with Barber.
What do you think about Barber's comments on Tomlin? Let us know in the comments below!
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