Steelers: Tomlin Compliments the Pirates Culture Change

Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin continues his spring visits stopping by the PIttsburgh Pirates Spring Training facilities and saw some potential recruits.

If you follow the Pittsburgh Pirates and catch some games on television, it is possible you’ve seen Mike Tomlin and his boys behind homeplate.

Tomlin is on friendly terms with the Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and both have a lot of respect for each other, as has been noted by the media before.

It’s no surprise to see Tomlin turn up in Bradenton on Monday, which was the Pirates last home spring training game. I don’t know if Tomlin’s visit was some sort of elixir, but the Pirates hit 6 home runs, including 1 grand slam for a total score of 18. (They won.) Bill Brink of the Post-Gazette posted Tomlin’s post-visit comments.

Hurdle noted that he likes being able to reach out to Tomlin and bounce things off of him and Tomlin agreed that he liked being able to share information.

Tomlin also joked about converting some Pirates to Steelers, starting with 6’7″ Jared Hughes, one of the relievers.

"I’ll take Cutch too,” said Tomlin, referring to Andrew McCutchen. “I’ll bet you he can settle under a punt.”"

All kidding aside, I think it is great to see a sort of comaraderie between the sports coachings. They can’t all be surly Belichicks, right?

Hurdle and Tomlin likely have a few things in common, but they seem to have different styles. Hurdle is a great motivator and puts out daily uplifting messages via email to his players. At one point, at least before his hip surgery, the email list was growing beyond the organization.

Tomlin’s speaking style, which alternates between humorous and frustrating, is one of sounding like he is saying alot without giving much away. It’s all good. Actions often are the best indicator.

Tomlin noted that the Pirates have gone through a culture change:

"We all know in our businesses how difficult that is. A lot of people give it lip service, but it’s a tremendous process and to see them push through it and to continually push through it.”"

Hmmmm, I’ve been wondering about the Steeler “culture” for a couple of years now and, while you can’t make a lot out of random press comments about another team, I would like to point Coach Tomlin back to this and ask him where the Steelers are on the process.

As far as getting Cutch on the Steelers? Well, I think he’s good where he is. Either way, I like the rapport between Tomlin and Hurdle.

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