The Steelers' playoff loss to the Ravens on Saturday night was not just a loss. The Ravens disgraced the Steelers in front of their loyal fanbase. And to Mike Tomlin: congrats on being the next Marty Shottenheimer of pro football.
You remember Shottenheimer, a coach with 14 consecutive non-losing seasons who had a tendency to stink the playoffs up like an old outhouse. It's great that Tomlin now has 18 non-losing seasons and zero playoff wins in 9 seasons. His only success in the playoffs came from Bill Cowher's quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, playing 18 seasons.
Take Roethlisberger out of the equation, and Mike Tomlin may still be looking for his first playoff win.
The truth about Mike Tomlin
Face it; there are two types of Steelers fans: those who grew up watching Chuck Noll pulverize teams with ferocious defense and an amazing rushing and passing attack and those who prefer the cowardice football displayed by Mike Tomlin's team.
Bill Cowher did his best to emulate Noll's style, and when he finally found Big Ben, he won his first Superbowl. It was on the back of a suffocating defense and a quarterback who didn't know the meaning of losing.
What does Mike Tomlin know about Winning? As we have found out, not much. He feels mediocracy is a success. A successful regular season bears more weight than a successful post-season. This is the difference between old-school Steelers fans and these complacent bandwagon Steelers fans of the last twenty years who are fine with mediocracy as long as it culminates in a post-season loss.
The nail in the coffin, which only highlights the reason Mike Tomlin needs to go, happened at the end of the game. A Steelers player disgraced himself by waiting for Lamar Jackson to autograph a jersey for him. Would Jack Lambert or Mean Joe have waited for the opposing quarterback to autograph a jersey for them after an embarrassing loss? Not only no, but [expetive] no.
Yet Tomlin, in his fantasy world, finds this acceptable on some level. Somewhere, Chuck Noll is rolling in his grave, and so is Chief Art Rooney.
At this point, whatever Art Rooney wants to do is fine. However, his actions may show whether he is dedicated to winning, as he said in 2023, or mediocre following yet another playoff loss.
Mike Tomlin should not have a job come Monday morning, yet he will, thanks to an owner who has forgotten the standard. That standard—at least in the 1970s—was even if they lost, to ensure the Ravens carried Lamar Jackson out on a stretcher with some of his fancy grill work missing.
The Steelers of old made the opposition pay a price if they beat them. What does Tomlin do? He encourages his players to wait for the opposition to give them an autograph. The lack of playoff success over the past eight years is more than enough reason for Tomlin to be sent packing.