It’s not often that someone else’s firing elevates your resume, but in the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin, longevity is as much of a prize as anything else. The 19-year veteran has become a household name thanks to his countless regular season records and war-of-attrition style coaching style, and now, he’s finally reached the point where he’s starting to bid his peers adieu.
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During the league’s infamous Black Monday, it was announced that the Ravens would be cutting ties with their long-time head coach, John Harbaugh, after the franchise failed to reach the playoffs and finished the regular season with an 8-9 record. That leaves Tomlin completely unchallenged for the honor of being the most-experienced active head coach in the NFL today, but according to the man himself, he’s still “miles away from Tom Landry and Don Shula.”
Although, with just a few days remaining until the Steelers’ AFC Wild Card match up with the Houston Texans, Tomlin informed Rich Eisen that he can’t really think about his resume or coaching future at a time like this. “I’m really appreciative of the work environment that I’ve been in for 19 years,” he prefaced. “But man, I’m just tunnel visioned.”
“As a leader, I’m called upon to serve these guys, and you know NFL playing careers are very short, so I can’t seek longevity in my career. I work with guys who have very short careers. I just try to always have and to mirror that urgency. I think it’s disrespectful not to have that level of urgency when I lead them… There’s just so many things that are waiting for me that deserve my attention.”
It was clearly sobering for Tomlin to see one of his oldest rivals finally bow out of the AFC North. After all, both he and Harbaugh shared a field 44 times together throughout the past 18 years, so even though it was typically through the fires of competition, they’ll certainly miss seeing each other on Sunday afternoons.
Tomlin remarked that their “stories are forever interwoven” while giving his respects to his 63-year-old rival. However, he did also feel the need to suggest that his firing was a “component of today’s sport culture.”
According to Tomlin, “There’s not a lot of patience in the entertainment component of what it is that we do. There’s just not a lot of longevity. We all would like to be Don Shula and Tom Landry, but I think those days are gone.” Thankfully, at least for now anyways, Tomlin isn’t gone either.
Fans will get at least one last chance to see him try and guide the Steelers towards their first playoff win since January of 2017, and after that, well, nothing is guaranteed, so if you’re a fan of football or even just a good old fashioned historian, then you’ll want to make sure that you tune in on Monday night so as to not miss out on what could be the end of an era in Pittsburgh.
