1.14.26 Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show FULL SHOW

Tim Benz, Charlie Batch, Merril Hoge, Rob King, Jeremy Fowler, Max Starks, and Mark Madden all call in to talk about Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach of the Steelers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
W d v E.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's for an I Heeart radio station guaranteed.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Human.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
You know, it's disappointing, but I'm certainly thankful for this
group in their efforts. But it's a disappointing night tonight.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
Coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Former coach of
the Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin with his postgame comments there
after Houston's defeat of the Steelers in the Wildcard Game
on Monday night. Mike Tomlin stepping down after night teen
years yesterday as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

(01:03):
It is the end of an era. And you know,
we've talked a lot off air about this. That was
a shock yesterday, no question about it. But to me,
as much as I had issues with Mike Tomlin, and
I think that a change is necessary for this organization.
And I didn't know to what degree I knew they
couldn't keep doing what they were doing.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
It obviously wasn't working.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
I would have been fine with let's get some badass
coordinators in here. Arthur Smith was a step in the
right direction, I guess away from Matt Canada, but still
not good enough. And let's get this guy a quarterback
and two coordinators and make him an overseer of the team.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
He's got good ball knowledge.

Speaker 5 (01:46):
He inspires players, but we have to stop giving him
the ability to buy the groceries to make dinner. As
Bill Parcells once said, because I thought talent assessment was
the biggest issue. So with his stepping down, I kind
of am of two minds. I feel sad about it,
and as much as I think there needs to be

(02:07):
something done, I'm sad about Mike Tomlin stepping down after
nineteen years. I can't get into the There's like a
group of Steeler fans who are very excited about this,
and the people who were chanting fire Tomlin and stuff
like that.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
You know my thoughts on that.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
I've talked about it a lot, even during the Fire
Canada days. I thought that that was a classless look
from Steelers fans.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
It's like, keep your.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
Issues in has you know? Uh yeah, in no way
she or formed you. I think Mike Tomlin heard those
chants and he's like, dude's it. I'm over here. As
some people are asserting, Uh, this is one of the
all time great coaches in NFL history, and his record
of never having a losing season is insanely consistent and

(02:53):
remarkable and tough to do. And I know that that
became a joke for a lot of people, and that
it didn't matter to me.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Mike Tomlin is synonymous.

Speaker 5 (03:04):
With Pittsburgh Steelers football, so it's really hard to imagine
him not as the coach going forward.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know. Uh, Now, change is hard.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
As I said, and I'm one of my most Pittsburgh
trait is that I don't love big change like this,
But I do think it'll be good for both sides.
I do think it'll be good for Mike Tomlin. I
do think it'll be good for the Steelers, provided they
get the right coach. That being said, it is hard
to swallow. I don't know how you guys feel, but
it is weird to think of the Pittsburgh Steelers being

(03:35):
coached by anybody else not named Cower or Tomlin.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Should be easy to find the right coach. Based on
the reaction I'm seeing on social media, Yeah, oh.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yeah, just go to the good coach Store.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Grab one, Yes, the head Coach Emporium. They have one
in Ross Parks, Mall. Yeah. You know, I feel like
I grew up with Tomlin.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I was still in college when he got higher and uh,
I don't know, it's it's a weird Cowra felt like
your dad a little bit, like he was a generation older,
and then you know Tomlin was like a young, cool dude.
I feel I'm sad in the in many ways, but

(04:19):
I'm also happy for Tomlin. It seemed like he, I
was saying this, Dabby before the show, seemed like you
had like no discernible hobbies. Really yeah, right, he just was,
you know, married to the job, and the job seems horrible.
It seems like ten jobs rolled into one.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:37):
I think that that is well established at this point
that you know, being a an NBA coach or an
NFL coach ages you faster than the presidency. Yeah. That
being said, I don't know that he's gonna just lay
back and start like, uh, you know, like start building
ships in bottles. You know, obviously this is HMS pitifam.

Speaker 6 (05:03):
I just with him having a year to go and
him stepping down like that just to me, really two
years he had.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Two years to fifty million dollars he left on the table.

Speaker 6 (05:14):
Wow, So that really does leave him to what either
take time go to TV.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
He's going to TV.

Speaker 7 (05:22):
You think he is.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
I do.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
I think he's gonna go to TV and uh and
make that money because you can make a lot of
money in TV.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
People want him there. It's low.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
I think he sees coach Kauer who planned on going
back to coaching, by the way, and then got used
to that TV life, and he's like, Hey, nobody's telling
me I suck every Sunday. You know, there's not a
group of people that, no matter what happens or on
my ass, when I go to pump gas and I'm
making more money and uh, I can go to the gym,

(05:52):
I'm going out to dinner with friends. This is I
have a life that becomes very attractive, very fast. And
he is going to be a sought after commodity. Anybody
that would want coach Tomlin to coach for them would
have to trade for the rights for Mike Tomlin. So
the Steelers in that regard, you know, he might get
a Sean Payton situation. I can't remember what the details

(06:13):
of that trade were to Denver from the Saints.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
One to two.

Speaker 5 (06:17):
Maybe yeah, so we might get something out of it
when all of a sudden done. But I don't think
he's gonna rush back into coaching. These people like talking
about him going to Miami right away because he wants to.
There's so many rumors that have to be unsubstantiated.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
He'll only coach in warm weather.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I don't, okay, all right, after nineteen years of this,
Yeah that was the straw. Yeah, yeah, I TV seems
like a good fit.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
It does.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
I want him next to Terry Bradshaw, as I said,
because I just want to see Terry Bradshaw looking at
Tomlin after he drops tomlinism and he looks like a
dog after you hide the ball and he's like, who's hill?
What paint the barn? What that some you know? And
then Terry's head just explodes. It's it's I don't know,

(07:09):
it's a bittersweet day, you know what I mean. I
don't know there's any even sweetness to it. It's just
like the last few years are just it just sucks.
I think the Kenny Pickett thing sent them back so
far too. It's me it's always been about talent assessment
with these guys and his that's been the first problem.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
The second thing is.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
I do think he was slow to adapt to an
ever changing NFL in terms of his reliance on defense first,
but never getting a defense no matter how much you
paid for it. That looked anything like what we saw
Houston do the other night, you know, yeah, like those
guys are insanely good right now. And adding all of

(07:49):
these veterans who were on their last gasp in the
NFL who just didn't get it done with Darius Slade,
Jalen Ramsey, Patrick Peterson, Pete, Yeah, Pat Pete, it just
seemed like the list went on and on. Michael a
lot more on that. We're gonna be talking a lot
about it, obviously. Tim Benz, Charlie Batch, Merril Hodge, Rob King,

(08:12):
Jeremy Fowler from ESPN that broke the story will join
us at eight forty five. Max Starks and Mark Madden.
I know, I listened to Mark for a little bit
yesterday and Mark was advocating the start will Howard next
year and tank this season theory, and he says, no,
I don't. I don't know. Well, well, Howard's like, do

(08:33):
I have to tank it? Can I be good? It's
a winner? Maybe I'll be good. Yeah, because they might
not get their quarterback this year. I'm not sure interested
to hear what Mike has to say about things. In
a shocking development yesterday, coach Tomlin stepping down.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
Him stepping down just tells me that he knows something
deeper than we did. He knew, you know what I mean,
and then also that there is something potentially that maybe
looks attractive to him.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Sleeping would be my guess.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
I say beyond that, because I don't think that he's
a RESTful guy now.

Speaker 7 (09:19):
He seems like a seeker.

Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's clear he had planned this.
He didn't lose the game and then go, you know what,
I'm done, right, It's clear to me that he was
He knew that once this season was over, he was
stepping down one way or another, because.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
That was fast.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
There's some people speculating nest whether or not Art Rooney
knew about it in advance, if he told the team.
I don't think that's the case.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
We did start to hear some names being bandied about
in the potential next coach for the Steelers a couple
of months ago, so that was a little weird, but
a lot of times that's just their agents floating names
into the press so that in case there is an
opening because maybe they heard rumblings that Tomlin might step down,
their guy.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
Would be one of the first people considered.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
That's so funny to me though, It's like, then the
person who is the decision maker who has not spread
that is like, wait a second, Mike mcdale, Did I
think Mike McDaniel bring him interview? I don't know, Cheryl, Cheryl.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
Call Mike mcdale's people happy, he's here right now, Sarah, Oh, okay,
he's just waiting. There's just coaches agents just have their
their guys in the parking lot. Go upstairs, now, go upstairs,
now interview. I don't think coach Tomlin tipped his hand.
I don't I think that he surprised Art Rooney yesterday
and uh Art Rooney did a lot of okay, and

(10:55):
now it's onto Chris Shula, Marcus Freeman, Brian Lauras.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
Those are some of the names you keep hearing. Marcus
Freeman to me, where the hell's that coming from? Based
on what?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, people keep talking about Signetti too.

Speaker 5 (11:08):
It's like he's sixty two years old and he just
made a buttload of money, and Jacob's over there going
uh oh you're not allowed to have him.

Speaker 7 (11:15):
I thought of Jacob immediately.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah, I don't think he's going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
I would love to have him, though, why because he
is a total inser.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
If he stinks though, I mean, he was born in Pittsburgh.
But if he's stunk, it wouldn't I don't know, his
act would not go over.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
The highest state. Yeah, I don't know. I let the iupiece.
I mean, you know, you know fifty dude.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I could write you a list of fifty dudes that
are Signetti adjacent right now. That, yeah, for just for
theater would be fun, great, yeaheah.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Some people are talking about the Raiders throwing a bunch
of money at Signetti and taking Fernando with him there, Jacob.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
I don't know if that'll happen.

Speaker 5 (11:58):
Anyways, Michael have his take on what's going on in
all the latest in a world wind day, and not just.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Pittsburgh, but in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
As legendary coach Mike Tomlin steps down, it's the end
of an era and the search is on because it's
only like ninety eight days until the draft.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, when you put it like that, it's got to
happen soon, right, Yeah, can't mess around. You gotta start
game planning here, figure out what to do abby. Uh,
well not you, I mean you can just yeah, I
am not qualifiable.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
I got to be honest.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Do you mean to put that on your plan? You
get luck going on?

Speaker 7 (12:38):
I do want to do a little bit of news.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
This hour brought to you by your neighborhood Ford Store,
Clouds and rain.

Speaker 7 (12:44):
Today it is a high of forty six.

Speaker 6 (12:46):
Keeper Sutherland was arrested early Monday morning for allegedly assaulting
his ride share driver in Hollywood.

Speaker 5 (12:54):
It's not good.

Speaker 6 (12:55):
Police responded to the call around twelve to fifteen. A
m keeper allegedly went through the vehicle, physically assaulted the driver,
and then made criminal threats toward them.

Speaker 7 (13:05):
The driver didn't suck We're.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Coming, hear.

Speaker 5 (13:07):
Criminal threats always sound I'm gonna rob a bank, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (13:10):
Like?

Speaker 6 (13:12):
The driver didn't suffer any injuries that required medical attention.
Keefer was booked around four am on an unspecific felony charge,
according to Los Angeles County jail records. He was released
on fifty thousand dollars bond and is scheduled to appear
in court on February second, none of this should be
much of a surprise though. He maybe fifty nine and

(13:35):
relatively tame, but back in the day he raised his
share of hell. And don't forget he used to be
a pirate, because back in two thousand and five he
body slammed a Christmas tree in a London hotel lobby
after being told he was a pirate.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, he's a.

Speaker 7 (13:53):
Cooky guy, cooky guy, and he continues the kookiness the times.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Stav leads me to believe he was drunk, but I think, right, know, crazy, right,
But I always like to think about what the rideshare
driver must have said to him, like, hey, remember young
guys when you were in the spirit world, And he's like,
shut up, shut up.

Speaker 8 (14:15):
The uber driver pulls up, He's like, sorry, I had
hard time following you. I guess you really are a
lost boy.

Speaker 9 (14:21):
Shut up.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Keifer, Oh, Keifer. He's always had a kind of a
wild hair. Up is ours? No?

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (14:35):
No.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
I definitely think he's got a laundry list of incidents
like this is.

Speaker 7 (14:38):
A musician as well? Yeah, is he good?

Speaker 3 (14:41):
I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 7 (14:44):
I guess it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
We know he's gonna play moon Dogs this summer. He
could check them out, all.

Speaker 7 (14:51):
Right, another quirky guy.

Speaker 8 (14:52):
UH.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
Skittles and Elijah Wood are looking to go big with
an ambitious live commercial for the upcoming Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Mark swear to God for a second.

Speaker 5 (14:59):
When you said Skittles and Elijah Wood, I'm like, is
there a hip hop artist named Skittles?

Speaker 3 (15:04):
I don't know about. I'm out of touch.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
Good Skittles is the esn ill guest this weekend, Jolly Skittles, Diabetes.

Speaker 7 (15:14):
Fest Bars Incorporated.

Speaker 6 (15:17):
UH is announcing that for it's Super Bowl commercial, it's
got a chance for a customer to go live during
an advertisement. So basically, you can enter to win a
live Skittles commercial that's going to be performed in.

Speaker 7 (15:33):
Your yard and Elijah Wood is a part of it.

Speaker 6 (15:36):
And Elijah Wood was explaining this concept to People magazine,
saying that he plays a magical creature that can be
summoned by a horn to deliver Skittles.

Speaker 7 (15:46):
So as long as you have.

Speaker 6 (15:48):
Like a nice, big yard, you can enter to win
this unique experience through Deliver the Rainbow dot com.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Very interesting, is it? Yeah? Very interesting? Yeah? I don't
know how many people are going to rush to do that.

Speaker 11 (16:05):
Why not.

Speaker 7 (16:07):
Blowing a horn and then you get Skittles?

Speaker 5 (16:10):
Can I use your bathroom?

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Sorry, I was out last night doing the Skittles thing.
Now that's where my career is.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
Now him, I can see beating up a uber driver.
I mean, things are not going good. Do you like Skittles.
I'm not a Skittles person, never have been.

Speaker 6 (16:26):
No, I'm if I'm gonna have sugar, I'm gonna have
chocolate me too.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's exactly where I am.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
Although I don't mind a sweetheart or something like that
if I'm going that candy route, not a sweetheart smart yeah, sweethearts,
which were basically it's like, but that's Skittles adjacent. I
feel like, no, it is not not nexturally Yeah yeah, yeah,
you're right.

Speaker 7 (16:50):
That's like Toms what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Oh wait, no, Toms is what I like.

Speaker 12 (16:55):
Yeah, sorry, I have those every Yeah, never mind the edge.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
I'm just all out of sorts with the Tomlin news.
I get it. But if it was a Tom's commercial,
sign me up.

Speaker 6 (17:10):
I think I had a moment with things like Skittles,
but it was more like the Starburst, like I could
get down with that, and then I realized I like
my teeth.

Speaker 7 (17:18):
I'm just like, I just I can't do this.

Speaker 6 (17:20):
But now I'm full into like anything that's like chocolate
peanut butter.

Speaker 7 (17:24):
I wonder where that's been my whole life.

Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yeah, no, that's always been my jam. Always been a
chocolate and peanut butter person. Although right now I have
these like, uh, these gummies I'm taking in the morning
that are like like zinc and elderberry and all that
like immune system like boosters, and that thing is a
total It is a starburst. I mean, I feel like
I'm pulling a filling out every morning. I'm worried it's

(17:49):
gonna maybe I should get another brand.

Speaker 7 (17:53):
Oh yeah, that sounds well, but you know we got
good ingredients.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
I feel like my immune systems been better the last
two years since I've been taking them than it has
been for a long long time. Yeah, so it might
be worth a filling here or there.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Is my point.

Speaker 7 (18:07):
You got to send me all these things that you're taking.

Speaker 6 (18:09):
I keep trying different products and I just feel like
I'm getting hosed.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
You bought me Lion's Mane for my birthday and I've
been taking the Lions Made Good. Yeah, I wake up
every morning do the roar like you're supposed to says
it on the bottle. You know what you bought me?

Speaker 6 (18:24):
Right, Okay, we are at the age now where.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
For these are gifts to each other.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
These are our gifts to each other. It is like supplements. Yeah,
I bought you supplements, and I bought you whiskey to
balance whiskey too. I have to tell you I forgot
I keep meaning to bring it to you. It fell
out of the bag for your birthday. Also bought you
an umbrella. Le it keep in your car. Oh, that's
very nice.

Speaker 7 (18:48):
We're at the point of our birthday.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
The most practical gifts, very practical.

Speaker 5 (18:52):
I bought her a snowbrush last year because she was
wiping up her car with her arm.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, that was in a broom, broom, because.

Speaker 7 (19:01):
I'm short and so whenever I can't reach the top.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
Of the cars. Back in the day, we'll be like,
here's a GIF certificate to a really cool restaurant. Let's
go party. Really, let's get a hammer, let's go get hammered.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
Yeah, Like, here's Lyon's name, bunch of depositories and an
umbrella and they keep in your car.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
That's all right, I'm still rock and Rolling and the
Rambles coming up in two weeks, and I'm telling you
this one it's gonna be off awesome.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
We've got a really special night planned with a really
cool tribute to Bob Weir.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
You're not gonna want to miss this show.

Speaker 13 (19:30):
Saturday, January twenty fourth, DV presents Randy Bauman's Ramble Live
with the Thunderbird Music Hall. Over twenty five local musicians
coming together for an epic throwdown of rock and soul
in the spirit of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles, and this
show will feature an extensive tribute to The Grateful Dead's
Bob Weird featuring Clinton Clay, Pattie Twigg, Max Somerville, Josh Verbannons,

(19:51):
Sarah Siblat, Nathan Zoo, Gibson Mesisco, Mike Minda, Rob James,
John Pergle and Moore north Side featuring The Ramble Horns,
will open the show at eight pm. Get tickets at
the Thunderbird Music Called Box Office, Thunderbird Music.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Call dot com, and DVE dot Com.

Speaker 13 (20:06):
January twenty four at the Thunderburg Music Hall, Randy Bauman's
Ramble returns, brought to you by.

Speaker 14 (20:13):
DVE from the Bridgeville Appliance Weather Center start the new
year with.

Speaker 5 (20:18):
New radio home at the picture Steelers one on two
point five dve in the end of an era on
Mike Tomlin stepping down a Steelers head coach yesterday.

Speaker 15 (20:25):
Sports is Up brought to you by Bridgeville applying someone
with you, Randy. I don't think Mike Tomlin decided after
they lost to Houston that enough is enough for the
time being.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
But I'm not sure Art Rooney was aware beforehand. You
don't know whether he was or wasn't. Correct. Yeah, I
don't either. I guess I wouldn't be surprised either way.
There were a lot of leaks of potential coaches. As
I said earlier months ago. A lot of times that's

(20:56):
just agents smelling blood in the water and getting that
news out there.

Speaker 15 (20:59):
Yeah, if we find out in the coming days that yeah,
this guy knew, and this guy knew and this guy
knew in the organization and they kept it quiet, I
would be surprised by that.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
But we do know this much.

Speaker 15 (21:15):
Mike Tomlin went in yesterday and told Art Rooney that's that,
and then he told the team they had an open
locker room from one to one forty five and then
a team meeting right after that, and that's when the
team found out, and that's when the word got out.
Art Rooney, the second Steels President, issuing a statement yesterday
then included during our meeting today Coach Tomlin in for

(21:35):
me that he has decided to step down as our
head coach. It's hard for me to put in the
words level respect and appreciation I have for Coach Tomlin.
His track record of never having had a losing season
in nineteen years will likely never be duplicated. And of
all the things that happened in the nineteen years that
Mike Tomlin as the head coach, and all the reactions

(21:56):
he inspired, I'll never be able to wrap my head
around people criticizing that the nineteen year never having had
a losing season, saying it doesn't matter, and pushing it
off as a non accomplishment. It's not of the most
incredible feats in coaching history.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
I completely agree with you.

Speaker 5 (22:16):
Where you and I part paths is that I think
it's significant that his coaching tree is bare. I think
that's a big deal or not. I think it's telling.
I think talent assessment will always have been his achilles heel.
He believed in guys or believed he was able to

(22:38):
perform some sort of reclamation project on guys who were
just past their expiration date.

Speaker 15 (22:44):
I think that's a fair criticism. I think, and hey,
in the NFL, talent assessment is always the trick. I mean,
teams that win assess their talent correctly and they have
good talent. Teams that lose did not right. I mean,
you don't see a lot of non talented teams going
to the NFC Championship Game. But I think that was
particularly an issue in free agency and trades. You know,

(23:06):
we always talked about him playing the long game and
they would acquire somebody and it's all I went this
pro day at Georgia and we went out to dinner
eight years ago, or I liked them then. I think
he got a little too attached to people at certain times.
And yeah, they had the talent acquisition is what they
have to attack as an organization.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yes, if they're going to get better.

Speaker 15 (23:27):
But one of the ways you have a bad playoff
record is you make the playoffs when your quarterback options
are Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph, and you
find a way to make that work, and then you
have to go into Buffalo, or then you have to
go into Kansas City, or then you have to go
into New England, or then.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
You have to go in to wherever.

Speaker 15 (23:47):
Like he got some teams there that probably that's as
good as they were.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
But to me again, but if you want to win
the Super Bowl, you got a better team than that.
You can't draft Kenny Pikett at number two.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
But okay, so who should be doing the talent evaluation?
That's Omar? Well, like Andy weidel Is. You know, he's
the number.

Speaker 15 (24:08):
Two in the GM department and he is perceived as
the talent guy. Omar rose to his curt level as
a cap guy.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
But this is something that happened throughout time in the NFL,
and it started sort of in the parcels era where
these guys there were a couple of GM coaches, but
mostly it was like there was an personnel expertise was
separate from coaching, and then the parcels. If I'm cooking dinner,
I want to buy the groceries. Quote always stands out

(24:36):
to me.

Speaker 15 (24:37):
Yeah, well, I think originally it was separate because in
the pre salary cap days, there was a lot more negotiating,
and you know, finances were a bigger deal. Now everybody
kind of spends the same, it's just what you spend
them on. So you know, if Parcels went to the
grocery store and said I'd like file a and the
GM said, well you're getting Hamburger helper, make it good?

Speaker 3 (24:59):
You know?

Speaker 15 (25:00):
Uh yeah, that's the Steelers have to figure out how
to get better players. But the argument that Mike Tomlin
can't coach is farcical.

Speaker 5 (25:10):
I agree, I get you know, I had my problems
with with coach T, but it wasn't I wasn't a
lop off the head guy necessarily, so much as I
think he's a great guy to oversee a football organization.
I disagreed with some of his tactics. But uh, I
don't know. I'm feeling sad today, not because I feel
like I wished him out the door. There's an element

(25:31):
that I wanted things to change, but I don't like
the way that it's being painted by a lot of
people in Steeler Nation that.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
That it's just not this.

Speaker 5 (25:42):
Uniform adulation on his way out, which is what I
think it should be.

Speaker 15 (25:46):
I couldn't agree more. And one of the things I
always appreciated about him. You know how much I love
training camp. I think Mike Tomlin loves camp more than
I did. Well, yeah, he was love sharks You did
I know that? I wow, Okay, yeah that's true. You
love Sharky's more than anyway. I put more time in
listening to.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Yeah, well he was busier. Yeah.

Speaker 15 (26:07):
If attention means adulation, then you know, two thumbs. This guy. Uh,
he cared. You know the fans say they care, he
actually did. I think he cared more than the fans cared.
And he cared about coaching football. He was a self
described on many occasions football junkie. You know, Danny Smith

(26:28):
has said this over the years. He doesn't have any hobbies.
He he doesn't golf, he doesn't do this. He just
wants to coach special teams.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
So he is. It's what he does. Mike tom the
same kind of guy. I think. I do think he.

Speaker 15 (26:39):
Will be awful a TV because, as you've heard me,
if he goes there, Because as I've described him many
times over.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
The years, he never meant a sentence.

Speaker 15 (26:48):
He couldn't turn into two paragraphs, right, and TV is
about brevity, Yeah, and getting.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Your point out and then moving on and uh.

Speaker 15 (26:57):
He likes to wax poetic and hear the sound of
his own voice and use a bunch of words.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
But I don't think this. I don't think TV is
the endgame here. No, I think it will be stopgap
like it was for Sean Payton. I don't.

Speaker 15 (27:09):
I just for whatever reason, I think he thinks he
needs a reset and he's still a relatively young guy
in the coaching profession. Yeah, and you know he could
have a second career that is extensive, a second chapter.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Whatever you do.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
Yeah, I think he will.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
I think he will, and I think he will too.

Speaker 15 (27:26):
But Okay, Steeler fans, those of you who are celebrating,
you got it.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
Tim Benz, Charlie Batch, Merril Hodge, Rob King, Jeremy Fowler,
who along with Adam Schefter broke the news yesterday, will
join us at eight forty five. Max Starks, Mark Madden.
We are packed to the gills with Steelers insiders talking
about the shocking news was shocking for me.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
I'm shocked. I was. It was shocked, Dodgeball.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
If we got there to that point, that would have
been one thing, But to have it happen less than
twelve hours.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
You know why.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
I was a little more than twelve hours, but you know,
shortly after the lost to Houston was a huge surprise.

Speaker 15 (28:07):
It's funny because he kind of was noncommittal when he
was asked about his future right after the game. He
was and usually he slaps that down with a little
more authority.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
I didn't. It didn't really register with me at the time.

Speaker 15 (28:19):
Did I know about Jim's p Yeah, I don't know
if I.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Was just tired or I didn't bear.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
I was in bed, but he just said, I'm still
played it yesterday.

Speaker 15 (28:30):
I'm still in the mindset we just lost, and I
haven't thought about any of that yet, which usually says, hey,
as long as they'll have me, I'm I'm the guy,
and I'm here and this is what I do.

Speaker 16 (28:41):
Uh.

Speaker 15 (28:41):
I just thought it was late and it was an
incredible ass kicking.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
It was an incredible ass kicking. That was a tough one.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
I mean, Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin might have walked
out the door with that incredible ass kicking.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
I don't think Aaron Rodgers is coming back to the
Steelers without my talk.

Speaker 15 (29:01):
I don't sure he might play again, but won't be
give one of them wants to continue doing what they're doing.

Speaker 6 (29:06):
I bet they do it, Abby, What are you talking about?
Gen Z is unplugging and it's making them happier. And
somebody decided to.

Speaker 7 (29:12):
Write about Rod Stewart's eighty year old sex life.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Tim Bens will join us next.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
You know, this all could have been avoided if we
would have brought that woman from the Jacksonville Free Press
up here to give him a pep talk after the game.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
It's on Benz. Yes, Ben's had the opportunity to do it,
and he refused.

Speaker 17 (29:27):
Eyes forward, hands in the ten and two position. Radio cranked, Yep,
looks like you're ready to drive.

Speaker 16 (29:35):
Let's get after you.

Speaker 17 (29:37):
Chad Tyson rocks Pittsburgh weekday afternoons on dv He also
has a reloaded cut from the TV Morning Show and
Sports News after Noons with Chad Tyson on dv E.

Speaker 9 (29:52):
Hey, hockey fans now with betam gim you can win
a share of ten thousand dollars in bonus bed.

Speaker 5 (30:00):
It's your radio home at the Pittsford Steelers one out
two point five dv E. Mike Tomlin resigns after nineteen
years as head coach and absolute end of an era.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
And I was pretty shocked by the news.

Speaker 5 (30:15):
Tim Ben's brought to you by Don's Appliance joining us right
now from Tribal Live Sports and Benzi, where did you
land on the surprise scale yesterday with the news that
Mike Tomlin had decided to step down?

Speaker 18 (30:30):
Surprised because I didn't think that he would be the
one to throw in the towel if he thought that
he had any chance of competing next year, if there
was a next year that he thought was winnable and
an opportunity to do better than the year before. I

(30:50):
didn't see that as the opportunity for him to walk
away from his career. Like you know, there are two
things that could very much be at play here. I
mean there's the one, very pragmatic one that perhaps he
knew where things stood in his own mind and maybe
in the franchise's mine and went in and asked Art
if he was going to get his option picked up

(31:13):
for twenty twenty seven, and Art said, no, We're not
going to do that. He said, Okay, then I resign
that could have been one. That's the practical, pragmatic way
of looking at it, and then there's the other way
of looking at it, which there's perhaps a little bit
more meat on the bone. That's what I wrote about
this morning, which is, you know, I heard what Mike
said about getting the vibe that he didn't slap down

(31:34):
to talk about the future as quickly as possible and
the postgame press conference, but you know, I ended up
asking him the last question of that press conference, and
I got that sense too that he wasn't, as you know,
direct in talking about that. So I said, you know,
do you think you have the foundation for something that
could be better next year?

Speaker 16 (31:54):
And he answered in the affirmative.

Speaker 18 (31:56):
So I was like, all right, well, it sounds like
he's at least thinking about next year. I don't know
what it could have been in those fourteen hours that
made him suddenly had the epiphany that it was going
to be better in twenty twenty six than twenty twenty five.
I don't know what that could have been that made
him realize that.

Speaker 15 (32:13):
So you got the last question and you ended him.

Speaker 18 (32:16):
I did, and me so that with the last strikeout,
I am basically that what was the guy's name from
Houston Bullock, Kaylon Bullock. I's a Kaylon Bullock of Mike
Tomlin's career. That was my pick sixth on the way out.

(32:36):
Maybe I'll get him to sign the transcript like that
Houston guy said he wanted to get Rogers to sign
the ball.

Speaker 15 (32:42):
Tim, I think in your pragmatic narrative, I wonder if
there were gonna be some massive staff changes coming, and
I know Mike's never been real a big fan of that.
Maybe he either sensed that or was made aware of that.
Just throwing that out there.

Speaker 18 (32:58):
You know, he well, yeah, no, right, And again I
think this is we're literally talking about fourteen hours here.
And my thinking was, if it did come down to
the contract angle, that Mike knew well in advance of
the Houston game, probably well in advance of the Ravens game,

(33:19):
that he was going to want real quick affirmation that
that option was going to be picked up, and if
Art said no, we'll find that out maybe later today,
then okay, he was going to say I resigned then
and end of conversation. Or I think Art had every
intention of giving him the option and Tomlin just didn't

(33:40):
want to be here anymore. But I have a hard
time believing that he had some sort of epiphany or
you know it came to him in a dream now
after the Houston loss, or a nightmare after the Houston loss,
that this is it.

Speaker 16 (33:53):
I'm out.

Speaker 18 (33:54):
I mean, I just I don't think he's that reactionary
of a person.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
I think it's possible he looked at a long road
ahead in having to rebuild with a brand new quarterback,
because that's likely the scenario they're going to have given that.
Of all the names being bandied about, have you thought
about a replacement that makes the most sense at this point.

Speaker 18 (34:15):
I'm just gonna who would you say?

Speaker 3 (34:19):
John Harble?

Speaker 18 (34:20):
Oh, no, Celia, I had the pin wheel going the
right way, Tomlins to Baltimore, Harbaugh to the Steelers.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
And rehired at the Browns. That's what I've been saying, Yes.

Speaker 18 (34:33):
Because the Browns might do that ye backwards, but I
better Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm scouring the landscape for
defensive coordinators who are thirty six years old.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
That's some to them because.

Speaker 16 (34:46):
That's how Granddad did it.

Speaker 18 (34:47):
That's how Dad did it, That's how Art the second
is going to be inclined to do it.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
There was a lot of revisionist history when coach Kuer left.
I remember the we enough of Coward days. I mean,
the Steeler fan base was not super sad that Cower
stepped down. Now that seems unthinkable, but at the time
that was actually what was happening. It was not dissimilar

(35:14):
to the case of a portion of this fan base
being sort of fed up with Tomlin. It never got
to the fire Cower point, which I hate. I think
that's classless, whether it's Matt Canada or Mike Tomlin. I mean,
keep your keep the dirty laundry inside. But anyways, that's
just me on a soapbox. How do you think they're

(35:36):
going to look back at Mike Tomlin when it's all
said and done, if you look back.

Speaker 18 (35:41):
I've actually found the cowor press conference from yesterday.

Speaker 16 (35:44):
I tweeted it out.

Speaker 18 (35:45):
First of all, you just got to look at it
to see the sweater that he pulled out that day.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
That was Cosby special Oh my god.

Speaker 16 (35:51):
The Cosby Specialist.

Speaker 18 (35:53):
It is one of the best ones he's ever had.

Speaker 16 (35:55):
He went out and styled there. But you know, I
mean I kind of thought there was a.

Speaker 18 (35:59):
Rece on the Cower narrative here, like you're right, I
mean people.

Speaker 16 (36:03):
I think people were most fed up with Cowur.

Speaker 18 (36:06):
Going into the new stadium, you know, after the three
years without a playoff berth in ninety eight through two
thousand and then, I.

Speaker 16 (36:12):
Do think there was a reset with a Super Bowl point.

Speaker 18 (36:17):
Yeah, the way I remember it was wasn't so much
people were fed up with him and done and wanted
to leave again.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
I just think, like a.

Speaker 18 (36:24):
Lot of people's minds was Okay, mission accomplished, and if
we don't want to have to do a big reboot
after the rocky season that followed the Super Bowl, then okay,
leave a good team and a good legacy behind for
the next guy. And hey, fortunately that happened.

Speaker 5 (36:41):
Tim Men's Rocky by Don's Appliances from trib Live Sports
this morning, and Benzi always appreciate your contribution and congratulations
on getting the last question in on Mike Tomlin as
head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 18 (36:55):
Hey, and by the way, a little plug coming out
later today and later this morning early afternoon today is
the thirtieth anniversary of the Harbaugh Heaves at Three Rivers Stadium,
the AFC Championship Game.

Speaker 16 (37:06):
Of nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 18 (37:07):
And I talked to the defensive backs who were in
the end zone to bat the ball away from Aaron
Bailey to send the Steelers to Super Bowl thirty.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
So you should have let me know it.

Speaker 5 (37:16):
I got you my buddy Brian Stablein's number, who was
in the end zone right behind.

Speaker 15 (37:22):
Oh yeah, Tim, did you talk to Harbaugh and did
he know exactly what coverage they were going to play
and where the blitz was gonna come from and all
the particulars.

Speaker 18 (37:31):
You know, there's that famous clip of him standing in
the end zone looking at the jumbo John Replace saying I.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
Thought he caught it. I thought he caught it.

Speaker 16 (37:40):
He did not.

Speaker 18 (37:41):
It rolled off his tummy and the Steelers went.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
To the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (37:44):
Denzi, thanks so much, man.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
We'll talk to you later. Abbey's got your news. When
we return, we.

Speaker 6 (37:47):
Will talk about Rod Stewart's eighty year old sex life.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Oh that's exactly what I want to hear.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
Charlie Batch at seven to fifteen, Merrill, Hodge, Rob King,
Jeremy Fowler, who along with Schefter, broke the report yesterday,
Max Stark's Mark Madden.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
A whole lot of Tomlin talk coming up this morning
on DV.

Speaker 13 (38:05):
It's time for the Steelers Daily Report on DVE brought
to you by your Neighborhood for its store and Steelers
Pro Shop. Get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com. Here's Tom Opperman.

Speaker 19 (38:16):
For the first time since two thousand and seven, the
Pittsburgh Steelers are in the market for a new head coach.
Coach Mike Tomlin decided to step down yesterday afternoon after
nineteen seasons as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
By Tomlin leaves behind a legacy that.

Speaker 19 (38:29):
Includes a Super Bowl Championship, two AFC Championships, eight AFC
North Division titles, thirteen total playoff appearances, and of course,
never having had a losing season. The news comes on
the heels of the Steelers losing thirty to six of
the Texans in the Wildcut round Monday night, team's seventh
straight playoff loss, the worst than franchise history.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Steelers will now enter into a coaching.

Speaker 19 (38:49):
Market where they will be competing with eight other NFL
teams searching for a head coach, including their division rivals
Baltimore and Cleveland. As far as what's next for Mike Tomlin, well,
that remains to be seen, although it has been reported
by ESPN's Adam scheffer, that is expected that he will
take a year off from coaching and potentially pursue other
ventures like television. Whatever Tomlin decides, the fact remains the

(39:09):
Steelers will be looking for just the fourth head coach
and team history.

Speaker 5 (39:12):
Since nineteen sixty nine, and seeing as.

Speaker 19 (39:14):
The previous three are all Super Bowl champions, two of
three are already in Ken with Mike Tomlin surely on
his way as the third. Eventually, the shoes are going
to be pretty big to fill for whoever does get
the job. Steelers owner and president Art Rooney will speak
to the media today at noon to address coach Tomlin
stepping down.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
I'm Tom Opferman with the Steelers Report.

Speaker 20 (39:36):
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Speaker 4 (39:55):
Oh Man certainly disappointing into our season, has certainly got
to give Houston a lot of credit, in particularly the
defensive unit.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
I thought they ruled the day.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
They certainly had a reputation for that coming in and
they confirmed it with their performance.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
And that's just how it.

Speaker 5 (40:16):
Goes Mike Tomlin's comments after being defeated by the Houston
Texans in the wild Card game on Monday night, and
it would be about fifteen hours later it would be
announced he steps down as the Steelers head coach after
nineteen years. I am one of those people who think
that this can be mutually beneficial and that I think

(40:37):
there needed to be a change. But I am filled
with gratitude and appreciation for everything that Mike Tomlin did
for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I feel kind of sad
and I don't want him to go. And I think
the vast majority of Steeler fans have that level of
respect for Mike Tomlin and feel sort of the same
way that this is not something to be celebrated so

(41:00):
much at his leaving so much as the celebration should
be about what he accomplished here. We had meaningful football
all nineteen years that he coached here. That is unbelievably rare.
That is, he is one of one to do that,
and there are people who will try to diminish that accomplishment.

(41:21):
I've never been one of those people. I've had issues
with Coach Tomlin. I don't think there's a coach you
can find where I wouldn't as a fan say, ah,
I can't stand that he does this. I always thought
talent assessment was the biggest issue, but I guess that's
probably the toughest thing.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
For any coach GM tandem to pull off.

Speaker 5 (41:38):
I certainly am not celebrating that Mike Tomlin's gone woo,
It's gonna be a rough road ahead. This doesn't just
turn around super easy. We're not in a great situation here,
so it's gonna be rocky. Also, I acknowledged that things
needed to change. I don't think that what we were
doing was working. That mean I don't think coach Tomlin

(42:02):
was an incredible coach.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Wasn't an incredible coach? I think he was.

Speaker 5 (42:05):
I think he is one of the elite motivators in
coaching history. I do think that he one of his
achilles was thinking that every former great player was a
reclamation project that he could take on and fix, get
the last good bit of football out of somebody. I

(42:25):
always described that as he's the guy who goes around
instead of refilling the soap dispensers.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
He'd be like, I just put some water in there,
shake it up.

Speaker 5 (42:33):
You can get plenty of soap out of it.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
You know, it's like there's no more soap coach Darius
Slake can't even run.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
But that's just because he had great belief in players,
and that's why those guys love playing for him.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
So I'm filled with gratitude and appreciation.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
For Mike Tomlin. On a personal level. He was a
really fun guy to be around. And he was like
he was cool, you know what I mean, Like it
was fun. When you saw Coach two, you'd be like,
oh man, what's up? Like he was, He's good dude.
You know cowor wasn't like, you know Cower, You'd be like,
oh Jesus, yeah, right, Coach Tomlin was.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
And the idea here, this one thing I want to
push back on to.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
Is the idea there's a group of people celebrating thinking
that they got Tomlin run out of town.

Speaker 21 (43:19):
Weirdo behavior, just ridiculous. That guy loved Steelers fans. All
you had to do was spend five minutes with him
in Latrobe to see the joy that he gleaned from
the crowds that were there to watch them practice. He
had an appreciation for Steeler Nation that went far beyond

(43:39):
anything that these idiots are recognizing and they think that
by throwing together some sort of campaign to get him ousted,
that that I had anything to do with it. I
hate to tell you that his resilience was far greater
than whatever counter you could have mounted. He was never
going to be pushed out. That's not what happened in
any way. I think he might have been burned out.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
I think that there might have been an element of
truth to what Benzi was saying last hour or two
about the fact that he might have walked in and
wanted assurance that his option was going to be picked up,
and Art Rooney might have just said something along the
lines of at this time, we can't do that, and
he said, all right, let's cut this off here. After

(44:21):
nineteen years and never having a losing season, next year
was going to be a tough one no matter what,
because you're starting over and you're looking for your new quarterback.
More to come from so many people, Charlie Batch is
calling us in a few minutes here, Merrill Hodge, Rob King,
Jeremy Fowler, who broke the story with Schefter yesterday, joins us.
A forty five, Max Starks and Mark Madden, so much
more to come Abby News.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
This hour is brought to you by Keystone Basement Systems
Wet Basement Keystone Basementsystems dot Com. It's going to be
cloudy and rainy today and high of forty six. And
we've seen kind of what we do here in the media.
I want to remind you that British tabloids are always
the worst. Okay, there was a headline that caught my
eye a couple days ago and I thought, like, we

(45:03):
just don't even know what's happening over there.

Speaker 7 (45:06):
Half the time.

Speaker 6 (45:06):
There was a headline that just said Rod Stewart's sexless marriage,
and like, here's the thing.

Speaker 7 (45:14):
You have to remember, he's eighty it should probably.

Speaker 6 (45:18):
Be a sexless marriage at this point. But it went
into detail, saying that he and Penny Lancaster are facing
immense challenges in their marriage, but it's due to his
demanding schedule at the age of oh.

Speaker 5 (45:36):
He doesn't have time to get it on.

Speaker 6 (45:39):
Because he is making these relentless professional commitments. He's busier
than ever. He's juggling the one Last Time tour across
North America. He's got residency shows at Caesar's Palace in
Las Vegas and studio recordings that showed no signs of
slowing his prolific career, or apparently he's also working on

(46:02):
a country album.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Everybody does.

Speaker 5 (46:04):
I mean, there, I always feel like they're the most
patronized fan base out there, because Stephen Tyler's like, you
know what, let's rip off a country album to see
if these roobs will buy it.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
That's what it feels like to me.

Speaker 9 (46:17):
You know.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
Hoody was like, well, let's try country, and then it worked.
He's like, I'm country now, I'm country now. I mean,
he was a South Carolina guy, so I think he
had a little he was a little more steeped in
it than yeah, than most of the people like Rod Stewart.
But you know, I also don't think it depends on
what kind of country, because rock and roll it's not
too far of a leap from country. You know, there's

(46:38):
a lot of the foundations are similar.

Speaker 6 (46:41):
Yeah, Maggie May, you could make a country song pretty easily,
oh my gosh, yeah, and everything. But Penny Lancaster is
obviously significantly.

Speaker 7 (46:50):
Younger than him.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
How much younger.

Speaker 7 (46:53):
I feel like she's in her sixties.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
She's a spring chicken spring compared.

Speaker 6 (47:00):
But he continues to prioritize his career over his private life.
She feels neglected and feels like he is married to
his career instead of her. He used to prioritize their
private time. He is no longer doing that, so she
feels like she's single at this point. And again they
kind of went through a much more British fashion than

(47:20):
they're just not getting it on anymore.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Wake up, Penny, it's time to continue to not have send.

Speaker 5 (47:29):
Maybe Penny doesn't want to have sex with eighty year
old Rod Stewart. Do you ever see that picture of
Rod Stewart back in his heyday when he was married
to that sweet Britt Eklund, the Swedish model now, and
he's like sitting there, he's hanging out by his pool
and he's wearing a the top is a like a
track suit, like an Adia's tracksuit from the soccer team

(47:49):
that he owned, I think, and he just has bikinis
like bottoms on, you know, oh, like bikini and his
pubes are flying out. Yeah, just really just tons of
pubes and he's sitting there and I was like, with
no shame at all, and I thought like, is that

(48:10):
a British thing that it's just okay to have your.

Speaker 12 (48:13):
Apparently, No, that was just a row Stewart thing. Yeah,
oh what year? Oh just google Rod Stewart Brett Ecklin picture.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Don't search Ron Stewart pube computer.

Speaker 7 (48:32):
Randy is going to search that.

Speaker 5 (48:34):
Never mind. Oh yeah, this is not my computer.

Speaker 7 (48:38):
Worry about that.

Speaker 5 (48:38):
Cubes and then you hit image. Yeah, right there, I
mean the first thing that comes up. Yeah, yeah, there
you go. Nineteen seventy five. It was a different times hack, right,
it was a different staring out.

Speaker 7 (48:50):
Of there also with a shag haircut.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
That's the thing.

Speaker 5 (48:54):
I mean, she's so incredibly beautiful that your eye is
kind of drawn away for a moment, and then you
notice that it looks like he's got Rosie Greer in
a headlock, and you think her leg lock. I should
say Rosie Greer. Kids, look it up. Google it free
to be you and me.

Speaker 6 (49:11):
I mean, he is worth three hundred million dollars according
to this article, So if I were a penny, I
would say that's a pretty good consolation prize to not
having sex with an eighty year old man.

Speaker 5 (49:25):
All I know is, you know, he essentially took over
for one of the all time great singers when he
took over it, when faces went from small faces to
faces And why am I blanking on his name?

Speaker 7 (49:40):
Mary? Yes, one of my favorite singers of all time.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
Yes, but who else could have done that except for
Rod Stewart?

Speaker 7 (49:48):
Completely agree?

Speaker 6 (49:49):
Yeah, And also at this moment he looks like Lady Elaine,
he kind.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
Of does unfortunately.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Joining us right now from the Steelers Audio Network, brought
to you by Edgars Knighter and Associate its local lawyers
helping local people.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
Charlie Batch.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
And Charlie I know you were on the NFL Network
yesterday talking about this. Pretty shocking the news, the way
that it broke, It was very sudden. I wasn't I
wouldn't have been surprised if a change were in the works,
but to have come down that quickly after losing to
Houston on Monday night was a big surprise.

Speaker 11 (50:24):
Yeah, that was the part that shocked me more than anything,
just on the timing of it and how quickly it happened,
because that took me right back to you know, obviously
twenty years ago when coach Kawer was going through it.
We had our team meeting after the two thousand and
six season, and then we even had exit interviews with
the head coach and then ultimately a decision was made
after all the players left the building. But in this case,

(50:44):
it sounds like he went into the team meeting alerted
everybody at that time, so everybody was shocked learning that news. So, yeah,
that was the part that got me more than anything.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
Now.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
I mean, it's reported that it was of his own
volition that Mike Tomlin wanted the change, but you suggested
that maybe he got nudged.

Speaker 16 (51:06):
Yeah, it's possible, and.

Speaker 11 (51:07):
I think ultimately when you look at this whole thing,
and the reason why I didn't think he was going
to get fired was because the money that was owed
to him and being around the Steelers organization for twenty
four years now, I've never seen the Rooney family fire
coach and allow him to sit home and collect money,
and I thought ultimately there would be some type of

(51:27):
mutual understanding how do you resolve the money issue. But
because he was not fired, now that steal comes into
play because Mike Tolland is not a free agent, so
he cannot go and sign wherever he chooses to go
to without the permission of the organization. So the Steelers
still control his rights and if he chooses to go
somewhere else, whether it's this year potentially next year, the

(51:49):
Steelers rule won compensation for this, So this is still
a story in progress for sure, Charlie.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
They've had a type over the years.

Speaker 15 (51:58):
They find a young, up and coming to fail coach
and hire a guy who they think has the tools
and can grow into the job and be there a
long time. They did that three times in the last
what sixty something years? Each guy won at least won
Super Bowl. But has the game changed and is it
time to look for a young, offensive minded coach?

Speaker 3 (52:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (52:22):
And I think, you know, just based off of comments
that you read throughout the years, especially the last couple
of years, you know, you start to kind of see
as this shifting offense is happening.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Through the league.

Speaker 11 (52:32):
Yeah, you want to score more points, so you're starting
to see people lean in that direction.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
You know, where do you go? Where do you look for?
You know?

Speaker 11 (52:38):
And ultimately you know, is that coach out there? And
I think as this process happens, I think the Ruinies
will take their time like they always have done. Even
though you do have a few teams that are a
week ahead of them with their interviews. But what direction
that he chooses to go is obviously going to be
something that we're all.

Speaker 16 (52:55):
Paying attention to, only because he wants.

Speaker 11 (52:58):
To get it right and making sure that you're not
making this coaching decision every four to five years. He
wonts somebody who's going to be here ten plus years?

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Did you feel it was time for a change.

Speaker 11 (53:09):
I didn't necessarily feel it was time for a change
because I've been.

Speaker 16 (53:11):
On some bad teams. I was in Detroit.

Speaker 11 (53:14):
And then when you have an organization who's learning how
to or trying to learn how to win, versus one
who knows how to win, you understand, yes, you can
be right there on edge and you just need a
little nudge to kind of get over that hurdle. And
I think that's ultimately what I feel needed to happen here. Listen,
the move is made and now Steeler fans who wanted

(53:34):
Tomlin gone got their wish. And ultimately, and I would
always ask be well, if he's gone, who would you want?
And there's a well anybody but him? And I said,
the process is not that easy. Who else is out there?
And I think ultimately I just developed that a.

Speaker 16 (53:48):
Little bit more help nudging mirror.

Speaker 11 (53:50):
Ultimately, you still stay stable because you're winning ten wins.
Now you're trying to get to that fourteenth win ultimately,
which is a super Bowl title if you had to
go on the.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Road and do that. So I just think we're there.

Speaker 11 (54:01):
I just think now an ultimate reset this is going
to be something that is going to be challenging only
because the next head coach is not inheriting a Ben Roethlisberger.
You now have to rebuild at that quarterback position. So
this is going to be a process for sure.

Speaker 5 (54:15):
In appreciation of what Mike Tomlin did here, you played
for Mike Tomlin. What was it in your mind that
made him special, set him apart from other head coaches.

Speaker 11 (54:25):
Yeah, for me, it was always the communication because when
he stepped into a room, his message was always clear
and concise and he was able to communicate that which
a lot of Steelers' Nation, you know, fell in love
with his press conferences and its tolinisms and those type
of things. And that was the part that you always
appreciated in my relationship with them. And quite frankly, it
was different because he was only three years older than me, right,

(54:46):
you know, we stepped into the meeting he's coached Tomlin,
but if we're out on the street, your mic to me,
and that's just where we were.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
And we had a really good rapport.

Speaker 11 (54:54):
That way, and he was able to balance that not
only with myself but with multiple players, especially when the
age gap became greater and greater.

Speaker 16 (55:01):
And that was the things that I just truly appreciate.

Speaker 11 (55:03):
The players still the message still resonated with these guys,
and I think ultimately when you hear and read the comments,
even when he did make the med that they delivered
the message to the team.

Speaker 16 (55:13):
His players gave.

Speaker 11 (55:14):
Him a stand in ovation because not just what he
did currently, but just the length of his career.

Speaker 16 (55:19):
And people appreciate that, and I appreciate it.

Speaker 11 (55:21):
What him and his family has done for not only
Latasha and I, but our foundation as a whole.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
Yeah. Do you see there being one thing or a
couple of things that might have changed his fortune? I mean,
I talked about his inflexibility with some things and possibly
not adapting to the changes in the NFL as being
you know, one of one of the achilles that he had.

(55:47):
Is there anything that you think, like, boy, if you
might have just accepted this he would have had a
you know, a better outcome in terms of playoff success
or is that just how the cookie crumbles in the
NF fell And you know, it's hard to win, it's
hard to get playoff success.

Speaker 11 (56:05):
It is, and I think, you know, there's a lot
of that all that that combines there, and I think
ultimately everybody's trying to win, you know, right with one
of his phrases was football is our game. Winning is
our business, and that's how we're evaluated. But I think
ultimately people are growing They were growing weary of that
because you're not having a success in the playoffs. But listen,
that's what happens when you come out the gate hot

(56:27):
and you win a super Bowl in your second year,
you go your second super Bowl in your fifty year.
That's the expectation that everybody wants you to continue to have.
It's not just the winning seasons. And those are things
that ultimately kind of played out. But I think it
really all came to a head in November when those
boot burrs came out.

Speaker 16 (56:43):
Maybe he's thinking maybe.

Speaker 11 (56:44):
Potentially down that road, but when it started to happen
and ultimately not having a success in the playoffs sometimes
there is a point where you say the time is now,
and ultimately that decision was made and here we are
reacting to it.

Speaker 5 (56:55):
Charlie Badger and the Steelers Audio Network. Charlie, thanks as always, Buddy,
appreciate your time this morning.

Speaker 16 (57:00):
Yeah, I appreciate you.

Speaker 5 (57:01):
Thanks for having Okay Man, We'll see him.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
We got a lot more to come.

Speaker 5 (57:04):
Merrill Hodge, Rob King, Jeremy Fowler, who broke the story
with Adam Schefter yesterday eight forty five, Max Starks and
Mark Madden still the come, plus Mike Persuda with the
latest on what happens now.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Art Rooney's gonna speak with the media today, Mike.

Speaker 15 (57:19):
Just yeah, he's gonna speak, and then he's gonna go
out to the coach store and get a great coach
and they're gonna win a Super Bowl next year. No
prom because it was all Tomlin's fault. Well, the only
thing holding them back was Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
That's it. They should have done this ten years ago.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
There are a lot of people who think that, you know,
I like what Charlie said, though he used a victim
of his own success. You know, super Bowl in year
two and then year five, you go back and it's
like you set the bar so.

Speaker 15 (57:44):
Well, and you know part of the non losing seasons
thing that it was not the ultimate goal, but that
seemed to be the ceiling the last nine years, and
that was an issue to a lot of people, no.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Doubt about it. All Right.

Speaker 5 (57:58):
The latest when we returned, Mike Tomlin stepping down a
Steeler's head coach at your radio home of the Pittsburgh
Steelers one on two point five.

Speaker 22 (58:05):
DV live from the Don's Appliances Studios where Pittsburgh shops
for appliances. This is w DVD Pittsburgh, the four.

Speaker 5 (58:14):
Suitor now with your sports on your radio home of
the Black and Gold DVE.

Speaker 3 (58:18):
Sports, I brought to you by Bridgeville Appliance.

Speaker 15 (58:21):
To the news of Mike Thomlin's resignation breaking mid afternoon yesterday.
A lot of people taken by surprise, I'm guessing it
even those who thought this might be a possibility that
was probably a very small number weren't expecting it. In
the immediate aftermath of Texans thirty Steelers six, I was
driving home from here we taped the Extra point yesterday, myself,

(58:44):
Rob King and Matt Williamson, and I was listening to
serious Radio because Steve Bushatti, the Ravens owner, was having
a press conference to detail why he fired John Harbaugh.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
And that's when Bashati found doubt at Pittsburgh he did.
Is it official? That's what I keep hearing. So is
he a candidate? Here?

Speaker 23 (59:08):
Holy Mike, wouldn't that be awesome? Only if John takes
the Pittsburgh child. Wow, wouldn't that be interesting? I don't
know that that thing last week maybe disqualified one of

(59:30):
my He did the kiss the opening after our kicker,
mister kick to let them advance. Good for Mike, Yeah,
I don't know, talk to him.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
I love Mike.

Speaker 23 (59:45):
I mean I've I've admired Mike for eighteen years and
that's really uh shocking that that that he did it
that way.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
But yeah, that's that's kind of craz He didn't say no.
Can you imagine? I don't think Tomlin switching jobs.

Speaker 5 (01:00:09):
And again, like I said, Stefanski gets rehired by the Browns.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
That makes the most sense or tame that the Bengals
for Zach Taylor in the fifth rout. Zach Taylor's getting
Mike Tomlin Right now.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
We talked about Tomlin being a victim of his own success,
you know, same as Zach Taylor. Expectations get set high,
you don't get back there. People are like, all right,
you can't do it anymore next.

Speaker 15 (01:00:28):
Probably that going on in Detroit, Michigan too. I think
definitely I never quite got there. He got to the brink,
Dan Campbell did.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
I think Buffalo was approaching that point, man, But now
I don't know. I don't know, dude, that defense he's
doing some cool things. So at any rate with Mike Tomlin,
I don't think he's going to be coaching anywhere next year.
Too much would have to happen for that to be
the case, because the Steelers still retain the rights to
Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Yeah. I did have to get some compensation, Yeah, a
little something for the effort. It's not that much to happen.

Speaker 5 (01:00:58):
He was out fifty million dollars and he walked away
from that. I might have toughed it out. I might
have toughed it out.

Speaker 3 (01:01:04):
Well, think you about the last fifty he had a
chance to earn. Well, that's just it is.

Speaker 5 (01:01:07):
I think that he's looking at it and his agent's going, hey,
you'll go make twenty eight next year for you know, Fox,
If you want to go and sit next to Howie
and Terry.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
He might be like, I'd rather talk to Tim Bins,
but that would be shocked.

Speaker 5 (01:01:23):
Ye still though, when he returns to coaching, because I
don't think there's any doubt he's going to and is
if the reports are true, Tad apparently it has to
be warm weather. He's he's gotten very dainty in his demands. Yeah, right,
it's critical. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if he
ends up in Tampa in two years.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
That's where he started.

Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
I could see him going right back there and that
if there was any truth to the warm weather demand,
it would fit that bill too.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
But I don't think he's going to be coaching next year.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
I genuinely think he's burnt and wants a little bit
of a break here and fresh recharge and get back
at it. And also to the whole point of this,
the money will be insane when he comes back, so
giving up this fifty doesn't matter.

Speaker 15 (01:02:10):
Included in Mike Tomlins's statement released yesterday, quote, I want
to thank Steeler Nation. Your passion, loyalty, and high expectations
represent what makes this franchise truly special. Coaching in Pittsburgh
is unlike anywhere else, and I will always take great
pride in having been a steward of this team. Well,
this chapter comes to a close, my respect and love
for the Pittsburgh Steelers will never change. I'm excited for

(01:02:32):
what the future holds for this organization, and I will
forever be grateful for my time coaching in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
I think when his history is.

Speaker 15 (01:02:40):
Written here, the reason there wasn't more success, the reason
there wasn't ultimate success, is the player evaluation component, as
he might do.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
I think that's the first thing.

Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
And the second thing is his reluctance to allow for
coordinators to be independent and people who have had success.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
You and I disagree on this.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
I always think his lack of a coaching tree is
an indictment.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
Well, I'm not saying you don't have good coaches. I'm
just saying maybe you need better coaches.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
Yeah, But Randy Fiekner, you know, I think the best
coaches he had are the ones he inherited when he
when he got on the job, and the fall off
after was precipitous. And I don't think that's a coincidence
with the lack of postseason success.

Speaker 15 (01:03:35):
Although One of the reasons he got the job was
he was in agreement to keep Lebau Dick Lebaux on
his defensive coordinator and Bruce Arians And this was a
defensive coach, yes, who agreed to have a legendary defensive
coach stay on his staff. So, you know, maybe just
made some wrong decisions there. I don't think he wanted
bad coaches, and I don't think no. I think he

(01:03:56):
wanted to be in control, is my point. Well, that
certainly does not make exclusive in the NFL head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
I know that, But that I think was he was
stirring too many pots.

Speaker 15 (01:04:07):
Maybe a couple of other arguments I'd like to shoot down.
The idea that he had an outdated philosophy always made
me laugh. You know, he wants to run the ball
too much. Last year they got run over by the
Ravens who ran them out of the playoffs, and then
the Eagles won the Super Bowl by running the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
I don't think he wanted to run the ball to
I don't think he ran the ball enough.

Speaker 15 (01:04:30):
And then defensively, you know he wants these low scoring
defensive struggles. Well, when he had Ben Roethlisberger, he did
and he wanted to score thirty eight points, and when
he had Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, he wanted to
throw it all over the yard. He wanted to do
what he thought his players could do. And the idea
that defense doesn't matter anymore, well, they just got smashed

(01:04:51):
by the best defense in the NFL. I mean, these
things don't go out of start. Running the ball, having
a great defense, and being plus minus in turnover do
not go out of style. They're not exclusive to Mike
Tomlin or how the game's played.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
I agree with you there.

Speaker 5 (01:05:05):
I think that they didn't have the level of success
that he wanted to in those areas and that's what
bit them, no question in the a yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:05:10):
Like people saying, you know, his philosophy's wrong or the
game's passed him by.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
No, the philosophy right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
But again, you know, schematically, if you don't have the
badasses that Houston has, you kind of have to do
some things to take it up.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
And I don't think you with Darius Slay and one
thorn Hill can do. You got a problem.

Speaker 15 (01:05:37):
Then you're going on to scrap Peep and picking up
Kyle Duggan and you still got a problem. If you
think Roman Wilson's worth a third round pick and he
ends up not being that. You got a problem, and
then you end up going to the scratch like that's
a hard way to get it done.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
He sat on this show and said the defense had
a chance to be historic, which was hyperbolic for Mike
Tomlin to say something like that, who would you know
say that all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
We all have a chance to be great. You know,
that's what this is all about.

Speaker 5 (01:06:04):
But for him to go out on the limb and
say that that he was that confident because of Jayalen Ramsey,
because of Darius Lay, because of Thornhill, because of TJ.
Watbi and full Bore and Derek Harmon joining the defensive line,
and Herbig also having another year.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Okay, all of that. Yes, Sawyer was.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
Actually another one of a piece of that puzzle that
just told me in retrospect, like, man, he overestimated what
these guys could do by leaps and bounds.

Speaker 15 (01:06:32):
Yeah, and I wonder if this is just pure speculation
on my part, but they put so much time, effort,
energy resources into making the run defense better and rebuilding
the secondary, and when they needed it most, the run
defense was not better and the secondary was not better.
And I wonder if he thought, Wow, maybe I need
to rethink some stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:06:52):
Yeah maybe, I don't know. It's gonna be interesting to
see what happens. Now, turning to the future, who's the
new stealer head? It's going to be? I keep hearing
Chris Shula, Marcus Freeman, Brian Flores. I mean, I thought
it was a bad move to let Brian Flores walk
out in the first place. Imagine if you never let
Mike Munchak go. Imagine if you had Munchak and Brian Flores. Well,

(01:07:15):
it's a whole lot different from what they had at
defensive coordinator in Tarrell Austin, no doubt, and in Randy Fiekner,
Matt Canada and Arthur Smith.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Don't the college guys make more than the NFL guys?
They do, now, I believe.

Speaker 5 (01:07:27):
Yeah, that's why everybody's talking about Signetti coming here.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
I'm like, I think he's good. And is Freeman gonna
get the schedule Navy and Purdue?

Speaker 15 (01:07:36):
Where did Marcus Freeman guarantee him a spot in the playoffs?

Speaker 24 (01:07:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 23 (01:07:40):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
How did that name get thrown into the mix?

Speaker 15 (01:07:43):
If based on what these things happen and his names appear.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Well.

Speaker 5 (01:07:48):
I think a lot of times it's agents that that,
you know, put that stuff in.

Speaker 15 (01:07:52):
You feel like they got a writer say something, so
they writer or say something and just move on.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
You know, that wasn't anywhere near in the same ballpark.

Speaker 5 (01:08:00):
Merrill Hodge joins us next and we'll talk about what
the Steelers do going forward and his thoughts on Mike
Tomlin and his legacy.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
But first, Mike Randal.

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Speaker 7 (01:09:30):
Winter's call for cozy nights and funnest.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
To your radio home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. One on't
two point five DVE.

Speaker 5 (01:09:38):
Mike Tomlin steps down as head coach of the Steelers
after nineteen years and joining us right now.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
Brought to you by Castle Rock, Hormone Health and South
Hills Kia.

Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
South Hills, Kia has a ride and the price You'll
love Meryl Hodge joining us right now and Maryland. Normally
I'd be doing the Maryland clapping and going nuts, but
I'm not feeling too celebratory today.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
I I uh, as much as I think.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
A change needed to happen, I am only filled with
gratitude at what Mike Tomlin did for us here in Pittsburgh.
And I'm not one of those people who are cheering
this change. Thinking list solves everything. I don't know where
you fall in this argument, but I know you have
an appreciation for Mike Tomlin's abilities as a coach, and
you can speak to that first if you'd like. But

(01:10:21):
did you think this was the right time for a
change for both Mike and the organization?

Speaker 24 (01:10:27):
Well, I'll just answered the first one is yeah. I
think that they all felt that, and I think that's
actually you know, I think Mike's not dumb man, you know,
I think Mike sensed it too, and instead of you know,
thinking about it, I think all of these Chuck, Bill
and Mike all resigned. Correct me if I'm wrong. Nobody

(01:10:47):
got fired. I don't think ex serious. I've ever fired
a head coach in like almost seventy years. Okay, they've
all decided to move on, and I think all of them,
you know, felt that that there was time that they
needed to move on and best for not just them,
but I.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
Think the organization. So I'd say yes to that. Now.

Speaker 24 (01:11:05):
I'm fortunate that I played for two of the three
coaches in CEO history, which is when I when I
said that, I can't even believe I can say that.
You know, two of them ended up being in the
Hall of Famers. I remember when Chuck left, you could
fill it in the air the last few weeks you
just could feel either there was something different. We didn't
know he was going to resign, but there was something

(01:11:25):
different in the air. Then were Bill Cower left as
a ESPN at the time, And I remember ESPN came
to me, They're like, oh my gosh, some my gosh,
who do you think on their staff is going to
be the next head coach? I said, they all better
run for their lives to think nobody could be the
next head coach there if they do what they normally do.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
I wouldn't do that.

Speaker 24 (01:11:44):
And I go and I can't tell you how good
the head coach would be and telling you can tell
me whose staff is period. That's really what makes a
great head coach. But then I got to work with Mike.
You know, I didn't play for him, but if I
worked with him, I've been in the same room with him.
I've watched my parade and and you know, correct me if'
wrong on this one. But the Steeders will probably end
up with three Hall of Fame coaches back to back

(01:12:06):
to back.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Ye when it's all.

Speaker 24 (01:12:08):
Said and done, I enjoyed working with my because you know,
he's unique and how he goes about things, he's confident,
and how he goes about.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
Things, he models things.

Speaker 24 (01:12:20):
And I'm going to leave it right there, because the
greatest you can take leadership and you can say, hey,
here's the five principles in leadership, and which one's most important.
I think all of them usually are. But if I
had to pick one, it's like there's one that this
is just concrete, it never goes wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
And that's modeling, you know.

Speaker 24 (01:12:39):
Because what you see somebody do is going to be
far more impactful than what you hear them say, especially
if it doesn't match.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
Now, if they say something and then they model it,
which Bill Cower Chuck. No, they were impeccable with that,
and so is Mike. And so.

Speaker 24 (01:12:57):
You listen, nineteen years something to not be like feel
like there's something. Listen, my wife is one of the
biggest steel fans. I can't eve watch TV with the
game sometimes because within thirty seconds of the game, if
something doesn't go right, it's over, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
And she's Italian. So he's a Steelers fan. No, yeah,
he said he's a Steelers fan.

Speaker 5 (01:13:14):
I know, yeah, ok, yeah, right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Right right.

Speaker 24 (01:13:20):
So I'm sitting there, that's crazy because say I didn't
I got I got drafted by the Pittsburgh Steels. I
didn't live in Pittsford. I didn't grow up in Pittsburgh.
I'm like, I'm watching somebody who grew up in Pittsburgh,
and I'm like, Wow, that's Od's what I loved about
the Steelers fan that they are so passionate, they are
so committed. And let me tell you this. I think
I've told this before many times. When I was a

(01:13:42):
year fan for some twenty five years, everybody that I
got to work with that was not a Pittsburgh steel Fan,
every one of them referred to the Steelers fan as
being the best.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
And here's why they're a smart fan. Do they get mad,
do they get angry, Yes, but they.

Speaker 24 (01:13:55):
Appreciate your one percent commitment win or lose, then know
you gave everything you had. Okay, they can say they
can swallow that they want champ they want championship, absolutely,
but they can accept somebody who gave everything they have.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
It just didn't work out for us. MARYL.

Speaker 5 (01:14:10):
Well, what I wanted to ask you that, duvetailing into
your experience working with Mike one of the knots against him.
Did you ever sense that he was reluctant to accept
feedback from those around him, or that he was reluctant
to put the best people in the room as he
possibly could to come out with the best performance that

(01:14:33):
the team could muster.

Speaker 24 (01:14:35):
Now you could sit there, Here's where I he was
off coach too. Okay, so I didn't just play off coach.
I've been a position coach, coordinator and a head coach,
and I've always believed I'll go back to what I
said at the very beginning. When Bill Tower came or
if they were going to go Chuck n or Bill resigned,
They're like, who's you know, who's going to be the
next head coach and how good will they be? I

(01:14:55):
was like, until I know the staff, I cannot really
tell you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
And that is lead the truth. And if you look
at it at his history, he's.

Speaker 24 (01:15:04):
He hasn't put the you know, smarter people around as
smart as people that he can round. The tree tells
you that, you know, if there is there was one
flaw that Mike, Mike had maybe was not the evaluation
of coaches and getting people in that you know, we're
just smarter in an area. It's nice to be in
a room and come up with an idea and then

(01:15:25):
have somebody go, well, I think we should do it,
and you're like, oh, yeah, that's smart.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
That's better now, I did you know, And if there was,
probably in.

Speaker 24 (01:15:33):
The nineteen years there was never really any you know,
great depth around him aside from initially, you.

Speaker 5 (01:15:41):
Know, the transition came with quite a stable of coordinators, right.

Speaker 24 (01:15:47):
And so you know those guys never really eclipsed like
you know, true greatness. So they moved on and evolved.
So you know, the evaluation of staff. But you know,
I could tell you this, he has a great in
what he does in a commitment to what he does,
and sometimes you don't really go back and look until

(01:16:07):
you can just remove yourself and reflect on stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:16:11):
You know, you're in the blender.

Speaker 24 (01:16:12):
It's hard to see what's going on sometimes, and so
I did give him that liberty because that's happened to
me many times. You're in the blender, and there wasn't
until I got out of the blender that I was like, Okay, wow, jeez,
I couldn't see it in the blender, but man, I
got it out of it, and see, it's easy to
judge from the outside. Now I have a perspective of that,
so I can evaluate that a little better. But I

(01:16:33):
also do know when you're in the blender, it's hard.
It's so hard. And listen what he did for nineteen years.
If you just listed all the things, you know, a
lot of them are never been done.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
You know that.

Speaker 24 (01:16:47):
Don't never take that lightly. The leave's been around one
hundred years or more. I mean a lot of great coaches,
great coaches, Hall of fame coaches, some that he proceeded
that didn't do what he did, you know, just to
put it in light of the greatness that he did,
he did have and I think every coach could go
back and go about even Chuck No who I think

(01:17:08):
he is the greatest leader I have ever seen, the
greatest man I've ever been around. Still with this day,
nobody has ever eclipsed him. And I could go back
and look at things that we could have done, like
his his commitment to being physical and practice. I'm telling
you that Friday we were just like I don't know
if I got enough for Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
You know. So there's a lot of.

Speaker 24 (01:17:29):
Things you know, that evolved in and change over time
that somebody could go back. But here's why I give
all three of them. In the environment they were in,
all the information they had at that time, they did
their very best, and they gave everything they had. And
there's nothing more you can ask of a human being
in those two things.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
Uh. Do you have a favorite tomlinism? We'll go out
on that. I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:17:52):
Did you like that that technique using the metaphoric and
may well?

Speaker 24 (01:17:58):
Yes, I like those of things like because I think
they could be powerful, especially when you you've implemented that,
you've implemented in your life, you know the effects they
can have. Uh, Like I've always been like as a kid,
I ran across Aristotle on accident. I don't know who
that guy was at the time, and I don't even
know why. I read the stuff he reads more more.
I read the margin that.

Speaker 3 (01:18:18):
I became.

Speaker 24 (01:18:25):
So stowing stuff like to me resonates with me, and
I was so what he does says stuff, I get that.
I get where that's coming from, you know, and how
it resonates in his life, and he transfers it to
the people he's leading, you know, and or the people's
trying to explain stuff too. So uh, I think he
was a trific head coach. I think he's unique in

(01:18:46):
his in his approach to it. I think he was
a tripic leader period, and his history will speak for
itself when he's when he goes to the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 5 (01:18:56):
Minds again will forever be there's a fine line between
between drinking wine and stomping grapes.

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 24 (01:19:06):
See, you know something, if you know the first time
you hear that, you start going, you got to make
a sink.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
I know.

Speaker 24 (01:19:13):
That's one thing I think you're trying to do is
makes you think, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Because it's not the norm. Yeah, so you know that
there's a lot of people go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:19:19):
Do you think he'll stay on TV, like you know,
he's gonna head back to coaching.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
No, I think he goes to TV. I don't do.

Speaker 24 (01:19:29):
Here's any doubt because when listen, he the Steelers if
he has another year on his contract, right too? Yeah,
okay too, so he can't coach. Look, I guess you
can't coach, you know, but the Steels, he's not gonna.
I believe he's going to television. I have no information
on that. I just believe that when you resign, you
have two years you'll go. You're gonna go onto television.

(01:19:50):
You're gonna go on to broadcasting. That's what I believe.

Speaker 5 (01:19:53):
Merril Hodge brought to you by Castle Rock Hormone Health
in south Field, Key this morning on DV. Love me, Meryl,
Thanks buddy. We'll talk to you next week. Absolutely all right, man,
we'll see it when we come back. Tad Whistle's thoughts
on coach Tomlin's tenure here in Pittsburgh. Rob King, voice
of the Steelers on the Steelers Audio Network, joining US
eight forty five. Jeremy Fowler, who broke the story along

(01:20:13):
with Adam Schefter fre ESPN yesterday. Max Stark's Mark Madden
all still to come and we'll go.

Speaker 3 (01:20:19):
Over some of our favorite tomlinisms for you.

Speaker 5 (01:20:22):
There certainly are plenty to choose from. Some of them
drove me crazy, but that's part of the power of them,
as they're supposed to drive the standard. Is the standard
used to drive me nuts? I'm like, that's too vague.
Let's just doha. So yeah, and also Abby will have

(01:20:44):
some news later this morning nine am.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
We'll check back in what's going on.

Speaker 5 (01:20:47):
News because it's kind of a slow news day outside
of Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
Right, I don't think.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
We care about anything other than Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 6 (01:20:53):
But you know what will restore people's trust in their
nightly news alcohol agreed, That is what could potentially be
coming to CBS whiskey Fridays.

Speaker 3 (01:21:02):
Oh that's Look.

Speaker 5 (01:21:03):
If there's one thing that the evening news is needed,
it's a touch of booze.

Speaker 23 (01:21:08):
Yeah, Meryl Hodge, Here, I faced a lot in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Here's it's fair an iHeart radio station guaranteed.

Speaker 4 (01:21:18):
Human like like, I don't know if anything is absolute,
you know what I mean? But I had to add
enough confidence to feel comfortable.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
I'll tell you that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
But certainly, you know, as they say in this business
man nothing is solid in his business to the inks
dry and so, but I felt I felt very confident.

Speaker 5 (01:21:45):
Coach Tomlin talking about this Pittsburgh Steeler campaign with us
at Steelers training camp and Lay Trobe this past August,
and that will be his nineteenth and final, which is
hard to believe.

Speaker 3 (01:22:00):
Hard to believe.

Speaker 5 (01:22:00):
He won't be uh walking around the field art Rooney
Field there Saint Vincent College in the summer, welcoming the
throngs of Steeler fans. By the way, you have to
say throngs, throngs of Steeler fans who pilgrimage out to
La Trobe each and every summer, and you can say
La Trobe or Latrobe, it doesn't matter. Apparently it's not
gonna feel real.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
I think it's it's really it's going to hit another
layer of setting in when he's not a camp this year.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
I agree. It's going to field. Well, the first game
on the sidelines, who is this guy?

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
Yeah? Like what if?

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
Like, how's the new guy gonna dress? Will he wear
a hat? There's a high bar, Yeah, there's not a
very high first. I think some hoodie in a hat
is really all he did. Vast gentleman's vest. Yes, tech guy.
Vest I wonder who, you know, what kind of coach
of the Steelers gonna go out and get now, Tad,
you know, will it be a meathead?

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Will it be an analytics guy? You know, one of
the many archetypes. Will it be a.

Speaker 5 (01:23:01):
Storied NFL like Tom Donahoe, not Tom don Tom Coughlin type,
you know, disciplinaryan, Yeah, one of those guys, don't. I
don't know what it's gonna end up being. Sounds like
it's going to be a young guy again, Chris Shula,
Marcus Freeman.

Speaker 3 (01:23:20):
We keep hearing.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
You know, I think with teams that replace their head
coaches a lot, and I feel this way in all sports.
If you have the crazy yells all the time, guy,
when that guy gets fired, the pendulum swings the other
way and get the most so Lloyd to John Russell, Yes,
and also like them, yes, yeah, But the Steelers obviously

(01:23:41):
have a thing that they like to do.

Speaker 3 (01:23:43):
Mike talked about it, you know, young defensive minded guy. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:47):
I know you have your reflections on these past nineteen years, Dad, Yeah,
you know, it's been a somber time a reflection for me.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
I don't know if it's really set in yet. But
I was a sat back yesterday, and you know, I
had to think about the legacy of Mike Tomlin here
and some of my memories with them. Nineteen years is
a long time to do anything. I remember his first
press conference, this plucky thirty four year old defensive coordinator
from the Vikings. He was well spoken, and he chalked

(01:24:17):
up an early win with Steeler fans by wearing a
black suit with a gold tie, as if to say,
these are the team's colors.

Speaker 3 (01:24:24):
Yes, and I'm aware of that.

Speaker 5 (01:24:26):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
Tom established himself as a no nonsense guy pretty early.
On two thousand and eight, he put the kaibosh on
Santa Claus visiting the coaches.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
Prescott's right, that's right. Yeah, we'll have to ask Mike
about that at some point.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
It's sort of it set like the precedent for his
moral code. If I think something is stupid, I'm out.
It feels pretty easy to break Mike Tomlin's tenure into
two periods, the ten years before the twenty seventeen Divisional
round loss of the Jaguars and the nine years that followed.
I mean, the first decade was extremely fun, you know,

(01:25:02):
I thought it was all very fun.

Speaker 3 (01:25:04):
Maybe the message got stale.

Speaker 1 (01:25:06):
Maybe the team was constructed to win in an antiquated
way that can't make you elite. And yeah, TJ and
Derrek Watt, the Haywards, Nate and Nick Herbig. He obviously
developed some kind of brothers fetish over the years.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
You forgot about the Edmonds.

Speaker 2 (01:25:24):
He was.

Speaker 5 (01:25:26):
Trying to engineer that one. And maybe yeah they were
triplets too. Yeah, if only Tremaine were worse, we could
get him. He had so many great qualities, you know.
Let's let's not overlook that he should go into the
Hall of Fame for his management of Antonio Brown alone.
His players seem to love him. He was, by all accounts,

(01:25:47):
highly regarded by his peers. And let's not forget Mike
Tomlin was cool as hell. Oh yeah, cooler than every
other coach in the league anyway.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Put it this way. He never ran out of the
tunnel with toilet paper on the ship.

Speaker 5 (01:25:58):
It did not happen.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
I have a vivid.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Recollection of watching Hard Knocks in my parents' basement. In
twenty twelve, Miami was the featured team and Joe Philben
was their head coach. Oh my god, I remember thinking
to myself, Wow, this dude sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:26:15):
There is nothing interesting about this guy at all.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
It felt like at any moment, Joe Philbin was gonna
call a team meeting and try to sell them supplemental insurance.
At the very least, the Tomin led Steeler team would
never be dorks.

Speaker 5 (01:26:29):
Yeah, like John Gannon in uh oh Arizona. You know,
like one of those guys where it's like they just
they're just awkward and weird or boring and it's just
not fun to reofor him.

Speaker 1 (01:26:42):
Completely unrelatable, like to ownership, and I think to the players, yeah,
who are you serving?

Speaker 3 (01:26:48):
Yeah, Like a lot of people didn't like that.

Speaker 5 (01:26:50):
Tomlin was super cocky, would like do the blow of
the kiss and all that pet the chest pound which
was owed to uh. I can't remember who who was he? Yes,
some UFC guys. I thought it was sweet.

Speaker 3 (01:27:01):
I don't know. You know me too.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
He was a smooth dude. We'll always have the tomlinisms
among my favorites.

Speaker 3 (01:27:08):
We do not care. I'd rather have to say woa
than sick. That's a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
The fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. If
you're gonna dance all night you better wear a diaper.

Speaker 3 (01:27:20):
I don't remember that one.

Speaker 5 (01:27:21):
I made that last one up, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:24):
But that was the beauty of Mike t the order
he could casually drop a phrase like that at the
podium after a big win and it would sound legit.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
Yeah uh yeah, I be prepared, right, that's what that means.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Maybe it'd be on a T shirt in the Strip
district by noon on Mondays? Would A Steelers team led
by Mike Tomlin was never a laughing stock. People hate
the non losing season staff. To put it in perspective,
the Browns have finished under five hundred and sixteen times
since Mike Tomlin.

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
Airly cow wow, sixteen times. It's a lot. I see
a lot of high things.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Steeler fans talking about going three and fourteen to improve
their draft position.

Speaker 3 (01:28:04):
Wow, heady stuff. I think it was.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
Sun Zoo who once said to be good, one must
first suck, and I think I.

Speaker 3 (01:28:15):
Deserve a little credit for not turning that into a
Bobby suck.

Speaker 1 (01:28:18):
Yes, yes, yes, anyway, sure, Hey yeah, let's tag for
a year sounds great. If anyone needs me, I'll be
on a twelve month bender.

Speaker 5 (01:28:29):
Who wants to do that? I know it's Madden was
was endorsing that yesterday. He wanted a three and fourteen
year with Will Howard at quarterback, and I'm like, I
don't want that. Will Howard doesn't want that. No, Will
Howard is very much in the why do I have
to suck?

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
Yeah, I was drafted.

Speaker 1 (01:28:52):
Being a head coach in the NFL means fighting battles
on a strategic level that we the fans haven't even
considered the game within the game, if you will. And
in that regard, Tomond had many rivals. Tomlin versus the clock, Oh,
Tomlin versus his fears.

Speaker 5 (01:29:08):
He lived at him sometimes he did.

Speaker 1 (01:29:10):
Did Tomlin verse, challenging the call on the field, Tomlin's
leg VERSUSJA Kobe Jones, Tomlin versus Jory Rand's press conference question.

Speaker 5 (01:29:21):
Now you reminded me of this. I forgot when Jory
Ran worked for Channel two back in the day that
he and Tomlin just did not jive.

Speaker 1 (01:29:32):
My first go round with a clear channel like fifteen
years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
Ever, iHeart days three, iHeart yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Yeah, I was a Gopher and one of my responsibilities
was to record sound at the Tomlin press conference. And
every week Jory Rand respectfully would wait till the end
of the press conference to ask him the TV questions
that no one that were like ridiculous and fluffy.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
Yeah, so he'd be like very allowed to be like
any more.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
Quest Riss and Jury would go, Mike, what are you
gonna dress up for us Halloween? Mike full candy bar,
fun size stuff like that, and Tomlin was really not
into it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:13):
It was awesome the formidable time. Young Jory works for
the Jacksonville Free Press now and things are going much
better for him.

Speaker 1 (01:30:23):
No, he's out in La killing it good, dude. I mean,
I'm happy for Mike Tomlin. The job sounds like a
horrible grind. I can't imagine he ever sleeps. Coach t
deserves some rest. Get into fishing, sure, take a pottery class,
go on a guy's trip with John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski,

(01:30:43):
raise a little hell Myrtle.

Speaker 3 (01:30:46):
Geneva on the lake. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Then he can come back with a full heart and
write The Coming of middle aged Buddy movie, in which
Tomlin is played by Michael B. Jordan, Chris Pine and
his cast Kevin Stefanski and John Harbaugh's character is played
by a muppet.

Speaker 3 (01:31:04):
Named Jonny Tsunami.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
Coach Tomon was a huge part of our lives of
the zeitgeist Pittsburgh over these last two decades. I feel
like I grew up with the guy. And this can't
be overstated. This doesn't happen that we are witnessing the
Yinzer conclave right now. Soon the smoke will rise from
the south Side facility and a new Stealer head coach

(01:31:34):
will be named. So how will we remember Mike tomalind,
the ninth winning is coach in NFL history. Well, at
some point that it may be hard to believe these
right now will become the good old days, especially if
the next guy sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:31:49):
Which there's a good chance the next guy sucks. He
might suck.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
So I'm gonna choose to remember Coach t the way
we were. So just a quick note, this is per
Adam schefter. Tomlin will have to wear the exact same
sweater Bill Kaher wore at the Press Shovidge while he resigned.

Speaker 5 (01:32:07):
It's the humiliation ritual that the Rudies make you do
on the way out.

Speaker 3 (01:32:10):
It's a clause I never wanted to wear those flitters.

Speaker 5 (01:32:15):
I like the idea of the Insurer conclave and like
black and gold smoke coming out of the Hinds stacks
or something.

Speaker 8 (01:32:21):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:32:22):
Well done, Tad, Thanks for just summing up everybody's feelings
this morning. It stopped Rob King joining us from the
Steelers Audio Network and King heer. You were in here
all morning yesterday, well not all morning, but a good
portion of it, and we had no indication, nobody seemingly
had any indication that this was going to happen. How

(01:32:44):
surprised were you that Mike Tomlin decided, you know what,
that's it?

Speaker 10 (01:32:52):
Yeah, I would say very you know, like you said,
we had no inkling. You know, there was I suppose
if you look back, you know there were people reporting,
hey there's a there's a coach, you might step want
to step aside, and all this other stuff. But you know,
you see a lot of that kind of reporting and
a lot of it is just quick, fat or nonsense
or whatever. Well maybe they were referring to my tomin

(01:33:13):
I don't know they were. You know, there were some
rumblings along the way, but I really didn't I really
didn't put much stock in that. You know, the one
thing when you listen to my tom Will talk is
that you know, I've said this before. My favorite part
of his press conference on Tuesdays when he starts talking
about the other team and he was saying, Yeah, I
met that guy when he's a senior in high school,

(01:33:35):
and I took another guy, took that parents out on
Pro Day and you know, watch some work out, and
you know, he just loves football and and that love
that's when it really comes through to me. But he
loves to be involved in every aspect of it, down
at the Senior Bowl and all the.

Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
Other things he did.

Speaker 10 (01:33:50):
And I I just didn't think that, you know, I
didn't get the indication that this was going to be it.
But it did, at least for now.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
So do you think that it was something that the
Rooney family and ar Rooney knew about in advance and
they had both sort of been working with the knowledge
that all right, if we don't make it all the
way this year, we're gonna shake hands and say, you know,
so long? Or do you think our Rooney was also

(01:34:21):
taken by surprise.

Speaker 9 (01:34:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (01:34:23):
All I can tell you is that I think Jerry
doc said that they reported that they had not had
that conversation. Jerry has very good sources within the students organization.
I have to take his word for it. I don't know.
I mean, I just I could make up an answer
for you with the plain fact matters, Randy, I don't know.
I had no idea whether they had a conversation. I mean,
I was very, very surprised yesterday that announcement came, and

(01:34:47):
I don't know anybody else who wasn't. And I don't
know whether that includes the people internally in the SIS
organization or not.

Speaker 5 (01:34:54):
Do you think that the message was getting stale as
so many have uh opined, or was there another factor
that was conspiring to just make it not work for
them in the postseason over the last eight years.

Speaker 10 (01:35:10):
Yeah, it's a great question. I don't think that. I mean,
it's a legitimate question, for sure. You know a lot
of people are asking, and I don't think that's the case, Randy,
because you know, first of all, there's a lot of
roster turnover, right, a lot of guys are new, and
I think he's gotten to that point and gotten to
that status where players want to play for him. You know,
there was always there used to be those polls. I
don't know if they still do them. Hey, who's the

(01:35:32):
player's coach, who would you most like to play for?
And he was always on those lists. And I don't
think that that is going to diminish as he gets
further on into his career. I think people still want
to play for him. You know, there was some impassioned
defensive of him by Cam Hayward and Aaron Rodgers, for example.
A lot of people say Aaron Rodgers came here because
he wanted to play for Mike Tomin and wanted to

(01:35:53):
win a championship. You know, I thought of the past.
You know, it's hard to separate everything out, but I think,
you know, it's I think it's easy in one way
to lump all these years together and say, look all
these years of failure, this this is you know it
is this is like one item. But I think that
you know, in many of those years, they're just they

(01:36:14):
didn't they weren't good enough, you know, they just didn't
have a good enough roster. Yeah, and you know that
began at the quarterback position when you think about all
the quarterbacks he's had. You know, I don't know if
I mentioned this yesterday, but this is the first team.
This year's team is the first time team in a
quarter of a century to make the playoffs three consecutive
years with three different starting quarterbacks. I mean, it's really

(01:36:35):
hard to win in the NFL without great quarterback play.
I thought this year they were going to be able
to break through and win and at least win a
game in the playoffs. I think this is the best
team they've had in several seasons, and this one fell short.
So this one, to me, is more disappointing.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
Than the others.

Speaker 10 (01:36:52):
I think I could look at the others and just say, hey,
they just weren't.

Speaker 3 (01:36:54):
Good enough this year.

Speaker 10 (01:36:55):
I thought they had a good enough team to at
least win a game.

Speaker 5 (01:36:58):
Agreed, all right, so we've heard all the names being
bandied about as a replacement. What do you think will
be the most important attribute the next coach of the
Steelers has for Art Rooney to consider?

Speaker 10 (01:37:11):
I think, you know, young, energetic, you know, those would
be two things like when I think of, you know,
to see this coaches. You know, Chuck Knowle was really
young when he was hired. Bill Cowell was really young
when he was hired. Mike Tomlin was really young when
he was hired. One other thing that's in common when
you think about all these names. I don't think any
of those guys were considered top of the Okay, this.

Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
Is the guy, this is going to be the guy.

Speaker 10 (01:37:37):
In fact, if I'm correct, I think Dan Rooney back
when he hired Chuck Knowle, was resisting, you know, the
overtures of others to say he got to hire a
more experienced guy, a more well known guy. They will
go with somebody. I think it's an extremely attractive coaching position.
Just look at the stability. How would you like to
be a coaching step into that stability with this ownership

(01:37:57):
and this track of record and a pretty good roster. Well, so,
I don't know, if you know you hear the names,
I wouldn't be surprised if it's if it's somebody you know,
all of a sudden, they're gonna be like, oh, hey,
check out this, you know, assistant offensive line coach for
the Broncos. You know he's the guy, because they're looking
for a for a guy who I think you know,
brings those sort of attributes, the intelligence, certainly, the football intelligence,

(01:38:22):
and the work ethic and the energy. I think that
those are the kind of things and that they'll be
looking for.

Speaker 5 (01:38:28):
Rob King, voice of the Steelers here on the Steelers
Audio Network, your flagship station of the Black and Gold,
one of two point five TV King or thanks for
your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:38:35):
Appreciate it, buddy, Thanks man, see it. Okay, we'll see you.

Speaker 5 (01:38:38):
Pursuit of joining us next Jeremy Fowler from ESPN. He
broke the story yesterday with Adam Schefter. He'll join us
at eight forty five, Max Starks, Mark Madden More to
come as we chronicle the last crazy forty eight hours
in Pittsburgh that has ended with Mike Tomlin stepping down
as the head coach of the Steelers after nineteen years
and plus. We'll pick some of our favorite tomlinisms for you.

(01:39:01):
I'm gonna be sad to see those go. Those were great. Yeah, yeah,
the squashing grapes and drinking wine while oh yeah, it's
just it's a newer one, right.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
Yeah, it's a last three years, five years.

Speaker 8 (01:39:12):
Yeah, but I understand, you know, it's one of those one. Yeah,
there is a fine line. Yeah one sucks. Yeah, there's
enjoying the fruit of your labor.

Speaker 5 (01:39:19):
That's good. Yeah, I need these to be fermented. Just
imagine him saying that next to Howie Long. Next year,
Terry Bradshago. I need to see these ahead of town live.

Speaker 22 (01:39:33):
From the town's appliants in studios where Pittsburgh shops for
appliance is. This is WTV Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
The fourth ghost of Christmas past that Lingers way too
long is showing up everywhere Holiday bills DV.

Speaker 3 (01:39:50):
Guess here on your radio Home of the Steelers DV.

Speaker 5 (01:39:53):
Mike Tomlin stepping down after nineteen years as head coach.
It's still hard to believe. I'm having a hard time
wrapping my head around this.

Speaker 3 (01:40:00):
Didn't see it coming, not this way.

Speaker 5 (01:40:03):
Now, and I do think there needs to be some
sort of change. I just wasn't sure how it was
going to come about.

Speaker 15 (01:40:11):
I was Sports is STU brought to you by Bridgual Applian,
so I was fairly confident change was on the horizon.
Didn't think there was any way Mike Tomlin was going
to get fired after he won ten games in the
Acon North Division championship. But Tomlin also is a guy
who's resistant to staff change for a lot of reasons.
And I thought, Okay, this is going to come up,
particularly the way it ended. Had the Houston game gone

(01:40:35):
the way a lot of us were anticipating it was
going to be a thirteen to ten rock fight somebody, Okay,
that's one result, thirty to six, and getting just steamrolled
the way they did probably ramped up the degree to
which change was going to be demanded. But I have
no idea if any of that was what Mike Tomlin

(01:40:56):
was thinking about or not. He just decided that's it,
and uh, there's nothing anybody can.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
Do about it. Jeremy Fowler, Yeah, and there's nothing can
be done.

Speaker 5 (01:41:04):
Jeremy Fowler eight forty five, who was part of the
team with along with Schefter that broke that story. I
want to ask him about the notion that this is
just was it Art Rooney going hey, well, Mike good,
what are you gonna do this year? You know, whatever
you want, I'm fine with anything.

Speaker 3 (01:41:20):
What you want a coffee? Are you thinking about Quinton? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:41:23):
Was this that? Or was it? I don't think of
Art Rooney saying, hey, we're gonna need to bring in
some coordinators and I've you know, Omar and a couple
other people are gonna I don't put some names out there.

Speaker 15 (01:41:34):
Then been reported that they even spoke yet, I mean,
I don't know that they had their quote unquote meeting.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
I think he just came in and said, I'm done.

Speaker 5 (01:41:40):
Well that's what I want to Yeah, figure out here.
I'm gonna get to the bottom of it.

Speaker 3 (01:41:45):
Damn it. As much we know Mike Tomlin went out,
Uh like Mike Tomlin. I mean, do you think that'll
be his legacy here? Though? What's that when all of
a sudden done, Will people.

Speaker 8 (01:41:54):
Be like he didn't win a playoff game for the
last eight years?

Speaker 3 (01:41:58):
Or well they think like, yeah, you want a Super
Bowl year?

Speaker 5 (01:42:01):
He never every year we had a chance, we had
meaningful football for the entire nineteen years he was here.

Speaker 15 (01:42:06):
Yeah, I think people choose to embrace these days what
they choose to embrace, and they don't let the facts
get in the way.

Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
Man, This is very true.

Speaker 15 (01:42:13):
They just make up their mind on something and that's it,
and if they need a little reinforcement, they find somebody
who agrees with them and say, there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:42:19):
See, but this is the reality I want to live in.
You know. He was Mike Tomlins to the end. Let's
rewind back to training camp.

Speaker 15 (01:42:28):
Will turn out to be Mike Tomlins last training camp
at Saint Vincent College. Juan Thornhill, one of these Steelers
perceived solutions heading into the twenty twenty five season, said
that he thought the Steelers had a chance to be
the NFL's one of the NFL's all time best defenses
this season. And when Mike Tomlins sat down with the
DV morning show in Latrope, he didn't run away from that,

(01:42:52):
he ran toward it.

Speaker 4 (01:42:54):
You know, we feel really good about the prospects of
this group.

Speaker 3 (01:42:58):
We do got to write that story, but we.

Speaker 4 (01:43:02):
Got enough talent, we got enough schematics to do big,
big things. And when I say big things, I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:43:09):
The stored things piled on.

Speaker 15 (01:43:13):
And I talked to a number of people about that
in the wake of that comment. I think the best
answer I got was from Cole Holcombe, inside linebacker, and
he said, well, he's challenging us, he wants us to
he's daring us to be great. You know, I don't
know that it was so much a prediction. Yeah, we're
gonna break the eighty five Bears record for points against
the Ravens.

Speaker 5 (01:43:33):
Record for suggesting that we plucked out something that he
said and then maybe pumped a little context behind it
that didn't exist.

Speaker 3 (01:43:43):
Since it was on our show, probably us more than anybody.

Speaker 5 (01:43:45):
Yeah, yeah, that's how this crap stupped out to make
sure make that note.

Speaker 3 (01:43:50):
But no, it's kind of who it was. He was.

Speaker 15 (01:43:54):
He often talked in the riddles is probably not the
right word, but no, riddles is the word, is it?

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:44:02):
He was.

Speaker 15 (01:44:04):
He would come up with wild analogies and try to
be entertaining and uh, he would go on and on
about stuff. But he was also very direct at times
and very singularly focused.

Speaker 3 (01:44:17):
That was one of his favorite. Uh.

Speaker 15 (01:44:18):
You know, he wanted to win and win big and
he thought they could every year.

Speaker 5 (01:44:22):
He was evasive at times, and you'd use language to
dance around things, no question about it. He's linguistic gymnastics.
As I used to say that he would perform on
a weekly basis. I think, you know the whole message thing.

Speaker 15 (01:44:34):
I think the fan base got tired of hearing from
him more than the players.

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
Fans hearted it for nineteen years.

Speaker 15 (01:44:41):
Players did not right, and he got to the point
you knew what he was going to say after a game,
you knew what he was going to say on Tuesday,
and he would do the lot.

Speaker 5 (01:44:49):
Resume his resume Cleveland.

Speaker 15 (01:44:52):
Browns are fun football team and they're gonna be Yeah,
Racers is a good football team.

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
You know it's sixty eight to three win.

Speaker 15 (01:45:00):
You know that's a TV show. He has to talk
for so long. That's why he does that. I mean,
what a lot didn't win enough?

Speaker 3 (01:45:09):
So now what do you do if I'm the Steelers? Yeah,
I hired John Harbaugh.

Speaker 15 (01:45:13):
No, for real, I can't wait to hear what ur
Rooney has to say about it today. Art does not
often make declarative statements, but if you listen close, he
usually gives you a hint or two as to how
he's thinking.

Speaker 3 (01:45:25):
Yeah, and you.

Speaker 15 (01:45:27):
Know the playbook, going back to the Chuck Nole higher
was you find a young defensive coach that you think
has great coaching chops and great potential, a guy that
will not be overwhelmed initially and who can grow into
the job and be there for a long time. They
did that with Noel won four Super Bowls. He's in
the Hall of Fame. They did that with Bill Kauer

(01:45:47):
won a Super Bowl. He's seen in the Hall of Fame.
Yet who cower? Yeah, we were there for it. And
now you got Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl and
he's going to the Hall of Fame. So do you
keep running that play or do you take a look
at the way the game is evolving. Not that defense
will never be unimportant, but his offense more important though

(01:46:11):
you know it's the old defense wins champions think championships
thing going out of style.

Speaker 5 (01:46:16):
Jeremy Fowler from ESPN, along with Adam Schefter, broke the
news yesterday. Jeremy Fowler joins us next on your radio
home of the Steelers DVE.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
DVV has your No Destruction rock and roll at Jenny
m and three pm, Michelle Michael, Sam, Chad Days and
bring you Workforce commercial three hours every weekday on DVE W.

Speaker 5 (01:46:42):
It's Randy Bauman at the DV Morning Show and your
radio home of the Pittsburgh Steelers one a two point
five DVE and joining us right now, one of the
guys along with Adam Schefter, who broke the story of
Mike Tomlin resigning after nineteen years as head coach of
the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jeremy Fowler, our old friend, joining us
now on the DV Morning Show. Jeremy, good morning, how
are you.

Speaker 3 (01:47:02):
Hey?

Speaker 5 (01:47:02):
Good morning gang, Thanks for having me well, thanks for
making time for us this morning. I mean that news
is still taking me by surprise. To be honest with you, Uh,
do you have any sense of the concrete reasons why.

Speaker 3 (01:47:18):
Well, I think there.

Speaker 25 (01:47:19):
Are a few, a couple of those I'll lean on.
Really what I heard he said to the team yesterday,
which is basically that, uh, I'm sorry, Uh got a
call and get a get out of that and get back.

Speaker 3 (01:47:34):
In my notes. Tell you're talking to us, Okay, he
said something.

Speaker 25 (01:47:39):
Now you're good, You're good. So really someone has to
move the franchise forward that I couldn't deliver for you anymore,
Like he kind of put it on himself not getting
it done. Now that said, I know for a while
Tomlin had been thinking about stepping away. I don't think
it was a situation where it was a mandate that
he leave or anything like that. But in the meeting

(01:48:00):
with the team, he did say, hey, look, this is
sort of a game of throne style business. It's cut
throats and if you don't get it done, you don't.

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
Get it done.

Speaker 25 (01:48:08):
And I didn't get it done for you. So I
do think he recognized to the team that renewed optimism
was needed for the franchise that he wasn't delivering that anymore,
even though you could argue that a lot of these
teams overachieved in part because of him, and so you
have that dynamic, you have the TV component. I do

(01:48:30):
think is real that he's going to be courted here.
I think that's been on the table since the summer,
to be honest, not formally, but I think like it's
been made known to him, Hey, you're going to have
some good opportunities here if you do, if and when
you do step away. And I think he from what
I was told directly from sources I've been talking to

(01:48:50):
me for the last few weeks, is that he just
needs a life reset. Kids are out of school now,
out of the house. You know, he's been doing it
and giving it all he can for two decades really,
and it's just probably time.

Speaker 5 (01:49:02):
Was there any notion that Art Rooney pushed back on
it and said, no, no, you're you're good, We like you,
it can work.

Speaker 3 (01:49:12):
Or was Seinfeld yeah, right, you're doing good. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:21):
I'm wondering if he got any pushback from Art Rooney
there and in the form of him trying to course
him to stay.

Speaker 25 (01:49:29):
You know, I haven't got an answer on that in particular.
So it's certainly possible that the Rooney felt like it
was time as well, but I cannot speak directly to that.
But what I do know is that Mike Common went
into Monday with a purpose. Part of that purpose was
to let Art Rooney know his plans, and then he

(01:49:50):
knew at the team meeting at two o'clock he was
telling the team, So he had a plan carefully crafted out.
What Art Rooney the Second's involvement in in that plan was,
I don't know exactly, but I do believe it was
truly a stepping down situation. And I don't think it
was like, hey, you know you like, you know, we're
ready to for you to move on, Why don't you

(01:50:11):
tell the team it's your decision. I really don't think it.

Speaker 5 (01:50:13):
Was that, and it wasn't something that he shared with
Art Rooney, you know, several weeks ago that he was
leaning in this direction in case they wanted to start
to get their ducks in a rows.

Speaker 3 (01:50:25):
Some people are asserting.

Speaker 25 (01:50:29):
The indications that I've gotten is that that was not
the case. I cannot say that for certain, but I'm
just not aware of those kind of talks. The indication
I was getting was that this was a Tomlin driven plan.

Speaker 5 (01:50:43):
When you talk about the carrot being dangled of TV,
I mean much easier lifestyle, really good money. Also, do
you get the sense that that is the final destination
for him or will this be more of a Sean
Payton situation?

Speaker 25 (01:51:00):
Well, Champagne late a Night's blueprint for him, Right, go
do TV for a year, come back, and then the
team that you previously coach retains your rights like the
Steelers do, unless they worked out some sort of buyout
or negotiation I'm not aware of, but they would own
his rights because he's still under contract. He'd have to
swing a trade with that new Perspective team, and obviously

(01:51:20):
I think it's it goes without saying his market would
be really strong for that for another team to land in.
I know I've got to several coaching agents that are
sort of rejoicing thinking Tom and will sity here come
back and get the biggest contracts in the NFL to
reset the entire coaching landscapes. That is something that's sort
of been anticipated. But beyond that, I know Tom and

(01:51:43):
essentially told the team that you know, I don't want
to coach anywhere else, But he worded it in such
a way where it's like, I think people walked away saying, Okay,
well if he comes back down the road, it's because
you know, he just loves football and the competitive.

Speaker 3 (01:51:58):
Juices that go with that.

Speaker 25 (01:52:00):
But right now, you know he's not looking for some
sort of lateral or even lesser job like he valued coaching.
The Steelers is one of the very best franchises in
all of sports. So it's not like, hey, I got
to get out and get somewhere else, and so he
indicated that to the team, But he's sort of slightly
left the door open to potentially coach down the road,

(01:52:21):
but it's not on the radar right now.

Speaker 5 (01:52:22):
Jeremy Fowler from ESPN with us right now, what does
this do to the coaching searches league wide? I would
imagine there are teams who are in need of a
head coach who are thinking, we better get our guy
quick because there's a pretty attractive position now open.

Speaker 25 (01:52:39):
Yes, yeah, it is attractive. There's no doubt. I'll say
that with a caveat now, the Steelers, it's a job
that people will line up for. Yes, in part because
of the tremendous tenure in patience that you will be
afforded with this. You know obviously the famous line about
three head coaches since nineteen sixty nine. So at the
very least, you're going to get a very patient ownership,

(01:53:01):
very thoughtful that's going to help you ride the ups
and downs. That said, it's a team that has some holes,
as you know, particularly a quarterback that hasn't had a
stable quarterback option for like seven years or whatever it is,
since Ben's last year's big then, and so you're you know,
it's a team that has a very old defense. Now,

(01:53:24):
I was told my Tomins decision was not personnel driven,
and I believe that, but subconsciously, like if he had
the horses to win a Super Bowl, he stay another year.
I can't answer that for him. But that's a question
I'm asking. So it's not the easiest job. It's the
resources there are not top shelf. If you would ask

(01:53:45):
the NFL Players Association, because they do his rankings every year,
I would put the Steelers in line with like the
Chiefs and some of these other teams that you know,
they're not going out of the way to modernize the
facility and have thirty staff members on the coaching staff
like some teams are doing twenty five thirty members. There's
still a little old school in their ways now that
has proven to be effective, but it's different, you know,

(01:54:06):
Like I don't expect them to go spend in an
exorbitant amount of money on a new coach. You know,
I think it could be an up and comer situation
where you get somebody young and assertive and you build
with them.

Speaker 15 (01:54:17):
Who's the Chuck Mall, Bill Kaher, Mike Tomlin thirty something
defensive coordinator that everybody's gaga about.

Speaker 25 (01:54:27):
Man, Mike, I'm trying to find that now. I mean,
it's been it's a weird tool this year. If there's
not a Golden Goose, there's not a Ben Johnson. You know,
there's some there's some younger up and coming options that
are intriguing.

Speaker 24 (01:54:40):
You know.

Speaker 25 (01:54:40):
Chris Hula comes to mind from the Rams defensive coordinator.
Jeff Hafley with the Packers, you know, has a way
about him. He's been a head coach of Boston College
and I think he'll interview well, you know, Jesse Mentor
is kind of the hot name right now. The Chargers
defensive coordinator. But you know they're all unknown commodities. They're
gonna have to perform well in interviews, and right now,
you know, the only interviews that have really taken place

(01:55:02):
are those most of those virtual ones that are kind
of cursory and you're just getting to know the other
team where you make your head in the second interviews,
can you really impress and show what you're gonna do
with the roster and have a plan for the quarterback
and so a lot of that has to take place
this year more than ever. The interviewers are really going
to matter. You know, you have some really interesting up

(01:55:23):
and coming offensive coaches, the guys that don't have a
lot of experience like Nate Shieldhouse and with the Rams
passing coordinator, Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator,
Grant your Dinsky. Young guys that are coming up. But
are you know, if you want to get ahead of
it and say, hey, here's a guy like McVeigh or

(01:55:44):
you think he's going to be really good two to
three years down the road, you would get ahead of
it and just hire them now even though they're in experienced.
There will be some options like that, and there are
now nine jobs, so if one of those guys got
a job, it wouldn't shock me.

Speaker 5 (01:55:55):
Jeremy followed from ESPN. Last thing for you, Jeremy, and
this may be impass well for you to know at
this point, but is there any idea of how this
search will play out for the Steelers?

Speaker 3 (01:56:06):
Is there a committee?

Speaker 5 (01:56:07):
Is it just Art who will he put together as
a brain trust for this or will it be for
him a solo effort.

Speaker 25 (01:56:16):
You know, these are pretty thorough complex situations now, these
interview processes, because you look at Tennessee, they're interviewing like
eighteen people just for their first round. You have to
be well organized. It's hard for one person to do so.
I would be surprised if team President Ronny just went
into this alone without me help. I do expect Omar
to be involved. Andy White all the assistant GM helped

(01:56:39):
with Philly search when they landed Nick Siriani, so he
understands the rhythm of these I expect him to be
involved as well. And then whether there's outside council or not,
I'm not sure, but that's something that some teams tap into.
The Atlanta Falcons did that recently hiring it like a
search firm for both their GM and their head coaching search.

Speaker 5 (01:56:57):
Jeremy Fowler from ESPN, Jeremy, thanks always for your time
this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:57:01):
We greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 25 (01:57:03):
Hey, you guys, great to hear from him.

Speaker 5 (01:57:04):
Yeah, man, always good to catch up with you again.
Jeremy Fowler or old buddy. We talked to him all
the time back in the day when he was the
Steelers beat guy, and now he's on the national front
there for ESPN.

Speaker 15 (01:57:15):
I've got to ask him one question. If Tomlin ends
up doing color analysis, Uh huh? Do you think he'll
start talking about a play in the first quarter and
still be talking about the same play in the second?

Speaker 5 (01:57:25):
He is long winded, he hung up, right, he can't
answer that. We lost him, so yeah, so sorry we
didn't make time for that one.

Speaker 3 (01:57:34):
I wonder how he's going to do with that.

Speaker 5 (01:57:36):
You're right, the brevity is going to be an issue.

Speaker 15 (01:57:38):
No, but I'm kidding. He's smart enough. He'll he'll figure
it out. But he did like to ramble on at
those press conferences.

Speaker 5 (01:57:45):
All right, Well, we'll go over some of our favorite
tomininisms and good news for people who watch the news.

Speaker 3 (01:57:51):
Abby.

Speaker 6 (01:57:51):
Oh yeah, I like to drink while I watch the news.
But now the anchor could be drinking too.

Speaker 5 (01:57:56):
That'll help Max Starks, Mark Madden and more. As we
recount Mike Tomlin stepping down as the head coach of
the Pittsburgh seel Is, it's hard to even say that
out like it's I'm really having a tough time with
the change here. You'll get over true, Pittsburgh. No, I know,
I'll get over it, but it's shocking. I think it's

(01:58:16):
good for everybody.

Speaker 10 (01:58:17):
I do.

Speaker 3 (01:58:18):
I think the change is good. We'll see, said the
z Master.

Speaker 5 (01:58:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:58:21):
I like to hear.

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
The Wi Brothers.

Speaker 2 (01:58:23):
Social phone or the talkback button on the iHeartRadio app.
Is how you reach us with your requests. You build
the menu fair Rocket weekdays at noon on the DVE
Electric Lunch I'm Jamie Bortis Cools.

Speaker 13 (01:58:39):
Just enter this nationwide keyword at DVE dot com. Check
that's check. Enter it now at DVE dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:58:49):
W DVE E Pittsburgh and I Heart Radio Station guaranteed human.

Speaker 3 (01:59:02):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:59:03):
Just push all the chips towards the middle of the table.
You know, man, I love the fact that people care man.
I love the fact that our game is a twelve
month game, even in the off season, is big news
and big business.

Speaker 3 (01:59:15):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:59:15):
It's just an honor to be a part of something
that big man. I've grown to enjoy it over the years.

Speaker 5 (01:59:21):
As coach, Tomlin sitting down with us in Latrobe this
past August and that'll be his last Stealers training camp
as head coach. So he stepped down yesterday and resigned.
And I'm having a hard time with change. I think
there needed to be change. I think it's going to
be good for everybody, but I'm still this quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:59:42):
Oh, yes, I use your time. Yeah, it's one of
those wait days. Have to change.

Speaker 26 (01:59:48):
We can't keep doing this quit wait no, that's hold on,
hold on, hod On.

Speaker 6 (01:59:54):
Did you say something I thought, maybe, much like you,
that as much as there his need for change, maybe
my first thought is that at first there.

Speaker 7 (02:00:04):
Would be changes around him.

Speaker 6 (02:00:06):
I agree, co ordinator would change, the quarterback would change
like that.

Speaker 7 (02:00:09):
There would be other changes, but maybe not him.

Speaker 5 (02:00:14):
But that might have been the impetus for him saying
you know what, I had enough. Maybe he didn't want
to be told who he could hire as a coordinator.
Sure you know or as Jeremy Fowler just said, By
the way, that was a great segment we just had
with Jeremy Fowler.

Speaker 3 (02:00:29):
A great bariness to make time for us today.

Speaker 5 (02:00:33):
It might have just been, hey, man, I'm not getting
it done for you and I don't feel like I can.

Speaker 3 (02:00:37):
And you know what, when he's.

Speaker 5 (02:00:39):
Got that carrot dangling of TV money and a much
easier lifestyle, I could see that being a little.

Speaker 3 (02:00:47):
More attractive than.

Speaker 5 (02:00:49):
Working sixty five to seventy hours a week January, February,
in March, you know what I mean. Off season it's
a grind, as he just said. But uh, anyways, I'm
gonna miss Coach Tomland. Ben Roethlisberger spoke to the situation
in an emergency Football in with Ben Roethlisberger podcast last evening.

Speaker 27 (02:01:11):
And he's a gold jacket guy. I mean Chuck Noll,
gold jacket, Bill Cower, gold jacket coach Tomlin. I mean
that speaks volumes for this organization and three head coaches,
three are going to be in the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 5 (02:01:25):
I mean, these are big shoes to fill.

Speaker 3 (02:01:27):
And listen, Coach.

Speaker 27 (02:01:28):
Kyer talked about on this show he had huge shoes
to fill with coach Knowle and Mike t had huge
shoes to fill with coach Kyler. The next coach is
going to have huge shoes to fill. And we joke
about it. You don't want to be the guy that
replaces the guy. You want to be the guy that
replaces the guy that replaced the guy. So one more removed.
But coach Tomlin did it. And you know, you can

(02:01:48):
say what you want about him taking coach Cower's team
and this, that and the other, but for nineteen seasons there,
I can't think of another organization that would not be.

Speaker 3 (02:01:57):
A static with nineteen teen winning seasons. That's what you
strive for.

Speaker 27 (02:02:04):
Obviously, you want you want Lombardes and you want championships,
and he brought that and it's been a while since
he's had a playoff win. But but what coach tom
When brought to this organization, this city, this community, I
mean very active in the community, like you said, a
leader of men and and very involved in in the community.
Lived you know, didn't like exclude himself, lived in the

(02:02:24):
in in town.

Speaker 3 (02:02:25):
And you know, we.

Speaker 27 (02:02:29):
He deserves our respect and our praise for what he
brought to this organization. I'm sure there's a lot of
fans like I'm wondering, like the fans that are we're
asking for him to leave Boo fired Tom and this,
that and the other. Now that he's that he stepped down,
are they are the fans that wanted him gone in
a state of like yes, like that's what we're talking about.

(02:02:50):
They are being like, you know what, Okay, that's what
we're asking for. But but thank you, Like let me
let me tip the cap. You know, how can you
not say thank you to coach team what he brought
to this organization for nineteen seasons.

Speaker 3 (02:03:02):
It's unbelievable. Yeah, yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (02:03:05):
Ben later added, I can't wait to see what he
does with Penn State.

Speaker 3 (02:03:10):
It's so funny.

Speaker 1 (02:03:11):
I've been just sort of flipped on a dime from
like maybe you should take the Penn State two months
ago as a troll move, yes, and then he's like,
oh wait now it's real.

Speaker 5 (02:03:24):
Yeah sorry. I think he and Tomlin always had a
push pull relationship, you know, and that was him at
the time giving him a little hey take the Penn
stage up. Also, that's been thinking out loud on a
podcast and learning that when you you know, think out well,
I don't know how much of a calculated troll it was.

(02:03:44):
Right at the minute he wanted to give him a shot,
and he's like.

Speaker 1 (02:03:47):
Oh that list forever now, no, yeah, right here, right yeah,
he's in the bathroom, like that's really picking up steam.

Speaker 5 (02:03:54):
Oh boy. Ben on that podcast also said the Steeler
should hire an offensive guy. So well, we'll see how
that goes. Max Starts will join us in a little bit.
Ben's former teammate and someone who along with then won
to Super Bowl with Mike Tomlin. That'll be nine point
fifteen and that's only like six minutes away. But first, Abby,
you have some news that it's pretty interesting, I think,

(02:04:15):
speaking of news news about news.

Speaker 6 (02:04:17):
News is hour brought to you by a better call,
cy clouds and rain today a high of forty six.
A new report here from the staffers at CBS. CBS
seems to be preparing a new segment called Whiskey Fridays.
Recent reports from January suggest that CBS News might be

(02:04:38):
planning a segment called Whiskey Fridays with Tony Dakopple, which
says that they are testing bar setups in the newsroom
and a potential Jack Daniel's sponsorship aiming to boost viewership
for Tony, who recently took over as anchor of the
CBS Evening News, So some staff were only first made

(02:04:58):
aware of it as they a encountered the testing set,
which basically is a faux stocked bar in the news.

Speaker 3 (02:05:09):
What the hell is this?

Speaker 6 (02:05:11):
Encountered the set featuring a large sponsor banner.

Speaker 3 (02:05:17):
On the news, on the news, the friend the news anymore?

Speaker 7 (02:05:21):
For Jack Daniels, that's.

Speaker 5 (02:05:24):
That's Pravda or whatever the hell that's uh, everything's.

Speaker 3 (02:05:28):
For sale kids.

Speaker 6 (02:05:29):
And this comes as Tony begins his new role as
anchor of the CBS Evening News, with reports noting declining viewership.

Speaker 24 (02:05:35):
Oh.

Speaker 5 (02:05:36):
They since he's taken over, they have lost almost twenty
five percent of their audience. It was a twenty percent
drop in the first four days. Now, it should be
no surprise to you that the person overseeing all of
these changes at CBS News, this is Pittsburgh, Barry Weiss.

Speaker 3 (02:05:54):
She's from She's from Pittsburgh. Yeah, she's from Squirrel Hill.
And uh, you knew you grew up with her, right, Jacob.

Speaker 5 (02:06:02):
Her youngest sister, Yeah, okay, her youngest sister is my grador.
And I knew her growing up. Okay, well, so it
should be no surprise to you that A Pittsburgh's solution
to declining ratings is well, why don't we.

Speaker 3 (02:06:12):
Drink more tony?

Speaker 1 (02:06:14):
Uh, we're testing really low in the drunk guy demographic.

Speaker 3 (02:06:22):
We've got a solution.

Speaker 5 (02:06:23):
Yeah, there's no amount of drinking that will not make
me think that guy's a douchebag.

Speaker 3 (02:06:27):
Though. I get bad news for you.

Speaker 5 (02:06:29):
They're turning it into Bill Maher's club random on the
evening news the next week.

Speaker 3 (02:06:34):
It's gonna be like stoner Thursdays. You know.

Speaker 5 (02:06:39):
Anyways, I think we should take over Greenland.

Speaker 3 (02:06:45):
Yeah. Things are going great, things are really going great.

Speaker 7 (02:06:49):
I think that even like with us, I know that, like.

Speaker 6 (02:06:53):
You think you would like to hang out with us drunk,
but you wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (02:06:58):
You think might drunk?

Speaker 7 (02:07:02):
You know it's wrong with you, you know it's wrong.

Speaker 5 (02:07:05):
Yeah, he just gets super racist. Yeah, I'm Greek. So
what we did gay stuff and the Olympics.

Speaker 3 (02:07:12):
I like that.

Speaker 14 (02:07:13):
I liked it.

Speaker 7 (02:07:14):
I am open minded.

Speaker 5 (02:07:15):
Actually, yeah, how about.

Speaker 3 (02:07:17):
Want to wrestle figure shure he's got a pierce nipple? Yeah,
problematic that I was trying to phrase it the right way.

Speaker 5 (02:07:31):
So's not to uh, you know, acquire a lawsuit.

Speaker 3 (02:07:35):
Anyways, we probably should move on.

Speaker 5 (02:07:37):
But it's great that they're openly thinking of just drinking
booze on the evening news.

Speaker 7 (02:07:41):
Yeah, anything but worrying about the news.

Speaker 5 (02:07:43):
I always thought it was a terrible idea when Jimmy
Kimmel did it to start his late night show Live
with Jimmy Kimmel, when it was truly like it was
a live show.

Speaker 3 (02:07:51):
I don't I don't think it's I think it's filmed
live now.

Speaker 5 (02:07:54):
But they were doing a shot like every few minutes, yeah,
and everybody was getting hammered. I'm like, this is just
not good.

Speaker 3 (02:08:05):
You know.

Speaker 6 (02:08:05):
There are some instances where like this conceptually if wrangled,
I think what you're talking about, I'm getting away from
the concept of this being on your nightly news, which
I think is an awful idea.

Speaker 7 (02:08:20):
But like even like the drunk Shakespeare thing.

Speaker 6 (02:08:22):
Yeah, I saw one production of that, and at first
I actually thought it was funny. Yeah, but by the
end I didn't.

Speaker 3 (02:08:32):
Think it was funny anymore.

Speaker 6 (02:08:34):
Like it kind of did lose me because like now
I'm like, I'm just watching people hammered. I can do
that for free. Yeah, and myself do Shakespeare. Yeah, I mean,
that's all you have to do. But and I like
that they went right to whiskey like it.

Speaker 5 (02:08:51):
I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 3 (02:08:52):
Sip on a beer.

Speaker 9 (02:08:53):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:08:53):
They're like, nooparges, we only have twenty two minutes of news.

Speaker 3 (02:08:59):
We got to get ham. It's time for the bac
check in bright pennot sounds a little low.

Speaker 5 (02:09:19):
Yeah, that would be hilarious if he had to do that, though.
It was like, in order to continue the news, I
have to blow under your point two.

Speaker 3 (02:09:28):
Let's go Venezuela.

Speaker 5 (02:09:30):
Who wants it?

Speaker 3 (02:09:34):
Anyways, We'll be fine. I'm not worried about it.

Speaker 7 (02:09:38):
Nikki Glazer shared on Howard Stern all.

Speaker 6 (02:09:40):
Of the jokes that she left out on the Golden Globes.

Speaker 7 (02:09:44):
I always like to hear this because.

Speaker 6 (02:09:46):
We did say that she got pretty good marks for
this and that she generally was tame. So I'll give
you the jokes here. Sean Penn, she said, is nominated tonight.
I'm assuming for best neck veins. Sean Penn is here
looking like the defiant last tree standing in the rainforest.

Speaker 25 (02:10:02):
Like that one.

Speaker 7 (02:10:04):
Leo DiCaprio, why are you always squinting? I assume it's
to read your girlfriend's I d.

Speaker 6 (02:10:14):
Amy Poehler is here for her podcast Good Hang, which
is what Timothy Chalomey says after sex. Julia Roberts nominated
for After the Hunt. I don't know what it's about.
I'm assuming the hunt is to find somebody who has
seen it.

Speaker 3 (02:10:29):
Oh, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 6 (02:10:33):
Let's see Chase Infinity Pain or I'm sorry. Chase Infinity
is nominated for Best Actress tonight, and Chase Infinity is
her real name.

Speaker 7 (02:10:42):
And this is true.

Speaker 6 (02:10:43):
If you apply now, you can earn five percent cash
back when all trashing through her through the end of
the year. Chase Infinity Pain is her actual real name.
Chase Infinity Pain is also how Sean Penn gets an erection.

Speaker 5 (02:11:00):
Imagine why she didn't use these on those old.

Speaker 6 (02:11:01):
Gloves and then she has. Brad Pitt is nominated for
his role in F One tonight. That's what I love
about Hollywood. When a man turns sixty, he gets to
play a race car driver. Meanwhile, after thirty five, every
role for a woman is a tired mom.

Speaker 5 (02:11:14):
Who hates her life. Yeah, that's pretty true. Maybe Tony
Takoppol will do that on the CBS Evening News and
now it's time for propaganda we were gonna give you,
and I'll just tell you what those were.

Speaker 7 (02:11:28):
Is it that the news isn't manly enough?

Speaker 6 (02:11:30):
Apparently there's Tony not manly enough, and they're like, listen,
we got to beef you up a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:11:36):
They may maybe a little from call man little from
call him bee, I'm a.

Speaker 7 (02:11:39):
Little whiskey, and told him be like, you know what
a woman needs.

Speaker 5 (02:11:41):
I'll tell you who's manly, Max Starks, Ladies and gentlemen
from the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he gets a round of
a bushman Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 3 (02:11:49):
Max.

Speaker 5 (02:11:50):
Sorry for the awkward intro, but coming out of the
new segment here, you never know what we're gonna be
talking about. But we have been mostly talking about Mike
Tomlin and his stepping down after nineteen years, and I've
been still I'm still in a state of shocks the
wrong word, but I'm still kind of surprised that it
all happened this fast.

Speaker 3 (02:12:07):
Where are you landing with absorbing this news? So I'm
absorbing this a lot better.

Speaker 14 (02:12:16):
You know, I was actually in the air flying back
home when when when all of this news kind of.

Speaker 28 (02:12:22):
Hit yesterday, and so I didn't have Wi Fi for
like the first hour and a half of the flight.
You know, they're like, oh, we got to reboot in
and you know that that that's like a that's a
that's a tricky proposition in and of itself, just seeing
if that actually works or not.

Speaker 5 (02:12:39):
Oh yeah, and if you're on Southwest, they'll be like
they may not to fix the WiFi.

Speaker 14 (02:12:42):
Go ahead, you know, yeah exactly if anybody got flyers, yeah,
we're busy.

Speaker 3 (02:12:48):
Yeah, okay, well yeah, yeah, we're gonna call a policeman land,
but we need you to fix this wi fi right now.

Speaker 11 (02:12:55):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (02:12:55):
And so by the time it did come back on,
I just got flooded with everybody trying trying to trying
to I felt like dropped the news to me. I
was like, it was funny because like, you know, my
cousin in law and you know, my mom aunties. Everybody's
like texting and they're like they're the first, but yet

(02:13:16):
they're asking you a question while asking what do you
think you know? While asking do you know? I'm like, well,
what if I said I didn't know? Because for the
first half of those I didn't, But you know, it's
like it's like but then they want their take to
So it was just funny how that just all transpired,

(02:13:37):
and you know, I had to get home, and when
I got there in the evening, finally getting off of
a plane because it's tough to think, you know, we
had all the flights are like super packed these days
because they've cut down a lot of the variety of flights,
and so, you know, after having a moment to kind
of think and sleep on it, this just it seemed

(02:14:02):
like this was where it was headed. And I think
for you know, I'm not gonna say a majority of
Stealer Nation, but a segment of Steeler Nation that was
really wanting this and they were burning for it for
years because they feel like they are a better GM
than the GM themselves, or they can coach the team
better than a head coach. I was like, I would

(02:14:24):
love for you to even try and get the five
hundred at all in nineteen years, as apparently your extensive
experience tells you. But they got what they wanted, right,
and I think that kind of rang true. And the
thoughts is that we're going to go you know, and
probably about ten years, fifteen.

Speaker 3 (02:14:42):
Years, and that from now and go. Man, I wish
we would have still had coach Thomas. Yeah, I was like,
this would have looked a lot different.

Speaker 14 (02:14:50):
I mean, the grass is all you know, they believe
grass is always great, but you know, you know, you
know what it is. The grass is always greenest over
a pile of manure.

Speaker 3 (02:14:59):
I don't know if you knew that. I do know that. Yeah,
see exactly fertilizer. Max.

Speaker 15 (02:15:06):
Let's say you're interviewing for the head coaching job and
you sit down across from Mart Rooney the second and
he asks you, Max, what is the biggest, most important
fix we need to make?

Speaker 3 (02:15:19):
What would you tell him?

Speaker 14 (02:15:22):
Well, I think if I'm a defensive coach, run defense.
If I'm an offensive coach, you know, it's it's get
is figuring out what we need to do at that
quarterback position to be competitive. I think those are my
two biggest answers that's going to.

Speaker 3 (02:15:38):
Need to be answered this offseason for the next head coach,
and where their priorities are. You got a quarterback answer? Oh,
I don't have one because I'm not I'm not I'm
not I'm not auditioning for this job. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:15:49):
So, and I don't think I don't think coach Tomlin
had one either, and I think that's part of the
why the timing lined up for him, is that it
was it's it's setting up to be white an uphill
battle for the Steelers in terms of finding the right quarterback,
having to deal with another bridge year. You know, he
just went from Russell Wilson to Aaron Rodgers to who

(02:16:14):
knows next year?

Speaker 3 (02:16:16):
Do you just throw a rookie in there?

Speaker 5 (02:16:17):
Do you go out and get another proven veteran to
be the bridge guy? You know, it seems like he's
just done that a couple of times, and there is
such a need of a reboot.

Speaker 3 (02:16:28):
You got to have somebody who is willing to be
in it for the long haul.

Speaker 5 (02:16:31):
And clearly, with that carrot dangling of NFL broadcasting money
out there waiting for him in a much easier lifestyle,
I'm sure it wasn't that hard of a call for
him in the end.

Speaker 14 (02:16:44):
Well, and I would throw on there, you know, I
mean fan disinterest as well.

Speaker 3 (02:16:50):
I think that.

Speaker 14 (02:16:53):
I think at the end of the day, you know
it's going to get to you at some point.

Speaker 3 (02:16:58):
You know, he's got kids, a wife, you know he
might be quote unquote a silo, right, but.

Speaker 5 (02:17:04):
His family's not immune to it, and he's.

Speaker 3 (02:17:07):
Not immune to his family.

Speaker 14 (02:17:09):
You know, he's gonna he's hearing it from his faith,
even if he doesn't hear it directly as pressure towards him,
but it's coming. It comes out some way towards the
people that he loves, which it then gets back to
him in a different way.

Speaker 3 (02:17:23):
And so I think that is.

Speaker 14 (02:17:25):
How it affects him more than anything else, when it
affects the others that he loves and cares about. And
so you know that that is an element you have
to consider at the head coach position. You know, once again,
it wasn't because he didn't have his guy, he didn't have.

Speaker 3 (02:17:43):
His guys in the loft for room ready to play.

Speaker 14 (02:17:47):
It wasn't because he could not inspire them in tough
moments to get the best out of them.

Speaker 3 (02:17:52):
Because this man is a leader of men.

Speaker 14 (02:17:54):
At the end of the day, he has made you know,
five course lemon based dishes.

Speaker 3 (02:18:03):
In a cooking competition.

Speaker 14 (02:18:06):
Based off of what some of the roster you had
that looked like, you know, mass rated lemons. You know,
that's that's what he's done, and that's purely a tip
of the cap to him as a coach and a
leader and an evaluator of human beings.

Speaker 5 (02:18:23):
He won unchopped with ingredients that he had to get
off the top of the garbage can.

Speaker 3 (02:18:29):
Exactly, he didn't. He didn't get the basket. You know.

Speaker 14 (02:18:32):
He they found some basket in a buggy next to
a dumpster.

Speaker 10 (02:18:39):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:18:39):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly. Max.

Speaker 5 (02:18:43):
Thanks as always for joining us and appreciate you pulling
the early hours on the West coast. Is there a
tomlinism that will always be one of your favorites?

Speaker 14 (02:18:56):
Listen, guys, I mean the newest was was one of
the greatest. If I had man parts, she'd be mobble.

Speaker 3 (02:19:06):
That is true.

Speaker 5 (02:19:07):
That goes right along with we're still squirreling those nuts.

Speaker 3 (02:19:10):
Max Starks.

Speaker 5 (02:19:11):
Yeah yeah, part of the Steelers Audio Network.

Speaker 3 (02:19:14):
Great job this year with King or the two of
you are a joy to listen to. Max.

Speaker 14 (02:19:19):
Thanks listen, I appreciate it. You know, as always, you
guys have been an institution, so great to come.

Speaker 5 (02:19:25):
On all right, buddy, take care. Max Stark's with the
Steelers Audio Network. Weaing in on Mike Tomlin's end of
tenure as head coach here in Pittsburgh after nineteen years.

Speaker 3 (02:19:36):
Max sounds a little annoyed with the fans. I didn't
want to give I was trying to get him to
back off on that. I appreciate a player's perspective. You know,
he played for the guy and he's you know what a.

Speaker 5 (02:19:49):
Well, here's the thing in this day and age, it
is just your Unless you're John Wooden with social media,
long careers are going to be hard to come by
because the external pressure is almost a possible. Like you said,
he's got a family those.

Speaker 15 (02:20:08):
And the financial rewards are such that you don't need
to have a lacker.

Speaker 3 (02:20:12):
You just hit it, quit out.

Speaker 15 (02:20:14):
Yeah, go play golf, man. Except Mike doesn't play golf
to my knowledge. I'm sure he screws around and you know,
charity events and whatnot.

Speaker 3 (02:20:22):
But he's a football guy. Man. He's a football junkie.

Speaker 15 (02:20:26):
He loves he loves going to training camp, he loves
going to the Senior Bowl. He loves to If he
does TV, I think it's going to be a very
brief Foray into TV. And I'm still not rolling out
of coaches this year.

Speaker 5 (02:20:38):
Mike Persuda when we return more on Mike Tomlin and
who will the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 3 (02:20:48):
Be Wow, that's weird to say. We don't won't be
Max Starks.

Speaker 22 (02:20:52):
Live from the Don's Appliance Studios, where Pittsburgh shops for appliances.

Speaker 5 (02:20:57):
All right, Mike Persuda on your radio Home of the Steelers, DVE.
Mike Tollin steps down after nineteen years as the Steelers
head coach, and now what.

Speaker 15 (02:21:08):
Sports is how? Brought to you by Bridgeville appliants. You
can't tell me life doesn't have a sense of humor.
On the same day that Mike Tomlin announces he is
resigning as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 3 (02:21:19):
The University of Pittsburgh head football.

Speaker 15 (02:21:20):
Coach Paton Rducy announced the hiring of a new special
teams coordinator, Mike Tomlins. The guy's name is Mike Preefer.
Mike Prefer used to be the special teams coach of
the Cleveland Browns, and at the end of the twenty
twenty season, Mike Preefer made history by becoming the first
active head coach to win a playoff game. It was

(02:21:44):
at Heinzfield when the Browns beat the Steelers. Yeah, Kevin
Stefanski had COVID and to pitch credit. In their press release,
they didn't mention the win was over the Steelers. They
just said became the first acting head coach to win
a playoff game. You know, Yeah, but how about that?
And that was maybe Mike Tomlin's worst loss ever. Yes, agreed,

(02:22:09):
the Browns had no offensive line and they didn't have
their head coach. He had COVID. He was watching on TV.
Back in Strongsville, Ohio, or wherever the other Kevin Stefanski lived.

Speaker 5 (02:22:20):
People would say the Browns loss this year was one
of his worst losses ever.

Speaker 3 (02:22:24):
Almost people were saying that had.

Speaker 15 (02:22:27):
They also lost to the Ravens, I think it would
have been, because then you could argue that kept him
out of the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (02:22:33):
But I'm glad that's not how it went. I'm glad.

Speaker 5 (02:22:36):
I'm glad they at least got to get smacked by Houston.

Speaker 1 (02:22:40):
Thank god that they didn't lose to the Ravens, because
then Harbaugh would have done Tomlin in. And yet the
other way around, thinking about that all morning, that would
have that would have left a really bad taste to
It's a great point.

Speaker 15 (02:22:53):
It's kind of like Ahab killing the whale before he
drowned when the Wales carcass sank to the bottom.

Speaker 5 (02:22:58):
Right be like the whale, ah and then choking on something.

Speaker 3 (02:23:04):
Quiz I am gload. You know the way that worked out?

Speaker 15 (02:23:06):
I mean that Ravens game was one of the great
moments in that facility.

Speaker 3 (02:23:11):
Hinesfield slash acting.

Speaker 5 (02:23:12):
We had a week, didn't we, folks, And we had
a week.

Speaker 15 (02:23:14):
The vibe and the buzz and the fielding like people
believed this team was different after that.

Speaker 5 (02:23:20):
That's why sixty seven thousand and chains showed up on
Monday night.

Speaker 3 (02:23:24):
Turned out it wasn't.

Speaker 15 (02:23:26):
And maybe Mike toml Chan has channeled his inner Winston
Churchill and said if not now when.

Speaker 3 (02:23:31):
It was a one point game in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 5 (02:23:34):
Yeah, ah, But it's weird.

Speaker 18 (02:23:37):
To me too.

Speaker 5 (02:23:38):
And I was thinking about the fact that he clearly
knew he was going to step down when it ended,
and not that he didn't put everything into winning that game,
but it had to be a very strange sensation for
him to know that if they didn't win, he was walking,
because he clearly knew that before that game. Nothing happened

(02:23:59):
from the end of the game till his meeting with
our routine the next morning.

Speaker 3 (02:24:02):
That made him go, you know what I'm done. Certainly
had to have thought about it, right.

Speaker 5 (02:24:06):
Yes, So as he is walking up and down the
sidelines in the fourth quarter, you depth.

Speaker 3 (02:24:11):
This is it.

Speaker 15 (02:24:11):
I don't know if he took the field thinking that,
or I don't know if he was walking the sidelines
thinking he had had to have. Maybe he just came
to the conclusion, Hey, if I'm already thinking about it,
like deal Chuck Nole line, if you're thinking about retirement.

Speaker 3 (02:24:23):
You're retired. Yeah, that might have been it. Maybe he
just got tired of banging his head against.

Speaker 5 (02:24:28):
The wall or telling those guys over and over what
to do and then they don't do it. I mean,
the defense was constantly in flux. Offensive alignment was always
a mess. It's like, is it coaching or is it
players who just won't allow themselves to get the message.

Speaker 3 (02:24:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (02:24:45):
I just think just not good enough, good enough to
overcome adversity in the regular season and bounce back and
fight through the grind of a long schedule and qualify.
Then you got to go to Kansas City and you're
not good enough, so you get your ass kicked. You've
got to go to Buffalo. Not good enough, so he
gets your ass kicked. This one was supposed to be different.
I had a lot of respect for Houston, particularly the defense,

(02:25:06):
but I didn't think Houston was offensively gifted enough to
turn that game into the kind of blowout that the
Steelers had experienced repeatedly in the postseason leading up to it.
And turns out the Texans offense wasn't good enough, but
the defense threw a couple of touchdowns on top of
the stink sandwich.

Speaker 5 (02:25:25):
Stink sandwich. Those are terrible.

Speaker 3 (02:25:30):
It's a fun here, though.

Speaker 5 (02:25:31):
Mark Madden doesn't think so. Mark's gonna join us shortly.
He is all in on tanking. Yeah, go out and
go three and fourteen? Who says no, me? I hate that,
I too hate that idea. It's been quite a show.
If you missed anything, we've had, Tim Bench, Charlie Batch,
Merril Hodge, Rob King, Jeremy Fowler, and Max Starts. At

(02:25:53):
this point, you can go back and listen to the
show with the DV Morning Show podcast wherever you get
your podcasts streaming online.

Speaker 3 (02:25:58):
Start to finish the DV Morning Show double m.

Speaker 5 (02:26:02):
Mark Madden ways in when we come back and we'll
do some of our favorite tomlinisms on the way out.

Speaker 17 (02:26:06):
Ice forward hands in the ten and two position radio
cranked yep, looks like you're ready to drive.

Speaker 3 (02:26:13):
Let's get an you.

Speaker 17 (02:26:16):
Chad Tyson rocks Pittsburgh weekday afternoons on DV. He also
has a reloaded cut from the DV Morning Show and
Sports News Afternoons with Chad Tyson on dv E.

Speaker 5 (02:26:30):
Rob King here.

Speaker 3 (02:26:31):
Staying connected to your Steelers has never been easier.

Speaker 5 (02:26:34):
Tune into Steelers Nation Radio one is your radio home
at the Pittsburghteelers one of two point five dv E.
Our next guest brought to you by Calusy, serving the
Pittsburgh area for over one hundred and seven years from
our brother station one oh five ninety X double m
Mark Madden, Mark.

Speaker 3 (02:26:49):
Good morning, Hello again everybody. Mark.

Speaker 5 (02:26:52):
What do you think was the impetus for Mike Tomlin
saying enough's enough?

Speaker 9 (02:27:00):
I think the debacle of Monday Night made everybody, not
at least him, realize enough's enough. That's the fifth straight
playoff loss by double digits. That's the ninth first run.
Next in Pittsburgh, we used to make fun of Marty
Schoenheimer for something that Mike Tomlin wound up matching. So
what made it evident to him?

Speaker 10 (02:27:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (02:27:20):
I still am not quite sure how much of it
was him jumping and how much was him being pushed.
But I think even the most diehard Tomlin supporters would
have to acknowledge that it was time for his run
to come to an end. Actually, Randy, I take that back.
They're not acknowledging that. We keep getting told, well, you'll see,
You'll see the grass isn't always greener. Mike Greenberg said that,

(02:27:41):
and I tweeted back, Listen, we're not the Jets.

Speaker 3 (02:27:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:27:44):
All the Steel was going to do is win one
playoff game in the next nine years, and Tomlin's successor
will have topped him well.

Speaker 5 (02:27:52):
So the scenario is not as set up for success
as it was when Mike Tomlin came in for that,
and for that matter, when Bill Tower took the job
from Chuck Nole, Right.

Speaker 9 (02:28:06):
There's no question about that. But that's tough took us.
I mean, do you want the job or not. I
don't think it's an attractive job. I think people who
say Marcus Freeman and Kurt Signetti, why would they want
to leave where they're at to come here, even though
Signetti's in the insurer, and you know, the budget for
staff ain't going to be great. The facilities aren't great.
Like you said, it's not set up to succeed, and

(02:28:28):
that's the organization's fault. But you got to take some steps,
and you've got to move backwards sometimes to go forward.
The last time the Steelers finished with the losing record,
they drafted Ben Roethlisberger. So I'm not as upset by
the possibility of having a few losing seasons, although I'm
sure to insur nation it will because for apoplexy.

Speaker 5 (02:28:47):
I am appreciative of Mike Tomlin's run here. I liked
that we had winning football all those years. I think
that it's a big difference to have meaningful football every
year in terms of the entertain factor as a fan,
and also acknowledged that the lack of postseason success meant
something had to change, and you alluded to this, and

(02:29:08):
I'm wondering if there was possibly the scenario which Charlie
Batch thinks that maybe the Rooney's pushed him in a direction.
I'm wondering if they said you can stay, but we
got to change these coordinators and you have to relinquish
some of the control. And that was the straw that
broke the camel's back for him.

Speaker 9 (02:29:30):
You know, I threw that out there on my show,
and maybe there's something to that, because Randall, it surprised
me he quit Tuesday morning after showing no indications thereof
Monday night. If he was hiding it, he hit it
very well because I just didn't figure. But I'll be blunt.
I think this organization and ownership has always been scared

(02:29:50):
the death of Mike Tomlin, and I think to confront
him in a manner like Charlie suggests and I suggested too,
would have been very uncharacteristic and come out of no where.
Doesn't mean it didn't happen. It's just not the way
I would bet.

Speaker 3 (02:30:05):
So what do they do now?

Speaker 5 (02:30:07):
I mean some of the names that are being thrown
out there are crazy to me. I don't know how
Marcus Freeman's name gets thrown on top of the pile.

Speaker 9 (02:30:14):
Oh, he's not going to take the job, whether they
want him, whether they should or not, He's not going
to take it. It's better off at Notre Dame. Same
with like I said Signetti in Indiana, what they need
to do is make a clean spreak from their organizational
mindset about defense and imposing their will because they had
the most expensive defense in football and it was terrible

(02:30:36):
and I didn't see a whole lot of will being
imposed on Monday night. This league is about offense. It's
about scoring more and faster, and they need to go
in that directional they'll just repeat their mistakes and not
do as well as they want. The name I keep
coming back to is Clint Kubiak, the offensive coridator at Seattle.
I think he's the kind of offensive mind that they

(02:30:59):
need to get. I would hire Kevin Stefanski, who left
the Browns. They're not gonna because they're not going to
recycle the brons coach, but he's a good offensive mind,
two time NFL Coach of the Year, and he was
undone in Cleveland by ownership interference as regards to the
Shawn Watson contract. Though those would be my top two candidates.
But they need to do more than that. Ran well,

(02:31:20):
they need to clear the staff out. They usually don't.
They didn't do that when Tom Win came in and
replaced Kawer. They need to push as many players out
the door as they can. But I mean, TJ. Watt,
who's gonna take on that contract for clearly a clearly
declining player. And I knew that was a terrible, terrible
decision when they gave him that deal. And I'm always

(02:31:40):
right and nobody should be surprised this time. But yeah,
there's a lot more work to be done besides just
hiring the coach.

Speaker 5 (02:31:47):
Well, this is the problem is they've got some guys
on there that they should probably get rid of. But
the cap, the dead cap, would just kill him.

Speaker 9 (02:31:57):
Well, then you lose for a while. Like I said,
the last time you finished under five hundred, you signed
Ben Roethlisberg. And by the way, just to clear up
what's always been a myth, that streak of no losing
seasons for Tomlin, ay, that was mostly ben streak. It
started before Tomlin took over, and Ben did more to
prop it up than Tomlin, for sure, And it always

(02:32:18):
became an artificially low bar to reach that the national
media especially could crow about and say, look at Mike
tom when he's never had a losing season. But then
the negative numbers added up, like all those playoff losses
by double digits, five in a row, and that led
us to his departure.

Speaker 3 (02:32:35):
How many was Ben quarterback for.

Speaker 9 (02:32:38):
Most of them?

Speaker 3 (02:32:39):
The playoff losses?

Speaker 9 (02:32:41):
Oh yeah, No, Ben's not blameless in that either. I
know you think that nothing's wrong with the team, Mike,
but there is.

Speaker 15 (02:32:47):
I never said nothing's wrong with it. I'm just asking
a question.

Speaker 9 (02:32:51):
Would you have kept Tomlin? That's the question I'm asking
would Yep, you're insane, But everybody's entitled their opinion.

Speaker 3 (02:33:00):
You're insane. Next you two are insane. You saying, well,
I just don't.

Speaker 9 (02:33:05):
I just don't see the logic for keeping a guy
that just gets his bears blown off in playoff game
after playoff game. Support You'll see, you'll see what's gonna happen.
And the worst part is the next two years it'll
look like a mistake just based on one lotch. But
it's the right move, absolutely the right move.

Speaker 5 (02:33:21):
Well, I think his biggest problem was talent assessment and
his lack of willingness to allow coordinators to have more
independence and bring in guys with a real pedigree.

Speaker 3 (02:33:33):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:33:33):
It seemed like he was okay with guys who kind
of agreed with his defensive philosophy and a more conservative
offensive approach and that he was okay with and.

Speaker 3 (02:33:43):
I think he if he were more open to having you.

Speaker 5 (02:33:46):
Know, it's I Mike and I disagree on this. I
think his lack of coaching tree is an indictment and
that it doesn't.

Speaker 9 (02:33:55):
Mean everything, but it doesn't mean.

Speaker 5 (02:33:56):
Nothing right, and it doesn't mean I think he was
a bad coach. I think that would have really put
him over the top into untouchable territory.

Speaker 9 (02:34:04):
Yeah, I think he was an absolute fraud. I think
he won with Cowers, players, leaders, and culture. And the
further we got away from that, the more that became evident.
Sorry that that's what I think, and that's what the
record show.

Speaker 5 (02:34:15):
Well, yoga became very correlation is not causation.

Speaker 15 (02:34:22):
Okay, Now do now do the all time wins? Now
do the division titles? Now do ten and seven this year?

Speaker 9 (02:34:29):
Now, I'm so excited by ten and seven. I'm so
excited by the division title. Give me a right time
with Chuck Noll at all time wins is like comparing
caviar and horseman. Or he couldn't carry Chuck Noll's jock
and a hockey equipment bag.

Speaker 3 (02:34:45):
Chuck would have done with a b.

Speaker 9 (02:34:48):
Better than well you see, that's a tough one. That's
a tough one because he got a lot of statistically
out of a B but it killed the culture and
they didn't win anything.

Speaker 3 (02:34:58):
A lot of games.

Speaker 9 (02:35:00):
Yeah, right, if you're happy with that, Mike, then you'll
be happy with that.

Speaker 3 (02:35:04):
I'm allowed to be happy. What makes me happy? Thank you, Mark, But.

Speaker 9 (02:35:08):
Of course of course you are. But I mean, it's
just I remember when this team was based on winning
super Bowls, when that was the expectation, when that was
the goal, and it didn't become just an empty slogan
they preached with no hope of doing it, Like they
had no chance at the super Bowl for how many years,
none whatsoever beyond getting in the playoffs, and then they
got killed, so it wasn't much of a chance. I'm sorry.

(02:35:32):
This is one thousand percent the right move.

Speaker 5 (02:35:34):
I don't think anybody's It's not a matter of whether
it's right or not to me. Like I think it's
going to be a good change for both people, like
both parties. I think everybody benefits here because something needed
to change. But if I point to one thing that
was Mike Tomlin's downfall, it was drafting Kenny Pickett.

Speaker 3 (02:35:50):
No, no question, And.

Speaker 9 (02:35:51):
I said it. Then I said, this will set the
team back five years. As it turns out, it's going
to be longer. And Mike confirmer deny he was the
only guy in the building to do that.

Speaker 3 (02:36:01):
I don't.

Speaker 15 (02:36:02):
I don't have that information. Well I do, Okay, I
don't think that's how it works. But yeah, I think.

Speaker 5 (02:36:11):
I think that a guy like Kenny Pickett, who they
should have known forward and backward just by proximity, like
they should have had a better read on him than
they could have had anybody else. But that's my point
is to be that wrong about somebody that you had
that much access to really speaks to their lack of
ability to assess talent correctly. And too often he thought

(02:36:33):
he could author these reclamation projects from guys who only
had two or three games left in them.

Speaker 3 (02:36:39):
Well, a big.

Speaker 9 (02:36:40):
Problem occurred during the Coward administration when Cowor won the
power struggle with the GM Tom Donaho, and then it
became the coach having final say. And that needs to change,
by the way, the GM needs to get more input,
maybe not final say, maybe final say, but just you know,
at least where the coach doesn't say this is it period,

(02:37:01):
and he gets his way. But to do that you
need a better GM. Oh Mark Conz of being Connor.
He's a cap guy.

Speaker 3 (02:37:05):
He's not a GM.

Speaker 5 (02:37:07):
Mark Madden brought to you by Klusy serving the Pittsburgh
I just want to.

Speaker 9 (02:37:10):
Say I love pursuit. This is I want to say,
I love pursuit of This is just healthy debate. And
I'm right.

Speaker 5 (02:37:17):
Okay, he feels I stay correct and thank you, super genius.
See you, Mark, that's Mark. I'm gonna miss Coach Tomlin. Also,
I thought there was a need for a change in
some regard. So some of my favorite tomlinisms through the years.

(02:37:37):
There's a lot, you know, there's a lot of many.
It's a lot that I really like. Cut off your eyelids.
Love cut off your eyelids.

Speaker 7 (02:37:46):
If you're a blinker, cut off your eyelids.

Speaker 5 (02:37:49):
It's just a pebble in my shoe, Just a pebble
in my shoe. Popcorn, alright, is popcorn. I never understood
the popcorn one made no sense to me. His explanation
for it was that it meant one thing here, one

(02:38:09):
thing that I guess because popcorn flies out of the
popcorn maker and lands all over the floor.

Speaker 15 (02:38:13):
Mind always it stays in the same place, Like Coul's
in a bag and he put the bag in a
microwave and then popcorn comes out and it's all right there.

Speaker 7 (02:38:23):
Popcorn does go everywhere.

Speaker 1 (02:38:25):
The clerk should recut Penny on the floor with pebble
in my shoe.

Speaker 7 (02:38:29):
I like that, Take it out and keep moving.

Speaker 5 (02:38:33):
Big difference between squashing grapes and drinking wine.

Speaker 8 (02:38:38):
It's a good one, very good. Yeah, when you have
red paint, your paint red standard is the standard. Kind
of drove me out, so I'm not gonna lie to you.
I hated that one.

Speaker 3 (02:38:53):
Turn shame. Never say never, but never. I'd rather say
world and sick thoughtfully, non rhythmic. That was a big one.

Speaker 1 (02:39:07):
I've tried to embrace that in a lot of forums.

Speaker 5 (02:39:12):
You don't have to elaborate.

Speaker 3 (02:39:16):
I'm a volunteers, not hostages.

Speaker 5 (02:39:18):
Always a good one.

Speaker 7 (02:39:19):
I say it all the time.

Speaker 5 (02:39:21):
I do. My windshield is bigger than my rear view mirror.

Speaker 3 (02:39:26):
It's a good one.

Speaker 7 (02:39:30):
But I don't send messages make moves.

Speaker 3 (02:39:33):
That's that's not Steven Seagall.

Speaker 5 (02:39:37):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (02:39:37):
Both statistics are for losers? Like who do you think
you said that to? Elis Cannon. I don't even think
he's is he even around over there?

Speaker 7 (02:39:49):
Anyway?

Speaker 3 (02:39:51):
Football is our game. Our business is winning.

Speaker 5 (02:39:56):
It's difficult to box without sparring another one. Got to
get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Speaker 7 (02:40:06):
Do you like that?

Speaker 5 (02:40:07):
The one that came back to bite him in the
ass the most times, though.

Speaker 3 (02:40:10):
Was we don't live in our fears.

Speaker 5 (02:40:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:40:13):
That was used as a cudgel to crush Mike Tomlin
after anytime he didn't go for it on four of
the inches, anytime he punted, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:40:25):
Any time he didn't stick his hand on a burner on.

Speaker 5 (02:40:28):
A hot stove like taxi driver. Heinz Ward has money
in my emotional bank account.

Speaker 3 (02:40:35):
Oh yeah, I think the interest rate is on that.

Speaker 5 (02:40:41):
I can give you all the ingredients to the hot dog,
but you might not like it.

Speaker 7 (02:40:48):
You wouldn't really gross stuff in there.

Speaker 3 (02:40:53):
Rat dropping a lot of meat on the growth bone.

Speaker 7 (02:40:57):
I was waiting for you to do it, because if
you weren't gonna do it.

Speaker 3 (02:41:01):
I love me on the growth bone.

Speaker 1 (02:41:04):
I can't believe we haven't made a bigger deal about
that one, because that one's good.

Speaker 7 (02:41:11):
Yeah, where's the growth bone?

Speaker 3 (02:41:14):
I'm not into making predictions. I'm into making preparations.

Speaker 5 (02:41:19):
Leadership's not about being in charge, about taking charge of
those in your charge.

Speaker 29 (02:41:26):
It's not about what we want to do. It's about
what we're about to do. I'm not into moral victories.
I'm into victories.

Speaker 5 (02:41:36):
Oh yeah, hell yeah. We're going to pursue perfection, knowing
full well we won't catch it, but we're gonna relentlessly
chase it.

Speaker 26 (02:41:50):
Oh wow, I'm a big believer. You don't rise to
the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.
Are you okay over there? Are you gonna do?

Speaker 5 (02:42:02):
You need a fan?

Speaker 7 (02:42:05):
Buy me dinner next time? Before you start this list?

Speaker 3 (02:42:11):
When you win, nobody remembers who got the credit. He's
are making me sad, Brandy, do you need a hug?

Speaker 5 (02:42:24):
I'm just gonna cut off my eye lids and move forward.

Speaker 1 (02:42:26):
You know what the worst or the most defensive tominism was,
I don't know who cuts my grass.

Speaker 3 (02:42:35):
I'll never let him off the hook for that.

Speaker 12 (02:42:37):
It's a landscaper, I for that.

Speaker 1 (02:42:41):
That's when he lost me. The poor guy who cut
his grass. That guy had been telling people four years.
I got coach dominds. I'm not a big bragger. I
don't like the brag, but I do.

Speaker 24 (02:42:56):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:42:56):
You know, I have the thalm on account.

Speaker 15 (02:42:59):
That's like on it because a Bek new who cut
his grass. He just wouldn't pay them.

Speaker 5 (02:43:04):
That's movie. Well thanks for the memories, coach Tomlin, and
uh onward and upward for everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:43:15):
Well onward. Yeah, I might be down here for a while.
I guess this means so.

Speaker 5 (02:43:20):
Long Aaron Rodgers, I would assume he's not coming back
to play here.

Speaker 3 (02:43:24):
He might play somewhere. I ain't gonna be here, Arthur Smith,
see you.

Speaker 1 (02:43:30):
McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers reunite for one last grab of
the brass ring. Mcarthy's not being mentioned at all Greenfield.
He could be the good Bridge guy.

Speaker 3 (02:43:41):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:43:42):
I don't think they're going to have another twenty year
head coach. That's just not how the league works now.

Speaker 3 (02:43:47):
It's that's the dumbest idea I ever heard.

Speaker 5 (02:43:49):
Bring him back, like put the basics of like, hey, coach,
we're bringing you here to just restore the foundation. Expectation
is simply that, and then we're gonna bounce you in
a few years because you're not gonna want to coach
anymore anyways. And then we'll get a platform set for
the next up and coming Ben Johnson or whoever that

(02:44:11):
might be.

Speaker 15 (02:44:11):
I'm actually it's all seriously, I'm very curious if their
mindset is, Okay, we're three for three in the last
three times we did this, even though it's only, you know,
a seventy year window, let's run it back and do
it that way.

Speaker 3 (02:44:25):
Or are they gonna embrace a new.

Speaker 15 (02:44:29):
Model for what they want, Like, would they consider a
guy who's been a head coach before?

Speaker 3 (02:44:34):
Now?

Speaker 15 (02:44:34):
Would they consider a college guy? Would they consider something
other than the young, up and coming, defensive minded Yeah,
I'm with you on next guy.

Speaker 1 (02:44:45):
You mentioned it in one of your sports updates, Mike,
and I think this has been overlooked. You need someone
who is not going to be overwhelmed by the job
right away and like horribly fatigued, someone who loves football
in the way that I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:44:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:44:58):
McCarthy fills the bill on that one. We're gonna have
coaches meetings at Zeno's.

Speaker 15 (02:45:05):
I gotta go to Alis you guys tomorrow never leaves Greenfield.

Speaker 5 (02:45:13):
I'm gonna take a nap and we'll figure it out,
all right.

Speaker 3 (02:45:16):
We gotta go.

Speaker 5 (02:45:18):
Thanks to Tim Benz, Charlie Batch, Merril Hodge, Rob King,
Jeremy Fowler, Max Starts, and Mark Madden. We had a
full list of Steelers insiders this morning, and if you
want to catch any that can go back and listen
to it on the podcast Start to Finish wherever you
get your podcasts. The morning Show, Michell's out next with
the Electric Lunch at noon. Thanks Ted Whistle for hanging

(02:45:38):
out with us this morning. And uh here we go
Gus Steelers. Thanks Coach t I'm finished. You stay classy, Pittsburgh.
Don't touch your face?

Speaker 16 (02:45:48):
Hey cut him type baby.

Speaker 2 (02:45:51):
But now you guys call me Ronald?

Speaker 7 (02:45:52):
Would you not eat my pants?

Speaker 3 (02:45:54):
Ronald? What gogglehead?

Speaker 13 (02:46:04):
It's time for the Steelers Daily Report on DVE, brought
to you by your neighborhood for its store and Steelers
Pro shop. Get it direct from the team at shop
dot Steelers dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:46:13):
Here's Tom Opperman.

Speaker 19 (02:46:15):
For the first time since two thousand and seven, the
Pittsburgh Steelers are in the market for a new head coach.
Coach Mike Tomlin decided to step down yesterday afternoon after
nineteen seasons as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers by Tomlin,
leaves behind a legacy that includes a Super Bowl championship,
two AFC Championships, eight AFC North Division titles, thirteen total
playoff appearances, and of course, never having had a losing season.

(02:46:37):
The news comes on the heels of the Steelers losing
thirty to six of the Texans in the Wildcard round
Monday night, team's seventh straight playoff loss, the worst than
franchise history. Steelers will now enter into a coaching market
where they will be competing with eight other NFL teams
searching for a head coach, including their division rivals Baltimore
and Cleveland. As far as what's next for Mike Tomlin, well,
that remains to be seen, although it has been reported

(02:46:59):
by ESPN's at Schefter that has expected that he will
take a year off from coaching and potentially pursue other
ventures like television. Whenever Tomlin decides, the fact remains the
Steelers will be looking for just the fourth head coach
and team history.

Speaker 5 (02:47:11):
Since nineteen sixty nine, and seeing as.

Speaker 19 (02:47:13):
The previous three are all super Bowl champions and two
of three are already in ken With Mike Tomlin surely
on his way as the third. Eventually, the shoes are
going to be pretty big to fill for whoever does
get the job. Steelers owner and president Art Rooney will
speak to the media today at noon to address coach
Tomlin stepping down.

Speaker 3 (02:47:31):
I'm Tom Opferman with the Steelers Report. He goes for
it and he's got it. That's another legendary play for Pittsburgh,
perfectly displays the precision and