BEARS ARE APPLAUDED FOR PURSUING MIKE TOMLIN — AND SHOULD KEEP TRYING
A legend is starting to fade in Pittsburgh, where 16 years is too long without a Super Bowl title, and a team and quarterback in Chicago need a badass “leader of men” and shouldn’t accept his early no
It’s not too late for Mike Tomlin to consider history and the current positioning of two quarterbacks. One is Ben Roethlisberger, who does a podcast called “Footbahlin” and is awaiting a call from the Hall of Fame at 42. The other is Caleb Williams, who needs help with the professional version of his craft on a team that needs a badass leader.
The Steelers coach is stubborn and thinks he belongs in Pittsburgh forevermore. But though he never has suffered a losing season, Tomlin has lost five straight playoff games in one-and-done pain pills. He has no real quarterback, with Ben long gone, as Russell Wilson and Justin Fields are on expiring contracts. He is 8-11 in the postseason. And in that city, the natives are restless without a Super Bowl championship in 16 years.
He won No. 6. He lost No. 7 in 2011. He turns 53 in March.
It is time for a change. He should call owner Art Rooney II and ask if a trade can be made, now that the Bears are practicing due diligence — is that you, Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles? — and inquiring if Tomlin might be dealt to Chicago. From old man Marv Levy when he lost four big games in Buffalo to the younger Deion Sanders, 10 years generally is stated as a maximum for a head coach to remain with one team. Tomlin just finished his 18th season.
“Save your time,” he is telling franchises who want to approach him.
He should make time.
Is it possible Bears fans would build a statue outside Soldier Field before Tomlin even starts? They might. Not since Mike Ditka won glory and departed in a drunken huff has a walking, talking debacle of a front office hired a substantial coach. The Steelers won four championships before 1985 and two after 1985. The Bears are still stuck on 1985. They need a “leader of men,” as Poles told his players, and no one in the sport is a bigger leader of men than Tomlin. For now, he prefers to stay where he is.
“I understand the nature of what it is that we do, the attention and criticism that comes with it," Tomlin said last week. “As a matter of fact, I embrace it, to be quite honest. I enjoy the urgency that comes with what I do and what we do. I don't make excuses for failure. I own it, but I also feel like I'm capable and so as long as I'm afforded an opportunity to do that, I will continue. But I certainly understand their frustrations and probably more important than that, I share it because that's how I'm wired.”
I would trade Lake Forest for Mike Tomlin.
The Willis Tower, too.
Jerry Reinsdorf as a throw-in.
If Tomlin elects to stay, the Bears continue their pursuit of Ben Johnson. He might be headed to Las Vegas, especially if Tom Brady calls him “the next Bill Walsh” during a Saturday night playoff game. Mike McCarthy had a comfortable stay during an interview, thanks to a private jet, but he has been fired twice and might not fit too well in a Williams coaching mode. Who doesn’t love Tomlin? The players will devour him.
And Brian Flores? Remember what the Minnesota defensive coordinator said to Tua Tagovailoa when he was head coach of the Miami Dolphins? He told a podcast: “To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning, and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this. You are accurate, you are the best whatever, you are this, you are that.' How would that make you feel, listening to one or the other? You see what I'm saying?
“And then you hear it and hear it — regardless of what it is, the good or the bad — and you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe that. I don't care who you are. You could be the President of the United States. (If) you have a terrible person that's telling (you) things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're gonna start to believe that about yourself. That's sort of what ended up happening. It's basically been two years of training that out of, not just me, but a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year all the way 'til now.”
No, even if Flores has apologized, he cannot be hired.
It’s either Johnson or McCarthy, apparently, though I’d wait for Kliff Kingsbury.
And Tomlin. Rooney is hung up on the franchise’s resting place for coaches, employing only Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin since 1969. That, too, must change, unless he wants Steelers fans driving Tomlin to TV work next year.
Credit Poles for picking up the phone and calling. He can try again today.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.