When the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin as HC many of my fans felt they were really sticking it to me by reminding me that Tomlin was black. After all I had intellectually terrorized them with some tired cliche's into which they couldn't help but bite.
Sadly, what the simpletons can't seem to get is how my point is that it shouldn't be about race, whether a person of race is beneficiary or victim. One of the reasons I love Football so much was that when I played ball, one didn't make the choice to block or not block for his team mate because of his skin color.
Let me go on record as saying that I am decidedly undecided about the Tomlin hire. Not because he is black, but because the one effect I had hoped for with an outsider's hiring did not occur. I wanted a defensive regime change. One of Tomlin's first decisions was to keep a tired, old, gimmick loving DC. Add to that the fact that Tomlin doesn't have a Chuck Noll style pedigree and I have to have reservations.
But here's what I like about Tomlin. The guy clearly has a brain and some charisma. What a nice change after 15 years of a slobbering cro-magnon. I'm really enamored of Tomlin's brain, and will probably give him a wider berth than I ever afforded Cowher.
Notice how I didn't mention how thrilled I am that the Steelers hired a black Coach? I'm not. I could care less. Because it's not about color for me, it's about brain power. To be candid, the caterwauling about the number of black coaches nauseates me. All that means is that we have two sets of racists.
Lovie Smith said it best, "we'll know we're making progress when black coaches get hired and it's not a topic of discussion". I'm all for that.
As for Tomlin, I'm hoping that he kept LeBeau around to smooth the transition to a genuine NFL defense from Cowher's 52 Okie, ZB, dippity-do, DB's slapping helplessly at 33o lb. OL's, goofball gambit, keystone kops koverages, but one never knows.
I can't help but think Pittsburgh's already better off, though. I'll take a smart guy over a blockhead, any day
I like Lovie's quote. Unfortunately that's probably light years away. But, given the ignorance of the press, it's to be expected. Tomlin seems th be very determined and intellegent. He had to keep #### L. because our personnel is for a 3-4 and we would have to change to many to switch to a 4-3. I'm thinking we'll be seeing positive things comming.
If it's not an issue then why mention it at all? My concern is he only has 1 year under his belt as a coordinator. He is a good coach but will the lack of experience create problems or is the Steeler organization willing to let him grow and build into a head coach? Are the Steeler fans willing to let him develop?
It's great to see that the Steelers have finally someone in there that's got a personality.
Not only that but he's also got a feel for the game that wasn't always noticeable when you saw the Steelers playing under Cowher's regimen. That being said it's hoped that the players will find his sense of doing things totally refreshing from what they had to endure under Cowher.
tophatal....
Last edited by tophatal on January 30th at 1:28 PM.
The Steelers hired Tomlin for one reason in particular: So they didn't look like hypocrites in relation to the Rooney Rule. I'm a Steelers fan, and we just hired a guy because of affirmative action. Maybe he's the right guy, but don't sugarcoat the process.
It took forever for you to come out with your opinion of the hire. I don't know the 1st thing about Tomlin so I can't really have an opinion. But, he sure as hell is surrounding himself with some mediocre coaches though.
Byron Leftwich actually got worse under Ken Anderson's remarkable tutelage so lets hire him and put him in charge of our franchise QB.
Very few teams had worse ST coverage than the Steelers this season, but Koach Tomlin goes out and hires 1 of the coaches who actually had a worse coverage unit than Spencer.
The Steelers hired Tomlin for one reason in particular: So they didn't look like hypocrites in relation to the Rooney Rule. I'm a Steelers fan, and we just hired a guy because of affirmative action. Maybe he's the right guy, but don't sugarcoat the process.
More importantly, I worry less about time spent as a coordinator than brain power. The odds that a long time unit coach makes a good HC are not that great.
I don't believe the Rooney's hired Tomlin because he's black. I think they knew that some housecleaning was in order or the team would steadily decline.
I'm still not sure I have an opinion. I really wanted Russ Grimm because of his pedigree and no nonsense approach. But I was very concerned that he'd just retain the same assistants and playbook.
I was open to Toimlin coming in for the sake of change and a good brain. I still hope that change comes, but the LeBeau retention was heartbreaking.
As far as Ken Anderson goes. I'll take him any day over Junk Whipple. Leftwich is soooooooo overrated, with his slowmotion delivery and airballs, the guy has to be the worst technical passer this side of David Carr.
And I don't worry about ST coaches either. The secret to good ST's is not playing career scrubs like Clint Kreiwaldt and Sean Morey to tackle world class sprinters.
Last edited by ChristopherRoss on January 29th at 6:29 PM.
Good point about ST. I have never understood why starters do not see the field more in punt coverage and kickoff coverage.
I hope to see a kicker brought in who can actually kick the ball into the endzone on kickoffs. Maybe they'll give Hendersonville, TN Grad James Wilhoit a shot in camp.
Christopher R ..... I know that Cowher had no real feel for the game. Hence the team played at times with a frenetic pace. Half the time I doubt that many of the players knew what type of scheme they were meant to be playing. Even ehwn Rothleisberger went down. He had Batch there but was reluctant to have the guy fill Ben's shoes. I can hazard a gues that when Tomlin takes over you won't see anything of that nature happening onfield.
As for the saga that is the Cowboys, that's turning out be a soap opera initself. As Jerry Jones doesn't seem to know what the hell he wants in terms of a coach. I think he'd be better of with a Maitre' D and Rocco Di Spiritio for all that he's been doing or even trying to concoct in terms of a coaching staff. Please he's even relenting to interview Norv Turner for head coaching position.
Can we say retread, retread, retread, retread ! My utmost thanks to Kanye West for allowing the use of some of his lyrics and substituting my own words.
Christopher R ..... The Di Spirito jibe I thought'd be appropriate as Emeril Lagasse's bam wouldn't be quite as entertaining !
Let's just hope that Jones really does know what he's doing.
It's got to be a sad indictment of the game at present that there are no viable candidates out there for one of the more prestigeous coaching gigs in the NFL. The only person that I think that'd jump at the chance of coaching the Cowbouys would be the Buccaneers' Jon Gruden. But as he's under contract it'll be a no go ! However there were rumors going around town down here in C Florida that he'd put out feelers concerning
several of the vacant NFL coaching positions. But the denials have been coming thick and fast from Gruden's camp. Most fans here in the Tampa Bay area don't trust him as far as they can throw him. As most see him as nothing more than a snake oil salesman and they aren't far short of the truth concerning him from the outset.
"One of Tomlin's first decisions was to keep a tired, old, gimmick loving DC. Add to that the fact that Tomlin doesn't have a Chuck Noll style pedigree and I have to have reservations."
Hey, don't worry. "Grandpa" LeBeau is going on 70, and the '07 season may be his last. We all know Coach Tomlin is a disciple of the "Tampa 2" defense, which is close to what the Steelers played in the '70s (a team on which a young Tony Dungy cut his teeth) and we'll have a pretty good idea on Draft Day how soon the transition will take place.
As for the Chuck Noll comparison, it's not really fair, and remember this; Noll's teams went 12 and 30 in his first three years (with steady improvement each season). We know the Steelers' organization will be patient with Mike Tomlin; it's incumbent upon us to do the same.
P.S. I'm black and personally, I really wanted Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm to get the job, because they already knew the personnel and what needed to be addressed. C'est la vie et bon chance, Monseiur Tomlin! Geaux Steelers!
