It is so sad to read about how devastated the players were over Tomlin’s departure and the guilt they feel. He really meant a lot to this team and they loved him.

Link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6973084/2026/01/15/mike-tomlin-inside-story-steelers-resignation/
(Unfortunately, I think the article is paywalled for most, but if anyone has another link or option please feel free to post it below).

36 comments

  1. Also, this is a direct quote from the article that I found interesting:

    “Every single player in that building wants to play for Mike T.,” said one player. “Were guys upset with coordinators? Yes. Was it the head guy? No.”

  2. He was loved and respected by his players and many others around the league there’s no denying that.

  5. It’s clear how much those guys loved him. If you’ve got the entire locker room breaking down in tears of guilt becuase they feel like they failed you, you’ve probably done something right in connecting with your players.

    It was time to let go, but damn if it doesn’t hurt to do it.

  7. I hope despite this Watt stays on with the Steelers. It wasn’t his best year but hell I love his spirit and energy. He seems like he wants to be a Steeler through the end. You can’t coach commitment and enthusiasm.

  8. It was huge in my contract talks

    TJ….. you were the highest paid non QB ever….. stop trying to pretend like you took a discount

  9. It’s healthy and good for players to be sad about losing a coach the liked playing for and respected as a person. This is just a game in the end. Lives aren’t on the line. They are doing this for our entertainment.

    They can play tough on the field. These are still human beings. Having emotions about this is normal and appropriate.

    People blame the coach and the buck does stop with him. However, the team has won with middle of the road players in key positions and has been a pass or two away from many other wins these past few years.

    Good luck to the next coach.

  11. Yea this is why you have to blow it up. Cam and TJ are the veteran leaders who loved tomlin if things get shakey next year under the new guy you don’t want those vets to check out and influence our youth.

  14. This article has sucked the life out of me. I don’t know what the right thing for the org is. I want to see them competitive, but knowing what MT meant to us, man. I feel completely empty. I wanted Mike to leave if he wanted to go or if the org makes a change. Not because of people on the outside who have no idea what goes on in the building. MT gave everything to Pittsburgh, the fact he left the field to boos and “fire Tomlin” chants…I just haven’t been able to get over that in the last couple of days.

  15. my amateur take on what happened?

    The only part of all this that is truly tomlin’s fault is picking and standing by bad coordinators. that all does reflect on the coach. Smith and Austin’s shortcomings do reflect on the coach, even though they were technically their shortcomings.

    it seems like 95 percent of the job of HC is to get the players to try their hardest for you, and tomlin was an ace at that.

    i’m glad that it was his decision and not a firing.

  17. Of course these guys love him and I have no doubt that players loved playing for him. But players seem to get away with a lot over the years with him, especially the stars. Look at Lev Bell, AB, James Harrison etc.

    But then I also look at someone like TJ Watt, he has not been up to his standards for over 1.5 years now and he is unwilling to try something different to get productivity. He talked in the off-season about moving around and he didn’t at all because “he feels more comfortable”.

    Again this all brings us back to Tomlin being predictable on both sides of the ball and unwilling to adapt. It will be good for this team to get an updated and fresh view on things. Hopefully players are pushed to their limits and encouraged and willing to do new things.

    Mike Tomlin isn’t coming back, these players who “only want to play for Mike T” that’s not possible anymore.

  20. I really don’t think that anyone who wanted Tomlin gone realizes just how rare and valuable it is to have a coach who everyone genuinely loves and respects. The fact that almost all players around the league seem to say that they like and would want to play for Tomlin speaks volumes.

    Pushing him out of this job was a mistake.

  21. Found a non-paywalled version here [https://archive.is/yjvYk](https://archive.is/yjvYk) And yes, I definitely cried when I read it.

    For all his faults (namely, the coordinators he had in the last few years), you cannot tell me Tomlin wasn’t a players’ coach.

    I respect the fuck outta Mike T. And it’s bittersweet that he won’t be the face of the Stillers anymore.

    It needed to happen, but that’s a HC type move to step down and take that responsibility/accountability.

    ![gif](giphy|l22ysLe54hZP0wubek|downsized)

  22. Mike T is a really great person that genuinely cared about people, and it shows. That still doesn’t change the fact that he lost seven straight playoff games, none of which were competitive. He hired terrible coordinators. He had terrible clock management and personnel management in games. How many other organizations would have signed that last extension that we gave him?

    Just because you’re a great person that treats people well doesn’t mean you’re good at your job and doing everything that you need to be doing.

  24. After reading the article. It almost feels like that Rooney might have asked Tomlin to step down, or told him that the option year wouldn’t be picked up on his contract, and Tomlin didn’t want to be a lame duck head coach. In the press conference Rooney said it was family related more than football related, but that doesn’t jive with what Tomlin told the team.

    I’m sure the players are upset, but at the end of the day it’s a results oriented business, and Tomlin was no longer producing results at least when it came to playoff time. Tomlin said it himself when he addressed the team for the final time: He said “In the business of the NFL, there’s consequences for not doing your job. As a professional in this business, you have to live with those consequences. Some of us will be here next year; some of us won’t”.

  25. The players do fail Coach T. If they loved him that much, they should have played better. And Tomlin hired and kept those coordinators – it starts and stops with the Head Coach.

  27. This breaks my heart man. The news hadn’t really hit me until now… I wish so badly they at least got one playoff victory with him man. Tomlin haters get what they want and I hate that but at least this shows that he never once lost the locker room and that everyone indeed loves him. We should’ve gone all in on OC/DC and let him ride out his 20th season, but I’m sure it was mostly his own decision. He looks worn out… but this still just hurts man. We’ve had so many great players of course but Pittsburgh sports in the last 2 decades were, to me, always represented by Cutch, Sid/Geno/Tanger, and Tomlin. He was on my rotating PC wallpapers growing up alongside those guys lol

    I’m hopeful for our future and of course hope we win the SB next year (though I know the reality lmao), but it’s not gonna feel right for a while not seeing Tomlin on our sidelines

  28. I watched a documentary about the 2002 Buccaneers the other night. They loved Tony Dungy, but Warren Sapp admitted that they got scared in big spots. They needed someone like Gruden to come in and light a fire under their asses. Granted it was short lived, but championships are forever. The irony is that Tomlin had a front row seat to all of that coaching the DBs in both 2001 and 2002.

  29. Get sacks, make catches, fight off blocks, don’t get beat by the guy across from you, work harder in the off season than anyone else and your Coach isn’t going anywhere.

    When you have 7 sacks vs 19 2 years ago I honestly don’t care.

  31. It’s a testament to Tomlin that even through all of the bs of this year that the team never wavered on their belief in him. At the same time tho, it was Tomlins inability to put together a competent coaching staff that ultimately caused these teams to fail every year. Tomlin is a great coach and he was able to get the absolute most out of his players. But his decision making in literally every other aspect of the game is why he’s no longer our head coach.

  32. I hope the fans are happy, the bullshit and noise that has been sent his way made him want to leave and I can see this all back firing so easily and quickly and becoming a poverty franchise. Maybe I’m just too doom and gloom.

  33. I feel like a lot of the players commenting on the fan reactions somewhat missed the point.

    “Every time we lost it felt like the sky was falling.”
    I can’t speak for everyone, but my frustration doesn’t come from us losing, but rather HOW we lose. Our losses are so ugly. Even when we win, it’s so hard to enjoy the games because the product they put out on the field is just so bad. And it’s not any one individual game. We have lacked a downfield passing attack for years, and I’m not even talking about deep passing. Consistent 10 yard throws seems an impossible feat for us, but rather easy for anyone we are playing against.

    “Were guys upset with coordinators? Yes. Was it the head guy? No.”
    We haven’t broken 6,000 yards of offense (roughly around the mark to be top 10 offense) since 2018. I understand Ben got hurt in 2019. However, that was 3 different offensive coordinators and I think 7 different starting QBs during that time. Somehow, the offensive production with Ben, Rodgers, Trubisky, Pickett, Fields, Wilson, and Rudolph all looks the same, regardless of the offensive coordinator. At least in the past when we had a bad offense, our defense was good. We haven’t even been able to say that for a long time.

    At a certain point, it speaks to Tomlin’s inability to turn the ship around. And I get that none of those offensive coordinators or QBs were particularly good (at that point in their careers), but it was his job to find a solution, and he didn’t. I can’t think of many teams in this league that would hold onto a head coach who appeared incapable of truly solving the team’s problems for 7 years.

  34. I fully admit that I started crying trying to get through this article. The JPJ and Rodgers parts hit hard. I’m a fan who also grew up only knowing Tomlin as the Steelers coach. It’ll be so weird watching next season without his presence.

  35. Players gotta take the heat, too. This group of players, including Watt, didn’t help Tomlin out at all.

    Coverage breakdowns, taking swipes at fans, linemen playing their parts as turnstiles.

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