Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is entering his 18th season with the team and is well-known for never having a losing season. He is a bit of a polarizing figure in the fan base. Many fans feel that Tomlin is an excellent coach that the team should keep. Others are frustrated with the Steelers' lack of playoff success in recent years and believes the team should look for someone new.
However, the players defend Tomlin and speak very highly of him. While he's often called a "player's coach," longtime ESPN Steelers reporter Brooke Pryor said that the term doesn't carry the negative connotation many people think. She was recently on a fellow reporter Kevin Clark's podcast, This Is Football. He asked her to explain how she views Tomlin based on how much time she spends around him and the players in the locker room.
"I've been in other NFL locker rooms; I have never seen a coach come in and hang out in the locker room the way that Mike Tomlin does. He is a player's coach, and that doesn't mean he coddles them. He's not sugarcoating things. He's figured out the perfect combination of being transparent, being brutally honest, but also being there when you need him."
Pryor said recently that both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields have gotten a taste of Tomlin and his interactions. She just saw him talking to Wilson after practice, hanging out with him by his locker, and "shooting the breeze." He treats everyone the same and acts like he's just one of the guys.
She called him a "relatable guy" and said that endears his players to him. Pryor asked Fields what he thought of Tomlin now that he is with the team. He told her that Tomlin was exactly who he had always heard he was and exactly who he wanted him to be.
"He's figured out a way to make his players want to play for him. I think the best example of how deeply he feels and cares, and how it's not just a job to him, was when he was talking at the end of last season about how much he wants to win a Super Bowl for some of the guys. He got choked up talking about how much it hurts him that Maurkice Pouncey never won a Super Bowl. He feels that way about Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt."
The NFLPA survey made the gap in perception between how Tomlin is regarded internally by players and externally by fans even more obvious. The Steelers fell short in several categories, but earned an "A" for how players feel about their coaches.
