Mike Tomlin has broken his silence about departing Pittsburgh, explaining that both he and the Steelers organization needed a change after nearly two decades together.
The 54-year-old coach, who never posted a losing season during his tenure, spoke with NBC Sunday night in his first public comments since leaving the team in January. Tomlin acknowledged that the franchise’s playoff struggles – they haven’t won a postseason game since 2016 – played a role in his difficult choice to step away.
“You know, it’s probably not an overnight decision,” Tomlin explained. “It’s probably not something that I could articulate or share with people. There’s a loneliness with leadership.”
“I just thought it was a good time for me personally and by that, I mean, just where I am in life and I thought it was a good time for the organization, to be quite honest with you. We didn’t have success in the playoffs in recent years and there’s just some veteran players there, man, guys like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt and (Chris) Boswell, man, that I thought that just were worthy of the excitement and the optimism of new leadership.”
NBC officially confirmed Sunday that Tomlin will become an analyst on “Football Night in America,” which precedes the network’s Sunday evening NFL broadcasts.
“I just thought it would be a great way to stay connected to the game and the awesome people in it, players, coaches, executives,” Tomlin shared about his new role. “and excited about doing that on Sunday night and traveling to different venues and getting that feel for the environment and lastly, I just thought it would be awesome to share insight with fellow football lovers.”
“I love to talk football and so that’s just an exciting component for me. I got to admit, though, there’s going to be some anxiety about stepping into a new space, but good anxiety, it’s good to be uncomfortable with the growth associated with that. I’m fired up about it.”
Pittsburgh finished 10-7 this past season before suffering a crushing 30-6 wild-card defeat to Houston on January 12th. The organization subsequently hired Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy as Tomlin’s replacement in late January.
During his remarkable run with the Steelers, Tomlin captured Super Bowl XLIII with a thrilling 27-23 win over Arizona in February 2009. The team also reached Super Bowl XLV two years later, falling 31-25 to Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay.
Tomlin compiled a 193-114-2 record in Pittsburgh, matching Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for most regular-season victories in franchise history and ranking ninth all-time in the NFL. Noll led the Steelers from 1969-91, with Bill Cowher coaching from 1992-2007 before Tomlin took over.
Regarding Rodgers, who worked with both McCarthy in Green Bay and Tomlin this past season, the former coach predicted the 42-year-old quarterback will return for his 22nd NFL campaign despite uncertainty about his future plans.
“Man, if you got a gun to my head, I’d say it’s AR,” Tomlin said. “I just think, Aaron, I just think being around him for the 12 months that I’m around him, he’s got a love affair with the game of football and not only the game, but the process, the informal moments, the development of younger guys, the interaction with teammates. I think he has an addiction to that, and there’s only one way to feed it. And certainly he is still capable and in really good shape. And so I think at the end of the day, he’ll play football.”
