http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Thursday, January 29, 2009
TAMPA, Fla. — Mike Tomlin told his players to embrace every experience leading up to the Super Bowl, including the three one-hour media sessions each team has to take part in prior to Sunday's game.It looks like he is following his own advice.
Tomlin has talked openly about the uneasy transition that took place after he assumed the Steelers' coaching reins in January of 2007 as well as how he is different with the players.
Such introspection represents a break from what Tomlin adhered to last month and even just weeks ago when he had been reluctant to reflect on how he had changed or grown as a coach.
"I'm probably more in my comfort zone here with the football team than I was a year ago," Tomlin said. "Not that I wasn't comfortable but this is more of who I am.
"I think (the players) have an understanding of that. I think that all relationships are built on sheer experiences. We didn't have any experiences to call on, so our relationship was edgy, if you will."
The profiles of Tomlin and the Steelers could not have been more opposite when he arrived in Pittsburgh.
Tomlin was still two months away from celebrating his 35th birthday, and he had limited NFL coaching experience — he had served as a defensive coordinator for only one season — before succeeding Bill Cowher.
The Steelers, meanwhile, were a veteran team and the players were just two years removed from winning the Super Bowl. If they were skeptical of change that is because what they had done while Tomlin was rising through the NFL coaching ranks had worked.
Such different perspectives as well as unfamiliarity with one another provided the backdrop for Tomlin's first meeting with his players, one of whom (inside linebacker James Farrior) he had actually played against in college.
"You could tell right away that he tried to take over the room, tried to make his presence felt but you could see a few nerves because he was a young guy," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "But the second he spoke you could see why the Rooneys hired him just because of the way he carries himself and addresses situations."
It wasn't until training camp that Tomlin significantly distanced himself from Cowher as he put the players through an exhausting pace at St. Vincent College. And he did not let up on them even after the Steelers broke camp.
"We're thinking we're getting a guy who is coming in and is going to be somewhat like coach Cowher," outside linebacker James Harrison said. "He came in and we had nothing that was like we thought it was. We had full pads almost twice a day in training camp. Full pads up to week 15 and 16. That was his way of saying, 'This is my team. This is how I'm going to run the team.' "
The bill for Tomlin establishing his authority came due near the end of the season.
The Steelers lost four of their final five games and tired legs may have been a culprit in the team's disappointing finish. What they had gained, even if it was hard to see at the time, was a foundation from which Tomlin would build.
"It was my intent to come in here in 2007 and draw some hard lines in the dirt as a basis of forming a relationship with our football team," Tomlin said. "It's a heck of a lot easier to pull back than it is to put down."
He pulled back this season, going easier on the players in large part because he knew them better and wasn't in constant evaluation mode.
Tomlin also established more of a personal relationship with the players, using his relative youth as an asset while not blurring the line he had drawn with a permanent marker in his first season as the Steelers' coach.
"He just has an energy that guys feed off of," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said, "and I think they really appreciate that, want to play for him and want to win."
One more win would make Tomlin the youngest head coach ever to win a Super Bowl. It would also make only the third head-coaching transition the Steelers have endured since 1969 a model for other teams who have to go through the same thing.
"I knew that just over time, that we would get to know one another and have a level of comfort," Tomlin said of the players, "and that I wasn't going to do that on day one, day two, day three or day 10 on the job — it was something that was going to occur over time. So that was down on my 'to-do' list, if you will."
Consider it done.
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