Mike Tomlin most certainly won\’t be the last head coach the Pittsburgh Steelers have as one day his time in the Steel City will come to end. When that day finally does come, you can rest assured there won\’t be another one like him. Tomlin, whose post training camp practice sessions with the media very rarely exceed three minutes, always finds a way to make great use of the words when answering questions.
At the conclusion of Wednesday\’s practice, Tomlin was asked about what things he will look for out of his young players Saturday night when they take on the New York Giants in their first preseason game of the 2013 season. As usually, he didn\’t disappoint with his answer.
“Just how they deal with the failures,” said Tomlin. “I think when you get in a stadium-like setting, that\’s one of the things that we don’t know about these guys at this point. Do they wear failures? Are they capable of moving on? Do they stack negative play on top of negative play or are they capable of moving past it?
“That\’s one of the critical things that you don\’t know about young guys until you get into stadiums and probably one of the things that we\’re eagerly awaiting in regard to some of them.”
This year for the Steelers, it\’s obvious the team is going through a transition from old to young and it hasn\’t been more evident than in the physical camp the team has endured up until this point. Tomlin knows that his young players are going to make mistakes Saturday night, and he\’s fine with that. More than anything else, he wants to see how they respond after they\’ve been knocked down.
It\’s too bad third-year cornerback Curtis Brown won\’t play Saturday night because of his injured ankle. While he is no longer a rookie, Brown has seemed to have problems with dealing with his failures. It would be nice to see him get knocked down a few more times during the preseason to see if he\’s now able to avoid stacking the negative plays on top of one another. I bet Tomlin would agree with me and hopefully Brown will be ready for the second preseason game.
As far as Tomlin goes, no, he\’s not perfect, and he said so on Wednesday when asked about his decision to move practice up one hour because of his fear that inclement weather could cut practice short.
“I\’m a bad weather man,” he said. “I\’m not going to quit my day job.”
Let\’s hope that he sticks to that promise, and I guarantee you it\’s not the last time he tries to predict the weather. He won\’t wear that failure.
