In case you somehow never noticed, there isn’t a lot that goes on in the football world between the end of minicamp and the start of training camp. This is the period of time in which many players and coaches go on vacation. They’re not out giving a lot of interviews and things like that, so it becomes rather difficult to drum up discussion. In turn, that also makes every bit of information that does come out more valuable.
Such as when Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin heads back to his local area for, among other things, some charity work. When he goes back down there, he’s always good to pop up for an interview or two, which is one of the very few times we hear from him during the offseason before Latrobe.
He recently spoke with WTKR News in Hampton, Virginia to answer some questions, largely about his charity work and being back in the area, but he also addressed the state of the Steelers, and how he’s approaching the future, toward the end of the interview.
“I’m excited about meeting the challenges of the year”, he said. “I like the questions surrounding us. I think our team does. We look forward to meeting them head-on and maybe proving some doubters wrong. Our agenda never changes. We’re trying to be world champions this year and we’ll aggressively pursue it”.
If you’re sensing a theme, then you’re right, because he made very similar remarks in the previous interview he did back in Virginia that we talked about recently. He seems to be really excited about being excited about answering the questions that surround his team this year. And yes, I meant to write that.
Tomlin also talked in the other interview about being wired differently, and I think he was talking about a competitive drive. Part of being competitive is having an attitude of proving that people who doubted you were mistaken for doing so.
This upcoming season, then, should be exciting for Tomlin, whom many regard, or want to regard, as on the hot seat after his team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013. The Steelers are not even the favorite to win the AFC North, but rather the only team in the division who has literally never won the AFC North title.
He knows all the questions he’ll be asked to answer, but he also knows that they’ve gotten a lot of work done preparing the answers to those questions. Really, one of the biggest questions they haven’t seemed to take a hard hit in addressing is whether or not they will have an adequate kicker this year. And that will probably depend on Chris Boswell.
