The game of football is a series of microcosms within a greater macrocosm. Each position group must play in sync, for example, with itself, but must then also play in sync with those around them. And the team itself must also share a certain level of cohesion for the greatest effect. Nobody signed up for an ununified locker room.
Especially not when you play in a tough division like the AFC North. The Pittsburgh Steelers, some have predicted, could conceivably finish last in the division in 2023—even if they end up posting a winning record—working against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Baltimore Ravens, and a Cleveland Browns team that finally has the quarterback it gave up its soul for.
“It’s a great division”, Steelers wide receiver Allen Robinson II told Tom Pelissero yesterday on the Rich Eisen Show, but “we’re looking forward to that challenge each and every Sunday. We’re making sure even right now, today, as we go through the spring, that we’re mentally preparing ourselves for some of the different things that may happen during the season for any adverse moment”.
That responsibility falls primarily upon the shoulders of the head coach, of course, in this case Mike Tomlin, whom Robinson and other new incoming veterans have found to be more than up to that particular task. Having played for several other head coaches in his career, he is seeing firsthand how a Tomlin team prepares for the grind.
“I think you can already see the grit of the group starting to form, and when you have a coach like Coach T, there’s a reason why he’s had success”, he told Pelissero. “He knows how to get guys to rally around each other. How knows how to get guys to buy into each other. We have something special forming, and you can tell already”.
Of course, grit doesn’t win you games at the end of the day. You can have all the toughness and resolve in the world, but you need the talent that ultimately measures up to being better than the team you’re playing on any given day, either on the field or on the sidelines—or up in a booth.
The Steelers have no doubt had many teams in recent years that might have been described as gritty. Indeed, they have shown that grit a number of times, particularly when it comes to their willingness to see every game to the end, coming up with some stirring last-minute wins. But none of them have been good enough, suffice it to say.
Will this team be different? Well, there’s nothing for me to gain by being cynical about it. There’s always the chance that they put it all together this year. A lot of things will have to go right, but the same is true of every championship team, after all. And nobody has had the chips fall in their favor more than the Steelers have during the Super Bowl era.
