The sea was angry that day, my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.
Or perhaps not so much angry as sort of vindictive. Because it seemed as though everybody wanted to know the why, or to be told the why, when everybody already knows. The collective “we” just wanted to hear Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin rattle off the reasons that former offensive coordinator Matt Canada was no longer employed by the organization.
He would not give reporters the satisfaction of providing them the soundbites and quotes that they were looking for, however. Was it because of what he had seen from QB Kenny Pickett and his lack of development? What was the tipping point? How did he handle the news when you told him?
“Out of respect to him, particularly professionally, I’m just not gonna give you a lot of details and give you the pound of flesh that you’re hunting”, he responded, via the team’s website, when finally asked if the frustrations of the players emanating from the locker room was a significant component of his decision.
Canada steered the Steelers’ offense as coordinator for the past two-and-a-half seasons, without much in the way of positivity to show for it. He achieved some dubious accomplishments, such as his incredible lack of even a single 400-yard game during his tenure. Just two games in which the offense put up 30-plus points. And both were in games that they lost.
So what did Tomlin say about what led to the decision? “You just know when you’re there. I’m not gonna get into great detail in this setting. I don’t think it’s appropriate”, he said at one point. Elsewhere, when asked about Canada’s handling of the move, he kept it private. “I’ll leave that between he and I”.
“I just think you know when you’re there, to be blunt and short about the answer”, Tomlin said earlier on in attempting to give some kind of answer about why he made the move now. “Not saying that flippantly, not taking the situation lightly at all, but just having been in the role that I’ve been in for some time, you just now when you’re there, and usually it’s a totality of a myriad of variables”.
The thing is, we all know the reasons. We don’t actually need to hear Tomlin say it. It was because of the terrible production on the field. It was because of the absurd level of miscommunication, the lack of player development, the tangible frustration, the predictability. These are some of those many variables to which he vaguely referred.
We know all this. We just didn’t get the soundbite. And it doesn’t matter. The reason for Canada’s firing was not for a cathartic release after two-and-a-half years. It was to try to begin to make the offense better. The whys are on film and in the interviews. The rest doesn’t matter.
Besides, the price of a pound of flesh isn’t cheap these days.
