Roughly 10 minutes after just losing another playoff game and seeing a rather trying season come to a crashing halt, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin raised eyebrows by walking off the podium in the middle of a question regarding his future with the franchise.
It came from ESPN’s Brooke Pryor Monday night, opening up the final question of the press conference with, “Mike, you have a year left on your contract.” At that point, Tomlin turned to his left and walked out of the press conference.
That kicked into overdrive the endless speculation cycle about Tomlin and his future with the Steelers, one that will continue until there is at least some sort of resolution.
For Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless, the decision by Tomlin to walk off the podium in the middle of a question shows just how much the 2023 season wore him down, which was rather telling.
“It did surprise me that he just walked out of that question,” Bayless said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “The Mike Tomlin that I’ve watched these many years would’ve just given some nice non-answer to that question. This isn’t the time or whatever, but it showed the depth of how this season has worn on him because that was a hard grind that he went through this year because he knows he doesn’t have a quarterback.”
Tomlin’s move to walk off the podium certainly was surprising. It’s something he’s never done before in his 17-year tenure in Pittsburgh.
But as Bayless said, it was quite telling from the Steelers head coach’s perspective that he was just worn down, frustrated with losing the playoff game, and generally irritated with the question.
Of course, Pryor has a right to ask that question. She’s doing her job. Now that the season is over, the focus is going to be on Tomlin’s standing as the head coach. But 10 minutes after losing a playoff game might not be the best time to ask that question, especially considering that Tomlin does a season wrap-up press conference, which will undoubtedly occur later this week.
Tomlin certainly seemed run down at the end of the season, though.
That’s understandable, considering it was a challenging season for the Steelers on and off the field, dealing with a number of injuries and comments through the media from young players that created additional storylines.
Still, it was shocking to see Tomlin walk out of the press conference in the middle of a question regarding his future.
“I think it just tore him up [to lose the playoff game] and he was in no mood to talk about the near future,” Bayless added regarding Tomlin. “But he’ll do some exit interview with the media next day or two and it’ll be great. He’ll be right back on track.”
It’s very clear Tomlin was frustrated with the Bills loss, especially how it occurred with ugly missed tackles leading to touchdowns and backbreaking turnovers that led to quick scores for the Bills. His mind was on the game and what had just transpired, so a question about his future immediately after the game undoubtedly irritated him.
He could have handled it a bit better though, but what’s done is done. We’ll see what he has to say regarding his future later this week in his press conference putting a bow on the season.
