While Mike Tomlin has never taken home an AP Coach of the Year award during his 17 years at the helm of the Pittsburgh Steelers, he still remains one of the most well-respected coaches around the league. While he garners a lot of respect for his regular-season success and ability to keep Pittsburgh competitive, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who grew up in McKees Rock, Pa., said Tomlin is always the coach of the year for what he does for the city of Pittsburgh and the athletes that come through it.
“He’s been a real instrument in building Pittsburgh’s culture,” Hamlin said via DeeLovesSports on Instagram. “He’s coach of the year every year as far as what he does for the community in Pittsburgh. We appreciate him, all the young athletes that grew up in the city of Pittsburgh, we got a different love for Coach T. He’s coach of the year in my city every year.”
It’s not the first time that Hamlin has spoken at length about what Tomlin means to him and the Pittsburgh community. After the Steelers and Bills met last preseason, Hamlin did a jersey swap with his former teammate at Pitt in Kenny Pickett, but he said he wanted Tomlin to get the jersey.
“Kenny told me he needed that jersey, and I really wanted to give it to Coach Tomlin at first, and I’ll make sure he gets one,” Hamlin said at the time via Bills.com. “But, you know, just how much he’s meant to this city, you know? And just growing up being at Pitt, even before Pitt, just seeing what culture he brought to the city of Pittsburgh and just him allowing us to be so close to them when I was at Pitt. It meant a lot to me, and it really shaped my vision for myself of how I wanted to go about becoming a pro.”
Tomlin’s sons grew up playing football in the Pittsburgh area, and even without that, Tomlin is just a football junkie, so he’s familiar and close with a lot of players, like Hamlin and Joey Porter Jr., who became college football players and then NFL players from the Pittsburgh area. Even though Tomlin’s never coached Hamlin, the respect and admiration between the two is clear, and when Hamlin suffered a serious cardiac event during a 2022 game, Tomlin talked about personal it was and how much love he has for Hamlin.
There’s no doubt that Tomlin has done a lot for the Pittsburgh community, and he’s an awesome motivator and public speaker who I’m sure is a big influence on players coming out of Pittsburgh like Hamlin was. He’s been in the community long enough to have long-standing relationships with a lot of guys, and maybe with more on-field success, Tomlin can finally capture the AP Coach of the Year award. Although I have a feeling that Hamlin’s words probably mean more to him than that award would.
