Winning one Super Bowl is hard enough. Being able to win two puts any head coach in rare territory. Former Pittsburgh Steelers WR Hines Ward conducted a brief interview prior to Sunday’s big game and said if there’s one thing left for Mike Tomlin to accomplish, it’s winning another ring. And ending the drought from his and the team’s last title.
“The standard in Pittsburgh is all about winning Super Bowls,” Ward said via The Schmo YouTube channel. “We’re very blessed. We’ve won six Super Bowls in our organization. Tied along with the New England Patriots. But we haven’t won in awhile. I think that’s the one thing he’s probably lacking on his shelf of great accomplishments is winning another Super Bowl. Bringing another Super Bowl to the city of Pittsburgh.”
Hired in 2007, Tomlin quickly found himself at the top of the football world. Pittsburgh won its sixth Super Bowl in Tomlin’s second season, a thrilling win over the Arizona Cardinals. At the time, he became the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl. But that game was so long ago that Ward played in that contest. Now, he’s been retired for over a decade and Tomlin has gone from being one of football’s youngest coaches to now coaching into his 50s.
Since, the Steelers have gone to another Super Bowl but fell to the Green Bay Packers in 2010. While Tomlin’s teams have remained competitive for the playoffs, and his zero losing seasons the stat for analysts to tout, Pittsburgh’s standard has fallen. As has the team’s success. Its last playoff win came in 2016, one-and-done each opportunity since, including 2023’s Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills. It’s no wonder why the Steelers’ 2024 Super Bowl odds are long despite the strong chance they’re in the playoff mix come next season.
Ward’s comments aren’t hypercritical, but they are notable. It’s one part of Tomlin’s resume that’s missing. If he could win a second ring, he’d be one of just 15 coaches in history with multiple ones. Though rare, he’s coached in an era where it’s been done by multiple people. Bill Belichick has six, Andy Reid just won his third. Tomlin’s still revered by the media, still likely to become a Hall of Famer, but his resume isn’t stacking up the same way compared to those two. And he had a Hall of Fame quarterback for most of that time, just as Belichick had Tom Brady and Reid has Patrick Mahomes.
Based on the current state of the Steelers and the competitiveness of the AFC, one currently dominated by the Chiefs, Tomlin will have a mountain to climb to get back to the Super Bowl, much less win another one.
