During an episode of The Carton Show on FS1 a couple weeks ago, former Pittsburgh Steelers OL Willie Colon made some comments about Mike Tomlin being on the hot seat due to his lack of playoff success. This got picked up by a number of news outlets and resulted in former Cincinnati Bengals WR Chad Johnson defending Tomlin while putting Colon down on an episode of Nightcap.
Colon posted a response on X to Johnson, clarifing his Tomlin criticism in the process.
“Coach Tomlin did amazing things for my career, have so much love and respect for the Steelers organization and Mike Tomlin,” Colon said in a clip from The Why Willie Show. “The issue with Mike Tomlin right now is he wins games he’s supposed to win but loses games he shouldn’t lose. Mike Tomlin knows I love him, but since you’re in a media cycle where everybody kind of scratches and digs and claws to kind of see what’s going on, this is what Ochocinco and Shannon Sharpe had to say about me.
“The standard in Pittsburgh is about winning championships. I won a Super Bowl. Chad Ochocinco did not win a Super Bowl. I happened to be birthed to a historic organization. I understand that comes with it…Currently, [Tomlin] has only one Super Bowl. In my eyes, and I think many other people feel like he should have more…I wanna see Mike Tomlin and this Pittsburgh Steelers team shut up the naysayers, and if I’m one of the naysayers, shut me up too.”
Nothing like a little Steelers-Bengals rivalry continuing off the field well after both of their playing careers are over. Only the former Bengal is defending Tomlin while the former Steeler is being critical of him.
There are plenty of former Steelers in the media, and in order to maintain credibility they cannot talk with rose-colored glasses on every time the Steelers come up on their shows. Last season in particular saw a number of former Steelers being critical of Tomlin and the Steelers in general. During the three-game losing streak in December, Ryan Clark, Ben Roethlisberger, and multiple others chimed in on various shows to voice their displeasure with the direction of the organization. The decline of the “Steeler Way” was very much a national talking point.
The Steelers certainly weren’t above criticism during that period, either. There were the effort issues from some of the wide receivers that made national headlines, and Tomlin called a rare midweek press conference to address some of the spiraling headlines. Many questioned whether Tomlin and the Steelers would be parting ways following the season. They ultimately scratched and clawed their way back into the playoffs despite a number of key injuries to help silence some of the criticism coming from the media.
Colon defends the Steelers plenty on The Carton Show but happened to take a critical angle during this particular segment. Colon’s Super Bowl victory came with Tomlin as the head coach during the 2008 season. He had three solid seasons as a starter in Pittsburgh before an Achilles injury derailed his career for a couple years. He played one final season in Pittsburgh before going to the New York Jets to finish out his career.
During that stretch, the Bengals were in the middle of what ended up being an eight-game losing streak in the playoffs dating back to 1990. They had multiple seasons well below .500 while the Steelers were routinely making deep playoff runs and winning the AFC North more often than not. Johnson didn’t win a playoff game in his career until he left the Bengals and spent his final season with the New England Patriots. I would say Colon has the high ground to stand on in this situation. It isn’t as if his criticism was outlandish, either. Plenty of other pundits and Steelers fans share a similar opinion.
“Ocho, when I see you, I’ll introduce myself. I’ll come right up to you. I’ll be like, hey I’m Willie Colon, not the salsa singer. The Steeler,” Colon said. “No harm, no foul. I can take it. If you’re gonna sit in the kitchen and you are gonna talk your mess, you gotta be able to take it.”
As the nation is captivated by the Kendrick Lamar and Drake rap battle that has been going on over the last couple weeks, the former Steeler and Bengal are engaging in their own back and forth, and I am here for it.
