Heath Miller played for two head coaches in his NFL career: Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. One is in the Hall of Fame. The other has a shot to join him. Rare fortune few players get to say. Joining Chris Long on his Green Light podcast Thursday afternoon, Miller detailed the differences between both men, though there was ultimately more that they had in common.
“They were both passionate guys,” Miller told Long. “They loved the game of football, but they’re also great communicators and also great leaders in the fact that they could always hold the attention of the room.”
Cowher had the iconic “chin” and a fiery passion during the game. Sometimes that was directed at a player, sometimes it meant stuffing a photo in the ref’s shirt pocket to offer visual evidence of why the call was wrong. On gamedays, Tomlin is a bit more subdued but gets as excited as any fan over a big play. At training camp, Tomlin’s voice is loud and clear, taking command of Latrobe.
Miller’s commentary is especially notable given the coaches’ different backgrounds. Cowher is an older and more old-school coach, a college and NFL linebacker. Tomlin brought the swagger of a young and confident coach, a former receiver who could’ve attended law school and quickly worked his way up the ranks. Still, both men had defensive backgrounds, great mentors (Cowher in Marty Schottenheimer, Tomlin in Tony Dungy) and were young coaches when they were given head jobs. Cowher and Tomlin also had early success. Cowher made the playoffs each of his first five seasons, including one Super Bowl appearance. Tomlin hoisted a Lombardi after his second season and made it back to the big game two years later.
For Miller, the biggest difference he experienced was the stages of each’s career.
“The only differences I could say was with Coach Cowher, I caught him later in his career. So he had established himself as the head coach,” he said. “He had a veteran group of guys. He kind of knew what he had with the team, and he knew who kind of his guys were and who his leaders were.
“When Coach Tomlin started out, he was the youngest head coach in the league. I think maybe the youngest head coach ever at that time. He kind of came in with a little more force ’cause he had to kind of see who his guys, see who was gonna rise up when things got hard.”
Miller was drafted in 2005, spending two years with Cowher, and Tomlin was hired in 2007 to replace him. Tomlin’s first camp with the team was a brutal one for the players before he adjusted in later years to something less intense (CBA changes helped, too). Pittsburgh still has the most physical camp in the NFL but not nearly as brutal as it was that first year, a young coach making expectations clear.
Despite hose differences, Miller believes Cowher and Tomlin’s football journeys will end in the same place.
“Whenever Coach Tomlin hangs it up, he’ll be a Hall of Fame coach. Just like Coach Cowher,” he said. “How lucky was I to play for those two guys?”
Cowher and Tomlin could say the same about coaching someone as steady as Miller.
Check out the full episode below.
