The youngest head coach in the league supplanting a legend in Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin wanted to put his stamp on the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007. He wasn’t there to be friends with the players he was barely older than. That story has been told several times, including by former FS Ryan Clark during a Tuesday night appearance on noted Steelers fan Seth Meyer’s talk show, Late Night With Seth Meyers.
In a role reversal, Clark revealed that the veterans on the team sat down with Tomlin to hammer out an agreement between working hard without being overworked.
“That first year, we’re coming from Coach Cowher, who is obviously one of the greatest coaches of all time,” Clark told Meyers. “And I felt like Coach [Tomlin] just wanted to make sure he put his imprint on the team. We hit more than we ever did at practice. We worked longer than we ever did at practice.
“He wanted to show us what we had to be. And we kinda wore down that season. I don’t know if you remember, but Fred Taylor, who’s now my [podcast] partner, they rushed for like 200 yards in the last game of the season’s end, the first game of the playoffs against us.”
The Steelers had an intense training camp in an era when two-a-days were still legal, and the NFL had fewer restrictions on padded practices. That mentality spilled over into the season in a landscape that’s vastly different from 2024. Tomlin wanted his team to be tough, physical, and good tacklers by the time they stepped into stadiums.
At first, the results paid off. Pittsburgh raced out to a 9-3 start with one of the top defenses in football. They stumbled the rest of the way. They lost four of their last five regular season games, allowing an average of 28.5 points per game over that span.
In Week 15, Jaguars RB Fred Taylor rolled the Steelers to the tune of 147 yards in a 29-22 victory. In the Wild Card rematch, Taylor didn’t replicate his performance, but Jacksonville still rushed for 135 yards, highlighted by a back-breaking 32-yard scramble by QB David Garrard. Losing 31-29, Tomlin’s first season was finished.
Which led to a players-led meeting.
“We all had a conversation with him that next year. And we said, ‘Coach, if you get us to Sunday ready to play and healthy, we’ll get you a ring.’ And he backed off, and he became not a player’s coach, but he became a coach that allowed us to weigh in. And it turned into a Super Bowl.”
In 2008, the Steelers defense soared instead of sunk. They finished tops of the league and one of the best units of the century, first in several major categories. They didn’t give up more than 24 points in their three playoff wins despite facing the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 11 scoring offenses that season. Mike Tomlin earned his first ring in Pittsburgh, Ryan Clark won his first as a player, and the franchise brought home its sixth Lombardi.
Today, Pittsburgh’s training camp practices remain physical. They’re among the most aggressive in the league. But Tomlin knows when to pull back (the NFL’s new rules help control things, too). He’ll hope the Steelers can finish strong like the ’08 Steelers and be in prime position to go on a run come January.
Check out the whole interview with Ryan Clark below.
