The Pittsburgh Steelers—and HC Mike Tomlin—made their Hard Knocks debut last week, with much critical success. The broad consensus favored the Steelers as the star team of the first episode of the in-season HBO series following the AFC North, highlighting Tomlin’s ability to lead. The contrast shown from the division’s other head coaches only reinforced his reputation as a player’s coach.
In hyping up tonight’s second episode, the NFL offers us another bite of Mike Tomlin the motivator. In a pre-practice chat with second-year DB Joey Porter Jr., he makes sure to let the young man know how far he still has left to go. An expert in an individualized approach, Tomlin knows how to most effectively communicate with Porter. He knows Porter likes to talk—but sometimes he has to listen.
After all, Tomlin and his father coached together, and brought their sons up in the game as football dads. Joey Porter Jr. is that son, and now Tomlin is his coach. But this is a player he watched growing up, and a player whose father he watched play—even if he just missed coaching him. In other words, you know the words he chose were specific and intentional.
While the NFL’s censorship makes it somewhat difficult to parse, it appears as though Mike Tomlin begins to talk to Joey Porter Jr. about how he will face obstacles in the game—including from the officials, presumably—based on who he is. He has a reputation for being handsy, for example, so officials are more likely to watch for such infractions.
“Sometimes I think you care more about that [bleep] than I do”, Tomlin tells Porter, presumably referring to the penalties. Porter was flagged six times against the Cincinnati Bengals for defensive holding and pass interference. At one point, officials flagged him once for each infraction on the same play.
Porter admitted that what Tomlin said was true. “Because, shoot, I want to be great, at the end of the day”, he added, Tomlin quickly interjecting, “You’re gonna be great, but you ain’t gonna be great today”.
“You better push forward toward it today, but it ain’t gonna happen as quickly as you’d like”, Tomlin added. “It ain’t never gonna happen as quickly as you’d like. You played in four games in 2019 at Penn State. You probably thought you should’ve started them all. Right?”.
“Yeah. I did”, Porter said.
On the season, Joey Porter Jr. has one interception and five passes defensed. He also has 56 tackles, well more than last season, with two tackles for loss. While he has allowed some catches, he has yet to be charged with allowing a touchdown. His penalties, however, get him into trouble with everyone but Mike Tomlin.
According to Pro Football Focus, Porter is one of the top cornerbacks this year in preventing wide receivers from gaining separation. The trade-off with his aggressive approach is an inordinate number of penalties. After his six-penalty game, Tomlin compared his approach with Porter as the infamous Hack-a-Shaq defense.
