The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season ended on a disastrous note. The team lost five games in a row and ended the season with another playoff loss, their fifth-straight one-and-done exit and the eighth straight season without a playoff win. During an episode of PFT Live on Wednesday, Mike Florio said he thought Mike Tomlin should’ve seemed more upset with the way that Pittsburgh’s season ended.
“At one point yesterday, Mike Tomlin said something that I liked. He said, ‘I love this game, even when I’m miserable.’ And I don’t doubt him, but man, he doesn’t seem to be as miserable as he should be about how the season ended. I thought it Saturday, I thought it yesterday. The fans are miserable. The fans are grieving another lost chance to get Super Bowl Trophy number six [sic]. And you wanna feel like the people connected to the team feel the same way, and maybe he does internally, but it doesn’t come through that he was upset, that he was dismayed, that he’s bothered. He just wants to get back to work because he loves everything about it.”
His co-host, Chris Simms, whose time as the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers overlapped with Tomlin’s time as Tampa Bay’s defensive backs coach, defended him and said he’s not the type of person to display outward negativity.
“What do people want, a little bit more sulking, whatever it may be? He’s just not that type of guy. He’s not, he’s not gonna do that. But being around him a good part of my life, I know how important it is to him and how he takes it on the chin and loves to compete and hates when he loses.”
Mike Tomlin wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows during his end-of-year press conference, which Florio was referencing. He said he wasn’t in the mood to “sell optimism” after the season ended. He also wasn’t doom and gloom, but as Simms said, that’s just not who he is. If the leader of the group feels defeated, then it’s not going to uplift the locker room or give a lot of positivity to that group that the team can work to get better.
Fans might like to see Mike Tomlin feel the weight of the ugly end to the season and his repeated playoff failures, but showing defeat and acting that way in a press conference just isn’t a good look, nor is what Tomlin has ever done or will do. He’s got to be able to at least show some positivity that things can be better.
There’s little doubt that internally, Mike Tomlin isn’t happy with how the season ended and knows he needs to improve. His quote about not selling optimism shows that he still felt the effects of the playoff loss. Simms understands that as a leader, Tomlin won’t be as outwardly upset even though winning is the most important thing to him and something that he does take seriously.
Given Pittsburgh’s lack of recent playoff success, though, it’s understandable why people would want a little bit more out of Tomlin when it comes to addressing the team’s failures and showing that he’s upset about them. Tomlin is really in a no-win situation, though, because whether he acts doom and gloom or expresses positivity, people are still going to have an issue, and that’s simply because he hasn’t won enough lately.
There’s no doubt that the Steelers’ lack of playoff success has to change, and Mike Tomlin has to find a way to prevent himself and the fanbase from being miserable by finding the missing piece this offseason.
