A large portion of the reputation of Pittsburgh Steelers HC Mike Tomlin rests upon his oratory abilities. He’s been referred to as a “player’s coach” for his entire career. Even today, players continue to want to play for him and praise his motivating abilities. Yet even he knows that talk is cheap without action, which is his mindset going into this offseason.
“What’s transpiring in a tangible way in terms of how we construct these upcoming days and weeks and months is going to be critical to making sure there’s teeth to that,” Tomlin said, via the Steelers’ website.
He was talking about conversations he had with Art Rooney II about the direction of the team and being of one mind on the matter.
“That’s what I was talking about when I was saying words don’t weigh a lot. It’s about what we do,” Tomlin added.
In other words, Tomlin can talk about what the Steelers need to do until he’s blue in the face, but it’s doing the work that matters. Ultimately, he knows that he is evaluated based on what the Steelers do on the field. It doesn’t matter what he says after a Wild Card elimination. It matters whether he’s saying it again next year.
In fact, Tomlin downplayed the significance of his words even in the Steelers locker room.
“I don’t worry about messaging resonating,” he said. “That component of it is probably less of a concern than more strategic things and other discussions that dictate outcome. Messaging is such a small component of what it is that we do. It just really is.”
Messaging is, of course, the most outward-facing component of coaching to the outsider. We don’t see how Mike Tomlin’s coaching translates to how the Steelers play on the field. But we can hear what he says, and what players say about what he says.
It is partially because of that dynamic that Tomlin’s oratory abilities have been so important to his public reputation. Of course, it’s never a bad thing to be able to speak well and powerfully. To be able to lead people and inspire them is a worthy skill, and an important one for a coach. But the Steelers need to start winning playoff games. There is a reason that “actions speak louder than words” is such a popular aphorism.
