Again Mikes Beef Is Mikes Beef. Same With Skip Thats on Them Not Me
Steelers passenger vehicle Mike Tomlin was asked Tuesday well-nigh peradventure coaching USC, and he managed to pull off a rare double: He gave a response that went viral, and people still missed the point.
Here is the Tomlin quote that made the rounds:
"Hey guys, I don't take fourth dimension for that speculation. I hateful, that's a joke to me. I got 1 of the best jobs in all of professional sport. Why would I have any involvement in coaching college football? And that will be the last time I will address it. Not only today, but moving forward. Never say never. Simply never. O.G.? There'south not a booster with a big enough bank check."
That was such a contrast to the usual non-deprival denials from coaches. We are so accustomed to coaches proverb, "I'm focused on the job I accept" or, "I'm not going to comment on rumors" while simultaneously reaching in their pockets to phone call their agents.
Tomlin gave a difficult no. Information technology was beauteous, and it was cerise meat for the millions of Americans who similar to rip Urban Meyer. But there is so much more than to what he said.
Spotter to the stop of the clip:
Yup: "Is anybody request Sean Payton about that? Yous know? Is anyone asking Andy Reid about stuff like that?"
No. They are not. And Tomlin seemed aroused when he said information technology. That was unlike, too. Normally, if a passenger vehicle genuinely isn't interested, he tin can laugh off speculation or at least stay calm, because information technology is all irrelevant and at least nobody asked why he punted on fourth-and-2. But Tomlin was really annoyed.
Why? Well, he didn't say. But it's probably easy to figure out. Payton is white. Reid is white. And if—if—Tomlin is annoyed by the racial implications here, he has every right to be.
Mike Tomlin will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday. He is already more accomplished than some coaches who are already in there. He has won a Super Basin, and he has never had a losing record in 15 seasons in Pittsburgh. After all that, people are asking whether he might desire to endeavor his hand at higher football?
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Yes, some coaches adopt the higher game. Nick Saban went back. And then did Jim Harbaugh. So did Al Groh and Bobby Petrino. Only they had all been college head coaches before. Tomlin has not worked in college ball since he was 28 years quondam and coached Cincinnati's defensive backs. As far equally I can tell, he has never lived within 1,700 miles of the USC campus and has never expressed any interest in condign a higher head charabanc. Tomlin didn't even play major-college ball (he attended William & Mary), so it's not similar coaching his alma mater has some sentimental entreatment to him.
The tone Tomlin used for "college jobs" is the same tone Aaron Rodgers might employ if you lot asked him about beingness a "game managing director." He has proven he doesn't need to do that. It is insulting to imply he does.
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USC Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer, who told Dan Patrick he was as involved in the coaching search equally they'd let him be, started this speculation by maxim Tomlin could motorcoach the Trojans "if he wants out," but why on earth would Tomlin want out? He went 12–4 last twelvemonth. He is 49. The Steelers have had three caput coaches in his lifetime.
Once Palmer said that, the story got legs, and inevitably somebody was (understandably) going to enquire Tomlin. This is how information technology goes, right? USC is a smashing job and Tomlin is a dandy coach, so connecting the two might not seem like a big deal. But think of the implications hither: Tomlin should move down a level; he might thrive as a rah-rah college omnibus who "connects" with players he recruits; he might "want out" and find a soft landing spot. Of course that should make him mad.
No matter what Black football game coaches achieve, a segment of the population sees them as less than they are simply considering they are Black. I am not saying Palmer was thinking that, and if Tomlin was thinking well-nigh it, he didn't say information technology. But that truth is a daily presence in the lives of Black coaches—even extraordinarily successful ones similar Tomlin. Information technology's harder for Black coaches to get head-coaching jobs, and and so they can't be choosy if they get them. And whatever they attain is cast in a negative light.
Retrieve virtually the public conversation surrounding Jim Caldwell and Anthony Lynn, so look at their records. Caldwell went 62–50; Lynn was 33–32. And then remember most how many times Kyle Shanahan (31–39 in four years) has been called a genius. The point here is non to trash or overpraise any of the three. Just in football, you lot are what your tape says you are—unless y'all're a Black head charabanc.
Tomlin is right: We don't inquire these questions of Andy Reid or Sean Payton. There is no reason to look at Tomlin and think he might coach college football adjacent twelvemonth. We should look at him and wonder why he doesn't have a coaching tree. Plenty of Reid and Payton assistants went on to become NFL head coaches. Tomlin has a higher winning percentage than both. Why aren't teams raiding the Pittsburgh staff? Why isn't he seen as a slap-up jitney who develops other great coaches like Reid and Payton are?
Nearly people post-obit the USC coaching search understood that Tomlin was never going there. The interesting story is not that he said he isn't going. Information technology's how angry he got when he was asked.
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Source: https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/10/26/mike-tomlin-response-usc-rumors-black-coaches
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