Steelers Hit A Homerun In Hiring Tomlin
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by user Leslie Monteiro
Drama queen Bill Parcells decided to hog the spotlight of Lovie Smith, Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and Mike Tomlin by announcing his retirement for the umpteenth time yesterday. This is nothing new from Parcells. He always wanted attention and it was always about himself not the franchise that he worked for or the league. This news should not ruin the day of the new Steelers head coach. Tomlin was hired yesterday to be Bill Cowher's replacement. This day belongs to him not Parcells, who will probably be coaching for some other team in a few years.
This was a very good and bold hire by the Rooney family. They could have went with the safe pick and hired Cardinals head coach/former Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Wisenhunt or offensive line coach Russ Grimm days after Cowher announced that he was taking a year off from the NFL. It would have made sense to keep Wisenhunt because of his relationship with his quarterback, Ben Rothelisberger.
The Rooneys decided to go take their time and do their research on the candidates before making a hasty hire. They will not regret this hire. Tomlin has paid his dues as a coach. He has spent many years learning the craft of coaching under a very good head coach in Tony Dungy, who will make his first coaching appearance in the Super Bowl. Dungy has produced good coaches such as Lovie Smith and Herman Edwards. It also helped for him that he got to learn from another good defensive genius in Monte Kiffin, who is the Buccaneers defensive coordinator.
Tomlin had to do a very good job in his interview to even get the second interview. He has certainly proven that he was not a minority token candidate. His body of work spoke for himself and he did a great job selling himself to the Steelers. The fact that he was a final candidate definitely had to improve his chances of getting the job. There was a very good feeling that this job was going to be his. It came to fruition on Sunday night when it was announced that he would be there for a press conference.
He did three things right to get the job.
Steelers were sold on him because he is a defensive guy. Most coaches that has success in football are defensive-oriented coaches. They always preach about how defense win games and they always tell their bosses to go get players that can play defense. Most defensive coaches will always come up with great gameplans to outfox the other coaches and the other quarterback which is what made Belichick and Dungy successful.
Tomlin not only has that attribute of being a good defensive coach, but he also has the proverbial "it". He is a people person. He is a good motivator. He knows how to get players to play for him. It was very evident this year when he ran the Vikings defense. He was able to get most out of guys like Napolean Harris, who has accomplished nothing in the NFL. He somehow made E.J. Henderson look like a NFL player. He was a buffer between the players and that tyrant, Brad Childress. The Vikings defense was a strength of what was a disgraceful 6-10 season for that team. The credit goes to Tomlin when you consider that their defense has been hideous since Dungy left to coach the Buccaneers.
He has also showed that he has the ability to adapt to the players strength. Steelers are used to playing with a 3-4 defense and it was understandable that the team wants to play that way based on the success. Tomlin is used to the Cover-2 from his Bucs days and he was successful using that with the Vikings this year. To his credit, he will not reinvent the wheel. He is very committed to using the 3-4 style of play and he plans on retaining Dick Lebeau, who is the best in the business. It was a smart move by Tomlin in keeping Lebeau.
What was impressive is that he gets it that it is not about the coaches or the style of play. It is about the players in which coaches need to get the most of their strengths not fitting in a coach's philosophy. This is something that his former boss, Childress can learn from, but the odds of that happening is slim to none. The Vikings head coach is a nutjob who thinks teams win based on the coach's system not the players talent. Is it any wonder why Vikings players, Vikings fans, and the Twin Cities media hate the guy?
Tomlin is going to make Steelers fans proud. He will win. He will bring class and integrity to that franchise and to that city.
It is really good to see him get this job. He has a very good team in his hands. This team will be a Super Bowl contender every year as long as his quarterback is healthy. Big Ben should be ready to go next year. It was a lost year for him because of that unfortunate motorcycle accident. He did well at the end, but he started off bad because it took him time mentally to get back on track.
It is refreshing to see an African-American head coach to get a very prestigious job. Most of the time, you see them take jobs that are rebuilding projects. Mr. Tomlin is going to have a chance to win every year.
The only loser in this are the Vikings fans. Vikings fans have already penciled Tomlin to be the new head coach in 2009. He would be an ideal fit and a great choice. Unfortunately, it will not happen and Vikings fans have zero faith in Zygi Wilf in hiring a head coach considering he messed up in hiring Childress and hiring Fran Foley as the GM. It seems Vikings fans are so used to these type of endings whether it's coming up short in the Super Bowl, NFC Championship Game, or losing out on Dungy and now Tomlin. What did they do to deserve this?
There is nothing to criticize about this hiring. Tomlin has what it takes to succeed and he certainly has the players to get the job done. It is a great combination.
The Rooneys should take a bow for thinking outside the box rather than going with the status quo from hiring someone of Cowher's staff.
This will be a great marriage.
