In a closed-door press conference with the Pittsburgh media, Steelers owner and president Art Rooney II continued to show his support of head coach Mike Tomlin.
(Rooney does it every year like this, yet fans blasted him for making it hush-hush and not streaming it live like Tomlin’s weekly pressers.)
Rooney, president of the Steelers since 2003 and owner since 2017, recycled the same old comments. Nothing new to see here.
“I share (fans’) frustration.”
“Look at how many games Mike has won… we still feel good about him as a leader.”
Rooney also said turning head coaches over is not a good strategy.
Tim Benz, Steelers insider for TribLive, shared these observations in his Jan. 28 column:
But is it a good strategy to keep a guy whose last playoff win was in 2016? I don’t think so. Twenty-eight other coaches have won a playoff game since then.
Yet Rooney seems on board with keeping Tomlin because he is petrified of firing him. He’s scared to death that the next coach won’t equal even the slightly above-average results Tomlin has forged the past eight years, let alone that he’d be capable of getting to two Super Bowls and winning one as Tomlin did early in his career.
Rooney is paralyzed by fear when it comes to making a change because it’d be shattering the family-ownership tradition of never firing a coach since Chuck Noll was hired in 1969.
Sometimes, it’s better to divorce when the marriage is failing. Rooney, 72, must begin considering Tomlin’s exit strategy (if he hasn’t already). No more extensions beyond 2027, short of winning a Super Bowl. And we know from watching these incredible teams throughout the playoffs that the Steelers are more than just a quarterback away from the Stairway to Seven.
As Benz pointed out, Rooney’s father, Dan, eased Noll out after the 1991 season and “put more heat on Bill Cowher after three straight playoff misses from 1998 to 2000 than Tomlin had ever felt during this drought.”
Art will never be Dan — fans have seen that with their own eyes since his last day working at the Steelers offices in 2009. But something has to give. The bandaid should’ve been ripped off a long time ago.
