polamalubeast
05-04-2019, 08:06 AM
For a head coach who during media sessions manages to say a lot of words with little meaning—in other words, he excels at coach speak—Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin has a way of making headlines, intentionally or not, when he’s in a more intimate interview setting. He did so recently when he referred to the departures of Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell as a cleansing.
That remark was widely debated in the days that followed. One of his former players, Ryan Clark, also weighed in recently, and given his substantial history with Tomlin, I thought he had an interesting perspective, which he provided during a First Take segment, beginning by recalling his decision not to allow Clark to play against the Denver Broncos in Colorado during the 2011 postseason.
“When I wanted to play in Denver, after I got sick, after they removed my spleen, I went in, I got doctors”, he said. “I had all of these people, a team lined up, because I wanted to play in the playoffs. And I brought all these people to Coach Tomlin and we sat in his room, and there were the trainers and the doctors and I gave this big spiel…of why I could play”.
“I do all this and Coach Tomlin said, ‘I’m looking at you, and if you were my son, I wouldn’t let you play. And that’s my responsibility to look at you as more than a player’”, Clark continued. “And that’s what he did with Antonio Brown, and that’s what he does with Le’Veon Bell, and the only way that works is if you return that loyalty. If you return that in kind”.
The problem is that he was “dealing with players who didn’t see it that way”, Clark said, noting that both Brown and Bell actively ignored Tomlin, including not returning phone calls. “When you’re talking about being an African-American coach, and how you are looked at differently…you also feel a different responsibility; the guys on the team feel like you have a different responsibility to treat them in a certain way”, he added, making a Bill Belichick reference.
“He can treat a guy a certain way. I’ve heard players say, ‘when I walk down the hall, Bill Belichick wouldn’t speak to me’. Or I’ve heard players say, ‘when you see him coming down the hall, you don’t look him in his eyes’”, he said. “That’s okay for Bill Belichick for a black or African-American player. What would it be like if Coach Tomlin was walking [down the hall]? It would be a nightmare”.
read more
https://steelersdepot.com/2019/05/ryan-clark-explains-where-tomlins-coming-from-with-cleansing-remark-and-what-led-to-its-necessity/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SjksDBt-w
That remark was widely debated in the days that followed. One of his former players, Ryan Clark, also weighed in recently, and given his substantial history with Tomlin, I thought he had an interesting perspective, which he provided during a First Take segment, beginning by recalling his decision not to allow Clark to play against the Denver Broncos in Colorado during the 2011 postseason.
“When I wanted to play in Denver, after I got sick, after they removed my spleen, I went in, I got doctors”, he said. “I had all of these people, a team lined up, because I wanted to play in the playoffs. And I brought all these people to Coach Tomlin and we sat in his room, and there were the trainers and the doctors and I gave this big spiel…of why I could play”.
“I do all this and Coach Tomlin said, ‘I’m looking at you, and if you were my son, I wouldn’t let you play. And that’s my responsibility to look at you as more than a player’”, Clark continued. “And that’s what he did with Antonio Brown, and that’s what he does with Le’Veon Bell, and the only way that works is if you return that loyalty. If you return that in kind”.
The problem is that he was “dealing with players who didn’t see it that way”, Clark said, noting that both Brown and Bell actively ignored Tomlin, including not returning phone calls. “When you’re talking about being an African-American coach, and how you are looked at differently…you also feel a different responsibility; the guys on the team feel like you have a different responsibility to treat them in a certain way”, he added, making a Bill Belichick reference.
“He can treat a guy a certain way. I’ve heard players say, ‘when I walk down the hall, Bill Belichick wouldn’t speak to me’. Or I’ve heard players say, ‘when you see him coming down the hall, you don’t look him in his eyes’”, he said. “That’s okay for Bill Belichick for a black or African-American player. What would it be like if Coach Tomlin was walking [down the hall]? It would be a nightmare”.
read more
https://steelersdepot.com/2019/05/ryan-clark-explains-where-tomlins-coming-from-with-cleansing-remark-and-what-led-to-its-necessity/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9SjksDBt-w