Jerome Bettis On Mike Tomlin: ‘He Loosened Up Too Much’

[Michael]

Whatever it is, I don't think it can be dismissed. Nationally, they are being seen as underachieving drama queens. Add to that the criticism by different ex-players who played for Tomlin in the first half of his tenure or are still around the facility, and it adds up to something.

Personally, I was a supporter of Tomlin until the past 1.5 seasons. The final straw for me was the Oakland game and the "not disrupting the flow of the game" remark. I can't move past that stupidity.

I totally understand and agree 100 percent. I saw Tomlin for what he was and is. That bull shit remark was so weak and IMO dishonest. I look forward to the day Tomlin is gone .

[AtlantaDan]

The national media has a vested interest in keeping this going. This is intended to be the lead-up to the SB and what are these shows talking about? Not how the Pats will slow Donald and Suh on the interior or how the Pats defense will attempt to match-up with Gurley or literally anything else related to the actual championship game that is going to be played, but about the locker-room culture of the Steelers. But, shouldn't Bettis be able to address that? I don't know. Maybe?

Point is why is he being asked to address that? Answer -- the national media is largely too stupid and the consumers of the national media are generally far too ignorant of actual football stuff for serious discussions to take place.

Agreed that the national sports media, which is reporting on what is supposed to be an entertaining diversion, not surprisingly is going to direct its coverage to what those seeking a diversion want to read or hear, given that ESPN (the E stands for Entertainment not Education) and its fellow members of the media are in the business of attracting the maximum number of eyeballs in order to make $$$. Niche sites like Pro Football Focus can address the hard core fans but there is not a lot of leverage with the size of that audience to generate significant revenue.

Call it stupid or ignorant if you want since it does not suit your preferences, but from a business standpoint some presumably intelligent people who are in front of the camera and particularly in the front office at ESPN as well as elsewhere have discovered a way to make a very comfortable living off of it. ESPN did not not dump the Sunday morning show with Ron Jaworski where Jaws broke down film because it preferred to run something dumb - it now runs something that makes more $$ because Disney is running a business and ESPN needs to max out its revenue.

But of course you need a supply of talkers to fill the demand for that sort of infotainment. If the current Steelers want folks to quit talking about the so called drama perhaps consider not giving interviews like this that popped up today.

"Keeping Up With The Steelers" is the best reality show going in the NFL.

Pro Bowl wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster compared his team with the Kardashians during a Super Bowl appearance on ESPN's First Take on Thursday.

"I think everyone has to stop being divas. I think we need to stop being the Kardashians and just play ball," said Smith-Schuster, who led the team in receptions (111) and yards (1,426).

Asked which Steelers players are divas, Smith-Schuster laughed subtly and didn't discuss names, focusing on himself.

"Being in that locker room, I've learned a lot," he added. "I know that I would never want to be a problem to any franchise."

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...as-kardashians

[Mojouw]

Agreed that the national sports media, which is reporting on what is supposed to be an entertaining diversion, not surprisingly is going to direct its coverage to what those seeking a diversion want to read or hear, given that ESPN (the E stands for Entertainment not Education) and its fellow members of the media are in the business of attracting the maximum number of eyeballs in order to make $$$. Niche sites like Pro Football Focus can address the hard core fans but there is not a lot of leverage with the size of that audience to generate significant revenue.

Call it stupid or ignorant if you want since it does not suit your preferences, but from a business standpoint some presumably intelligent people who are in front of the camera and particularly in the front office at ESPN as well as elsewhere have discovered a way to make a very comfortable living off of it. ESPN did not not dump the Sunday morning show with Ron Jaworski where Jaws broke down film because it preferred to run something dumb - it now runs something that makes more $$ because Disney is running a business and ESPN needs to max out its revenue.

But of course you need a supply of talkers to fill the demand for that sort of infotainment. If the current Steelers want folks to quit talking about the so called drama perhaps consider not giving interviews like this that popped up today.

"Keeping Up With The Steelers" is the best reality show going in the NFL.

Pro Bowl wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster compared his team with the Kardashians during a Super Bowl appearance on ESPN's First Take on Thursday.

"I think everyone has to stop being divas. I think we need to stop being the Kardashians and just play ball," said Smith-Schuster, who led the team in receptions (111) and yards (1,426).

Asked which Steelers players are divas, Smith-Schuster laughed subtly and didn't discuss names, focusing on himself.

"Being in that locker room, I've learned a lot," he added. "I know that I would never want to be a problem to any franchise."

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/2...as-kardashians

I understand and acknowledge all that, but it is still simply lowest common denominator programming. It is cheap as hell to produce - most of these shows are essentially talk radio with television cameras. It requires a host with a basic command of the English language, but no real knowledge of football. 90% of media content on the NFL is basically the toothless cousin of reality TV programming. Yet it is treated as "hard hitting and insightful" commentary on the individual teams and the league in general. Like everything else, people that consume this "infotainment" are not seeking answers but easily digestible cliches that conform to their existing opinions.

Additionally, simply because a perception and a thing is claimed to exist, doesn't mean I have to buy it. A major part of the reason that the Steelers are "team drama" is that media outlets keep writing about them, sticking microphones in peoples faces to talk about them, and paying people to make an appearance to provide their outside opinion. Why? The team has a massive fan base and some amazingly popular star players. So it is cheap content that generates $$$. But it doesn't mean that the team itself is falling apart at the seams. Not like there is a massive rush by current players other than AB and Bell to discuss any of this. Juju recently because he is building a "brand". But there are several dozen other people who have no interest in talking about this.

60-80% of all of this is fan and media created tempest in a teapot kinda stuff, but it gets treated like a very serious and critical thing that requires immediate and dramatic action. Something must be done! The TV men said so!

[AtlantaDan]

I understand and acknowledge all that, but it is still simply lowest common denominator programming.

Of course it is. That ship sailed when the model for broadcasting in the U. S. was set in the 1920s when radio became popular as being advertiser supported rather than through anyone owning a radio (and later a television) paying a license to fund the programming, as was the case with the BBC in Great Britain. So for better or worse you get The Beverly Hillbillies, which I confess to having enjoyed at the time it was on CBS while preferring to have alternatives as well.

Be glad telecommunications has evolved and there are niche sites available that address your interests rather than the not so good old days when you had the local news outlets for most sports reporting other than the weekly delivery of Sports Illustrated which provided something more insightful. The dreck has always been around but at least there are alternatives if you want to ignore it

[86WARD]

One of Tomlin’s jobs as a head coach is to read the team and if he wants to treat some players as adults, that’s fine but at the same time he has to see which players are mature enough to be treated like adults and which ones need to be treated with more structure

[pepsyman1]

Either way is just really sad. The basic conclusion is the same. NFL players, for the majority, are unable to self-sustain the motivation and mental discipline to be successful without coaches and the minority of players (“leaders”) imposing rigorous structure and discipline on them. That’s just sad.

And also underscores my long held belief that most of these dudes are almost complete morons.

Unfortunately, your belief is probably 90% dead on. Think about it. Most of these players were the top athletes on their high school teams, then one of the elite on their colleges teams. They've been catered too most of their playing lives and had people spoil them to make them happy. It's not all of them but the majority. If they don't have a strong leader, if they've don't have some type of discipline and structure how many of these guys would get to a championship? We all hate them but how are the Patriots able to do what they've done with just a very few big name players? Bellichick appears to not put up with too much shit. They blow people out pretty quick when they don't fit. We'll never know what really happens behind closed doors in New England cuz Bellichick doesn't allow the drama we've gotten used to. The Steelers HAD a reputation (whether it was correct or not) of being a team where the leadership didn't put up with a lot of crap. I think whatever teeth were behind that reputation have been pulled or filed down to nothing.