PITTSBURGH -- After working the halls of a national coaches convention, Mike Tomlin grabbed a chair. Legendary coach Bobby Bowden was speaking, and Tomlin, then a young position coach in the college ranks, sought wisdom to take back to his meeting rooms.
Tomlin's older brother was alongside him as Bowden delivered the double-take message to the crowd of 20-somethings about two decades ago.
He said, 'I treat players according to how fast they are,'" Ed Tomlin said. "We kind of laughed at how honest that was."
Mike Tomlin has the Super Bowl cachet to headline those conventions now. He also is known to be just as honest about his treatment of players, which only deepens the intrigue for his crucial 13th season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Despite racking up 125 regular-season wins since 2007, second to the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick among active coaches during that span, Tomlin faced scrutiny last season for the Steelers' late collapse, their propensity for making headlines and a rocky relationship with former receiver Antonio Brown, who many former teammates believe received star treatment in Pittsburgh.
Tomlin remained unapologetically himself through that storm, unmoved by a players' coach label or what he called chatter. He publicly stated he treats everyone fairly but not exactly the same.
He is not concerned with being misunderstood. Winning rises above that, which is why Tomlin considers himself "ready for battle" in 2019.
"I shaped my reputation in this business and this outlook in this business being singularly focused on the task at hand," Tomlin told ESPN in a sit-down interview from his hometown of Hampton, Virginia, where he appeared at a fundraiser for the Hampton Roads Youth Foundation. "So I'd be kidding you if I told you I had a certain edge because of what happened in 2018. I just have a certain edge because I better have a certain edge. This business that I’m in dictates that I better have a certain edge, and I embrace that element of it.”
The organization prefers stability at the top, having famously employed just three head coaches since 1969. What Tomlin does during the Steelers' 2019 campaign will strengthen the organization's faith in him or test its limits.
With Brown and Le'Veon Bell in new uniforms and the Steelers no longer a trendy Super Bowl pick, those who know Tomlin believe he is at his best when doubted.
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