What An Assignment!
Adam Perry
2/18/09
Literature Seminar with Junior Burke
Profile of Mike Tomlin & the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers
Virginia native Mike Tomlin never played a down in the NFL. His father Ed was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the mid-1960's but ended up playing for the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL and in the early 1990's Tomlin was a three-year starter at wide receiver for the College of William & Mary (a perennial doormat for elite Division I-A football teams) before beginning his coaching career at age 23 as wide receivers coach for the Virginia Military Institute in 1995, under current West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart.
And yet, there was Mike Tomlin earlier this month in downtown Pittsburgh, turning right off of Grant Avenue onto the Boulevard of the Allies on foot while over 300,000 deliriously happy Steeler fans wildly saluted him as the youngest head coach (36 years old) ever to win a Super Bowl, and just the second African-American head coach to win a National Football League championship since the league was founded in 1922.
Tomlin, who finally left NCAA football in 2001 to coach defensive backs for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2001-2005, spent one very successful year (2006) as the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings and was hired by Pittsburgh immediately after the 2006 NFL season, when legendary Steelers head coach (and Pittsburgh native) Bill Cowher stepped down after 15 seasons, 11 of them ending with winning records, one of them ending in a Super Bowl win. Similar to Tomlin, Cowher spent seven seasons as an assistant coach under head coach Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland and Kansas City before being hired as head coach of his hometown Steelers in 1992 at age 34, following the retirement of Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll. Noll was hired as Steelers head coach at age 37, following the 1968 NFL season, and remained at that position, winning four Super Bowls and accruing a .566 winning percentage, until Cowher took over in 1992.
When he became head coach of the Steelers in 2007, Mike Tomlin inherited a Pittsburgh football club that was only one year removed from a Super Bowl championship and had gone 34-14 over its past three seasons under Cowher. Most of the starters from the Super Bowl squad of 2005 remained, including Pro Bowl offensive players like Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Willie Parker and defensive superstars like Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith. Still, soon after Tomlin was introduced as just the third Steelers coach in 40 years by the Rooney family (who have owned the team since its inception in 1933), then-24-year-old quarterback Roethlisberger took Tomlin out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh's Mt. Washington neighborhood and flatly said "you're gonna have to win the respect of the guys on this team." In other words, managed by an established and revered coach like Bill Cowher, the Roethlisberger-era Steelers were a tight bunch of hard-nosed competitors - a "band of brothers," as Roethlisberger likes to say - and it wouldn't be easy for Tomlin to walk into their world and be their new commander in chief without earning it.
The 2007 season, Tomlin's first as head coach of the Steelers, was a strange and quizzical year: the team barely made the playoffs, although several players excelled. Roethlisberger broke nearly all of Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw's long-standing single-season Steelers records, making his first Pro Bowl with 32 passing touchdowns and an amazing 104.1 QB rating. 22-year old second-year wide receiver Santonio Holmes had a breakout season as an explosive offensive weapon, with 8 touchdown catches and just under 1,000 yards receiving -- he also led the NFL in yards per catch, proving that if Holmes played on a less run-focused team, his stats would surely put him among the league's elite. Second-year starter Willie Parker also had a big year in 2007, making the Pro Bowl with 1,494 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. Parker led the NFL in rushing yards with just two games to go, when he suffered a brutal leg injury on the artificial turf in St. Louis and was rendered inactive for the remainder of the season.
The Steelers, without Parker to help them on offense, were defeated dramatically by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31-29, in the first round of the 2007 playoffs. With the loss of seven-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Alan Faneca, who signed with the New York Jets in the off-season, and the toughest schedule in the NFL looming, the Steelers' hopes for 2008 were extremely dim. 2008 Steelers training camp ("Camp Tomlin") at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA was also controversial because several veterans were vocal in their disapproval of coach Tomlin's dictatorial-style oversight of practice, treating everyone as equals and even sending 330-lb, 4-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Casey Hampton (a.k.a. "The Big Snack") to a side-field to ride an exercise bike for most of the camp until he lost weight.
Members of the media, and some Steelers fans, wondered if Tomlin was only hired by the Steelers because of the newly-enacted "Rooney Rule," an Affirmative Action-esque NFL rule (established in 2003) which states that all NFL teams must include minority candidates when interviewing for a head-coaching position. Steelers owner Dan Rooney, chairman of the league's diversity committee, spearheaded the rule but has said that it had no part in Tomlin's hiring.
During and following the 2007 season, media and fans also hypothesized that Tomlin, a proponent of the 4-3 (four linemen, three linebackers) defensive system in his previous NFL coaching experience, clashed with legendary Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who has been famous for a dynamic, blitz-heavy, and very successful version of the 3-4 system throughout his 4-decade NFL coaching career.
Elsewhere, some claimed that Tomlin was too young to effectively coach such an established football club, one made up of many players not much younger than the head coach himself. In an interesting peculiarity, Tomlin had actually played against Steelers Pro Bowl inside linebacker James Farrior when Tomlin was a receiver with William and Mary and Farrior played middle linebacker for the University of Virginia.
Additionally, before his departure from the Steelers in early 2008, offensive lineman Faneca even mused that the Rooneys made a mistake in hiring Tomlin and should have chosen one of Cowher's Super Bowl-winning assistants - offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or offensive line coach Russ Grim, who became the head coach and offensive coordinator, respectively, in Arizona following Cowher's departure from Pittsburgh. Off the record, other players also agreed that they would've preferred an in-house hire.
When the Steelers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in week 3 of the 2008 season, unable to score a touchdown or protect Roethlisberger, who was sacked eight times, some thought Pittsburgh would be lucky to make the playoffs. Willie Parker also suffered a leg injury in Philadelphia that forced him either to the sidelines or into a limited role for most of the Steelers' remaining games. To make things worse, heralded rookie running back Rashard Mendenall (replacing Parker) was sent to the injured-reserve list for the season after suffering a shoulder injury in a violent overtime win against the Baltimore Ravens in week 4. With an ineffective offensive line and a series of third and fourth string running backs carrying the football, the Steelers looked doomed for the season, especially with an upcoming schedule that included virtually all of the NFL's elite teams: Dallas, New England, San Diego, Tennessee Indianapolis, the New York Giants, and so on.
But Tomlin, following the brutal game against Baltimore, told the media that the Steelers' situation was "only devastating if we allow it to be." Then, and all season, he reiterated his declaration that "whatever 53 men suit up for us represent the Pittsburgh Steelers." Several key players were injured for Pittsburgh during the 2008 season, but after a convincing 31-0 win against the rival Cleveland Browns in week 17, the Steelers ended the season 12-4, winning the AFC North division and securing the #2 seed in the conference. In addition, Dick LeBeau's defense - with 2008 Pro Bowlers James Harrison, Troy Polamalu and James Farrior - led the league in almost every conceivable category, including total yards allowed; passing yards allowed; points allowed and points per game. The Steelers defense was #2 in rushing yards per game. In addition, Mike Tomlin was voted 2008 NFL Coach of the Year.
Heading into the playoffs, the Steelers still faced three big questions: was Willie Parker healthy enough to succeed once again at running back? Was the offensive line improved enough from the early part of the season to protect Roethlisberger and block for Parker? And, perhaps most importantly, was Roethlisberger able to play at all after suffering a horrendous concussion in the final game against Cleveland? In a sadly memorable scene, Roethlisberger was sandwiched between two Cleveland players, knocked unconscious, and had to be removed from Heinz Field on a stretcher before being treated at a Pittsburgh hospital. And the playoffs were only two weeks away, as the Steelers had earned a bye-week with the second-best record in the AFC.
Many fans yearned for Tomlin to choose rocket-armed (but immobile) quarterback Byron Leftwich as the Steelers starter in the playoffs, believing that Roethlisberger would be a hobbling, ineffective handicap for Pittsburgh. But the Steelers beat the San Diego Chargers 35-24 in a Pittsburgh snowstorm on January 11th, with Roethlisberger throwing for 181 yards and a touchdown and the offensive line skillfully paving the way for Parker, who ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
The next week, the Steelers qualified for their seventh Super Bowl appearance since 1974 by narrowly (but brilliantly) defeating the hated division rival Baltimore Ravens 23-14, and Tomlin became the youngest head coach ever to qualify for a Super Bowl. Willie Parker was held to just 47 yards rushing by Baltimore's vicious defense, but Roethlisberger threw for a touchdown on 255 yards passing and All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu sealed the win by scoring on an amazing 40-yard interception return with just over four minutes to go.
In a quasi-theatrical coincidence, the Steelers would play for the NFL championship against the Arizona Cardinals - featuring former Pittsburgh coordinator Ken Whisenhunt at head coach, former Pittsburgh offensive line coach Russ Grimm at offensive coordinator, and former University of Pittsburgh superstar Larry Fitzgerald at wide receiver. In the two intensely media-filled weeks preceding Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida, the storyline of "Tomlin vs. Whisenhunt" was brought up repeatedly and incessantly. If Tomlin loses, many said, Pittsburgh fans and players will claim that the Rooneys were mistaken for passing over Whisenhunt as head coach of the Steelers and would never be forgiven.
As time expired in the first half, Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison (the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year) intercepted Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner's pass on the goal line and returned the ball 100 yards for the longest play (and touchdown) in the Super Bowl's 43-year history. The Steelers led 17-7 at halftime but lost the lead with 2:37 remaining, as Fitzgerald scored on a remarkable 64-yard catch and run down the middle of the field, out-running Harrison and safety Polamalu.
However, with just 35 seconds left in the game, Roethlisberger threw an improbable, seemingly-miraculous 6-yard touchdown pass to Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes, who thwarted triple coverage and barely touched the tips of both his toes in the corner of the end zone before falling down out of bounds.
Holmes - who had endured concentrated scrutiny when arrested (and subsequently suspended) for possessing marijuana in October - was named MVP of the Steelers' 27-23 victory (their record sixth Super Bowl win) and Tomlin was subsequently covered in Gatorade before leaving the sidelines to shake Whisenhunt's hand and hoist the Lombardi Trophy as the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.
Two days later, Tomlin, his staff, and the 2008 NFL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers marched down Grant St. and the Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh, whose name was legally changed to "Sixburgh" for the remainder of 2009. Over 300,000 people (in a city of just over 300,000) lined the streets -- or were positioned on mailboxes, inside multi-leveled parking lots, in trees, and even atop billboards -- to see their heroes and the 36-year old man who led them to victory.
I was there in my hometown, at the corner of Grant and the Blvd., with my 19-year old cousin next to me on the freezing Pittsburgh morning of February 3rd, 2009 as the 2008 Steelers players and staff celebrated their victory with a downtown parade. When second-year linebacker LaMaar Woodley, who forced Kurt Warner to fumble on the game-clinching play, was interviewed during the parade I was in the picture and ended up on the news that evening, having traveled from Denver to Pittsburgh to watch the game with my extended family.
Mike Tomlin walked by us, beaming in black sunglasses and a heavy winter coat, at the beginning of the parade, leading his players in their victory march, which was the second in four years for many of them.
After making his way to the podium at the front of a stage near the end of the Boulevard of the Allies, Tomlin said a few words to the gigantic crowd that summed up what it felt like to win a Super Bowl at 36 years old, in just his second year coaching one of the most storied franchises in the history of professional sports:
"Pittsburgh…what do you say to this? Steeler Nation, you leave us all speechless. We appreciate the love; we appreciate the greatest fans in the world. How about number six?"
2/18/09
Literature Seminar with Junior Burke
Profile of Mike Tomlin & the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers
Virginia native Mike Tomlin never played a down in the NFL. His father Ed was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the mid-1960's but ended up playing for the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL and in the early 1990's Tomlin was a three-year starter at wide receiver for the College of William & Mary (a perennial doormat for elite Division I-A football teams) before beginning his coaching career at age 23 as wide receivers coach for the Virginia Military Institute in 1995, under current West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart.
And yet, there was Mike Tomlin earlier this month in downtown Pittsburgh, turning right off of Grant Avenue onto the Boulevard of the Allies on foot while over 300,000 deliriously happy Steeler fans wildly saluted him as the youngest head coach (36 years old) ever to win a Super Bowl, and just the second African-American head coach to win a National Football League championship since the league was founded in 1922.
Tomlin, who finally left NCAA football in 2001 to coach defensive backs for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2001-2005, spent one very successful year (2006) as the defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings and was hired by Pittsburgh immediately after the 2006 NFL season, when legendary Steelers head coach (and Pittsburgh native) Bill Cowher stepped down after 15 seasons, 11 of them ending with winning records, one of them ending in a Super Bowl win. Similar to Tomlin, Cowher spent seven seasons as an assistant coach under head coach Marty Schottenheimer in Cleveland and Kansas City before being hired as head coach of his hometown Steelers in 1992 at age 34, following the retirement of Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll. Noll was hired as Steelers head coach at age 37, following the 1968 NFL season, and remained at that position, winning four Super Bowls and accruing a .566 winning percentage, until Cowher took over in 1992.
When he became head coach of the Steelers in 2007, Mike Tomlin inherited a Pittsburgh football club that was only one year removed from a Super Bowl championship and had gone 34-14 over its past three seasons under Cowher. Most of the starters from the Super Bowl squad of 2005 remained, including Pro Bowl offensive players like Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Willie Parker and defensive superstars like Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith. Still, soon after Tomlin was introduced as just the third Steelers coach in 40 years by the Rooney family (who have owned the team since its inception in 1933), then-24-year-old quarterback Roethlisberger took Tomlin out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh's Mt. Washington neighborhood and flatly said "you're gonna have to win the respect of the guys on this team." In other words, managed by an established and revered coach like Bill Cowher, the Roethlisberger-era Steelers were a tight bunch of hard-nosed competitors - a "band of brothers," as Roethlisberger likes to say - and it wouldn't be easy for Tomlin to walk into their world and be their new commander in chief without earning it.
The 2007 season, Tomlin's first as head coach of the Steelers, was a strange and quizzical year: the team barely made the playoffs, although several players excelled. Roethlisberger broke nearly all of Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw's long-standing single-season Steelers records, making his first Pro Bowl with 32 passing touchdowns and an amazing 104.1 QB rating. 22-year old second-year wide receiver Santonio Holmes had a breakout season as an explosive offensive weapon, with 8 touchdown catches and just under 1,000 yards receiving -- he also led the NFL in yards per catch, proving that if Holmes played on a less run-focused team, his stats would surely put him among the league's elite. Second-year starter Willie Parker also had a big year in 2007, making the Pro Bowl with 1,494 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns. Parker led the NFL in rushing yards with just two games to go, when he suffered a brutal leg injury on the artificial turf in St. Louis and was rendered inactive for the remainder of the season.
The Steelers, without Parker to help them on offense, were defeated dramatically by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31-29, in the first round of the 2007 playoffs. With the loss of seven-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Alan Faneca, who signed with the New York Jets in the off-season, and the toughest schedule in the NFL looming, the Steelers' hopes for 2008 were extremely dim. 2008 Steelers training camp ("Camp Tomlin") at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA was also controversial because several veterans were vocal in their disapproval of coach Tomlin's dictatorial-style oversight of practice, treating everyone as equals and even sending 330-lb, 4-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Casey Hampton (a.k.a. "The Big Snack") to a side-field to ride an exercise bike for most of the camp until he lost weight.
Members of the media, and some Steelers fans, wondered if Tomlin was only hired by the Steelers because of the newly-enacted "Rooney Rule," an Affirmative Action-esque NFL rule (established in 2003) which states that all NFL teams must include minority candidates when interviewing for a head-coaching position. Steelers owner Dan Rooney, chairman of the league's diversity committee, spearheaded the rule but has said that it had no part in Tomlin's hiring.
During and following the 2007 season, media and fans also hypothesized that Tomlin, a proponent of the 4-3 (four linemen, three linebackers) defensive system in his previous NFL coaching experience, clashed with legendary Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who has been famous for a dynamic, blitz-heavy, and very successful version of the 3-4 system throughout his 4-decade NFL coaching career.
Elsewhere, some claimed that Tomlin was too young to effectively coach such an established football club, one made up of many players not much younger than the head coach himself. In an interesting peculiarity, Tomlin had actually played against Steelers Pro Bowl inside linebacker James Farrior when Tomlin was a receiver with William and Mary and Farrior played middle linebacker for the University of Virginia.
Additionally, before his departure from the Steelers in early 2008, offensive lineman Faneca even mused that the Rooneys made a mistake in hiring Tomlin and should have chosen one of Cowher's Super Bowl-winning assistants - offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt or offensive line coach Russ Grim, who became the head coach and offensive coordinator, respectively, in Arizona following Cowher's departure from Pittsburgh. Off the record, other players also agreed that they would've preferred an in-house hire.
When the Steelers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in week 3 of the 2008 season, unable to score a touchdown or protect Roethlisberger, who was sacked eight times, some thought Pittsburgh would be lucky to make the playoffs. Willie Parker also suffered a leg injury in Philadelphia that forced him either to the sidelines or into a limited role for most of the Steelers' remaining games. To make things worse, heralded rookie running back Rashard Mendenall (replacing Parker) was sent to the injured-reserve list for the season after suffering a shoulder injury in a violent overtime win against the Baltimore Ravens in week 4. With an ineffective offensive line and a series of third and fourth string running backs carrying the football, the Steelers looked doomed for the season, especially with an upcoming schedule that included virtually all of the NFL's elite teams: Dallas, New England, San Diego, Tennessee Indianapolis, the New York Giants, and so on.
But Tomlin, following the brutal game against Baltimore, told the media that the Steelers' situation was "only devastating if we allow it to be." Then, and all season, he reiterated his declaration that "whatever 53 men suit up for us represent the Pittsburgh Steelers." Several key players were injured for Pittsburgh during the 2008 season, but after a convincing 31-0 win against the rival Cleveland Browns in week 17, the Steelers ended the season 12-4, winning the AFC North division and securing the #2 seed in the conference. In addition, Dick LeBeau's defense - with 2008 Pro Bowlers James Harrison, Troy Polamalu and James Farrior - led the league in almost every conceivable category, including total yards allowed; passing yards allowed; points allowed and points per game. The Steelers defense was #2 in rushing yards per game. In addition, Mike Tomlin was voted 2008 NFL Coach of the Year.
Heading into the playoffs, the Steelers still faced three big questions: was Willie Parker healthy enough to succeed once again at running back? Was the offensive line improved enough from the early part of the season to protect Roethlisberger and block for Parker? And, perhaps most importantly, was Roethlisberger able to play at all after suffering a horrendous concussion in the final game against Cleveland? In a sadly memorable scene, Roethlisberger was sandwiched between two Cleveland players, knocked unconscious, and had to be removed from Heinz Field on a stretcher before being treated at a Pittsburgh hospital. And the playoffs were only two weeks away, as the Steelers had earned a bye-week with the second-best record in the AFC.
Many fans yearned for Tomlin to choose rocket-armed (but immobile) quarterback Byron Leftwich as the Steelers starter in the playoffs, believing that Roethlisberger would be a hobbling, ineffective handicap for Pittsburgh. But the Steelers beat the San Diego Chargers 35-24 in a Pittsburgh snowstorm on January 11th, with Roethlisberger throwing for 181 yards and a touchdown and the offensive line skillfully paving the way for Parker, who ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
The next week, the Steelers qualified for their seventh Super Bowl appearance since 1974 by narrowly (but brilliantly) defeating the hated division rival Baltimore Ravens 23-14, and Tomlin became the youngest head coach ever to qualify for a Super Bowl. Willie Parker was held to just 47 yards rushing by Baltimore's vicious defense, but Roethlisberger threw for a touchdown on 255 yards passing and All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu sealed the win by scoring on an amazing 40-yard interception return with just over four minutes to go.
In a quasi-theatrical coincidence, the Steelers would play for the NFL championship against the Arizona Cardinals - featuring former Pittsburgh coordinator Ken Whisenhunt at head coach, former Pittsburgh offensive line coach Russ Grimm at offensive coordinator, and former University of Pittsburgh superstar Larry Fitzgerald at wide receiver. In the two intensely media-filled weeks preceding Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida, the storyline of "Tomlin vs. Whisenhunt" was brought up repeatedly and incessantly. If Tomlin loses, many said, Pittsburgh fans and players will claim that the Rooneys were mistaken for passing over Whisenhunt as head coach of the Steelers and would never be forgiven.
As time expired in the first half, Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison (the 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year) intercepted Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner's pass on the goal line and returned the ball 100 yards for the longest play (and touchdown) in the Super Bowl's 43-year history. The Steelers led 17-7 at halftime but lost the lead with 2:37 remaining, as Fitzgerald scored on a remarkable 64-yard catch and run down the middle of the field, out-running Harrison and safety Polamalu.
However, with just 35 seconds left in the game, Roethlisberger threw an improbable, seemingly-miraculous 6-yard touchdown pass to Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes, who thwarted triple coverage and barely touched the tips of both his toes in the corner of the end zone before falling down out of bounds.
Holmes - who had endured concentrated scrutiny when arrested (and subsequently suspended) for possessing marijuana in October - was named MVP of the Steelers' 27-23 victory (their record sixth Super Bowl win) and Tomlin was subsequently covered in Gatorade before leaving the sidelines to shake Whisenhunt's hand and hoist the Lombardi Trophy as the youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl.
Two days later, Tomlin, his staff, and the 2008 NFL Champion Pittsburgh Steelers marched down Grant St. and the Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh, whose name was legally changed to "Sixburgh" for the remainder of 2009. Over 300,000 people (in a city of just over 300,000) lined the streets -- or were positioned on mailboxes, inside multi-leveled parking lots, in trees, and even atop billboards -- to see their heroes and the 36-year old man who led them to victory.
I was there in my hometown, at the corner of Grant and the Blvd., with my 19-year old cousin next to me on the freezing Pittsburgh morning of February 3rd, 2009 as the 2008 Steelers players and staff celebrated their victory with a downtown parade. When second-year linebacker LaMaar Woodley, who forced Kurt Warner to fumble on the game-clinching play, was interviewed during the parade I was in the picture and ended up on the news that evening, having traveled from Denver to Pittsburgh to watch the game with my extended family.
Mike Tomlin walked by us, beaming in black sunglasses and a heavy winter coat, at the beginning of the parade, leading his players in their victory march, which was the second in four years for many of them.
After making his way to the podium at the front of a stage near the end of the Boulevard of the Allies, Tomlin said a few words to the gigantic crowd that summed up what it felt like to win a Super Bowl at 36 years old, in just his second year coaching one of the most storied franchises in the history of professional sports:
"Pittsburgh…what do you say to this? Steeler Nation, you leave us all speechless. We appreciate the love; we appreciate the greatest fans in the world. How about number six?"