Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has never led the team to a losing season in his entire career with the team, but he also hasn’t led the team to a postseason victory since 2016. Still, team owner Art Rooney is confident in his coach.
During a recent interview, Art Rooney sent a pretty clear message to Mike Tomlin, revealing that he still believes in him as the team’s head coach.
“The players still respond to Mike, and that’s No. 1,” Rooney said according to Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “He still has the key characteristics that we saw when we hired him. He can keep the attention of a group of 20-year-olds for a whole season and keep them in the fight for the whole way.
“So, still feel good about Mike. Obviously if I didn’t, [we] would make a change, but if we didn’t think Mike was able to lead us to a championship, he wouldn’t be here, and that’s why he is here.”
Rooney was also asked about a potential contract extension for Tomlin as the coach heads into the final year of his three-year deal. While Rooney could not offer a specific timeline, he did make it clear that a deal will get done.
“It’ll be done when it gets done,” Rooney said. “Those things are hard to speculate how long it’ll take. At this point, I don’t see it getting done before the [offensive] coordinator’s hired. I think that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.”
We’ll have to see what Tomlin’s future with the team looks like.
[ESPN]
