Mike Tomlin's sudden departure from the Steelers as head coach was shocking. And now, we have some perspective on his departure from two of his players.
Cam Heyward released today the latest episode of his podcast, Not Just Football, and dove into Tomlin's decision to step down. While he didn't provide a lot of detail, trying to honor the privacy of the meeting with the players, Heyward did say one thing that was pretty eye-opening about Tomlin's state of mind when he decided to step down.
"He was just like, 'I'm glad I didn't beat Noll's record,' " Heyward said, referring to the late Chuck Noll. "I was like, 'Who thinks about that?' "
Tomlin tied Noll's franchise record of 193 regular-season wins this past season.
For the rest of Heyward's account of Tomlin stepping down, it starts at 12:35:
In an episode of Pardon My Take, Adam Thielen gave his version of how it went down:
"It was (shocking) because he didn't preface it in any way," Thielen said. "It was just like a normal, Mike T meeting, like, 'Hey, it wasn't good enough, I appreciate your effort,' like all these things, I don't know exactly what he said, but it was kind of his normal after-game meeting, whether you win or lose, just talking about his appreciation for the effort and things like that. And then it was kind of the last thing. It was like, 'And by the way, I'm gonna step down.' I think it was most emotional because the way he said it was like he wasn't good enough, like he didn't do a good enough job and he felt like he's letting guys down. And that's when it gets emotional cause you're like, 'No, I didn't do enough.' Like 'You did your job, I need to do my job better.' I think that's where it got emotional, whether you were a coach or a player, you kind of like, 'Man, if I would have done a better job, this probably wouldn't be happening.' It's tough to see a guy like that again, a legend, the way he carries himself, the way he leads. I think coaches and players all just had so much respect for him. Until the very last day, it's not like he just cashed it in the last few weeks or cashed it in knowing that he was maybe gonna step down or take a year off. He was all in and you felt that every day that, you had a team meeting every day and you felt it."
THE ASYLUM
Tomlin: 'I'm glad I didn't beat Noll's record'
Mike Tomlin's sudden departure from the Steelers as head coach was shocking. And now, we have some perspective on his departure from two of his players.
Cam Heyward released today the latest episode of his podcast, Not Just Football, and dove into Tomlin's decision to step down. While he didn't provide a lot of detail, trying to honor the privacy of the meeting with the players, Heyward did say one thing that was pretty eye-opening about Tomlin's state of mind when he decided to step down.
"He was just like, 'I'm glad I didn't beat Noll's record,' " Heyward said, referring to the late Chuck Noll. "I was like, 'Who thinks about that?' "
Tomlin tied Noll's franchise record of 193 regular-season wins this past season.
For the rest of Heyward's account of Tomlin stepping down, it starts at 12:35:
In an episode of Pardon My Take, Adam Thielen gave his version of how it went down:
"It was (shocking) because he didn't preface it in any way," Thielen said. "It was just like a normal, Mike T meeting, like, 'Hey, it wasn't good enough, I appreciate your effort,' like all these things, I don't know exactly what he said, but it was kind of his normal after-game meeting, whether you win or lose, just talking about his appreciation for the effort and things like that. And then it was kind of the last thing. It was like, 'And by the way, I'm gonna step down.' I think it was most emotional because the way he said it was like he wasn't good enough, like he didn't do a good enough job and he felt like he's letting guys down. And that's when it gets emotional cause you're like, 'No, I didn't do enough.' Like 'You did your job, I need to do my job better.' I think that's where it got emotional, whether you were a coach or a player, you kind of like, 'Man, if I would have done a better job, this probably wouldn't be happening.' It's tough to see a guy like that again, a legend, the way he carries himself, the way he leads. I think coaches and players all just had so much respect for him. Until the very last day, it's not like he just cashed it in the last few weeks or cashed it in knowing that he was maybe gonna step down or take a year off. He was all in and you felt that every day that, you had a team meeting every day and you felt it."
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