Comments on: Steeler Nation Remains A Colbert Nation

By: Ricky

Ricky — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:26:49 +0000

Chris,

I agree Cowher inherited a far less superior team than Tomlin did when he took over.

I will try and contribute to your page as much as I can….I like the vibe so far becuase there are to many sites out there with steeler haters who are so ignorant its not worth anyones time to give your thoughts or opinions.

Thanks,

Ricky

By: chris

chris — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:13:09 +0000

Rick, first let me thank you for such a fair and well-reasoned comment. I hope you continue to contribute your insights though out this season.

Secondly, I do have to disagree with some of what you said. Yes, a lot of inept coaches have taken a good team and messed it up. But there are also many examples of mediocre coaches winning Super Bowls with another coach’s team. Do the names Barry Switzer or John Gruden ring any bells?

Also, we have never had a “horrible” transition as you say but Chuck Noll, as much as I respect him, was 6-10 his final season and hadn’t made the playoffs in 5 years. To say the team Cowher inherited was just as good as the team Tomlin inherited (14 months removed from winning a Super Bowl!) is not exactly accurate.

I don’t dislike Tomlin or ask he be fired. I just want some realism here. He appears to be a good coach but it is far to early to make any definitive judgments. To say he is as good as (or better) than a HOF level coach like Cowher is absolutely ridiculous.

By: Rickt

Rickt — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:54:18 +0000

I think people are taking this Tomlin winning with Cowher’s team too far. We all have to agree Cowher left Tomlin a good team to start off with unlike other coaching scenarios where the previous coach messed up so badly a new coach had to rebuild a whole team so I can agree there, but then again this is the Steeler’s franchise we are talking about we have never had a horrible transition of coaches seeing how we have had the same 3 forever. With that being said do I think Tomlin can be overrated in areas, yes I do. At the same time on his 4th season with the team we have to start saying that this has to be his team by now. There is too much double standard out there. So if Tomlin would have failed his first 3 seasons could we have said he didn’t really lose those games because it was Cowher’s team…. that wouldn’t have been the case at all we would have canned him asap. I think were lucky enough to even have to argue about who to blame for all of success of our team no matter who the coach’s team you think it is.

At the end of the day I trust the Rooney’s and the decisions they have made with Tomlin being our coach. I am upset we lost Cowher but in recent events I am glad he got to spend those last few years with his late wife.

By: chris

chris — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:56:36 +0000

Cowher made the playoffs in 10 of his 15 years. He made five AFC Championship games. Tomlin has made one and missed the playoffs in only his third year. Stop overrating Tomling because the media told you so. Try thinkng for yourself. Cowher is a HOF coach, Tomlin has yet to prove anything except he can win with another coach’s players.

And it’s apparent “they hold him in higher esteem?” Really? By the way they gave up on the season last year?

By: jeff1709

jeff1709 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:41:38 +0000

While the current steeler team was put together under Bill Cowher, stop downplaying Mike Tomlins work. His coaching during our super bowl run rivals that of Cowhers work during his entire 15 years. It is already apparent that the steelers who played under Cowher hold Mike Tomlin in higher esteem.