PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin stood before his players and began his final team meeting the same way he’d started so many others over the last decade.
He told the players he was grateful for their hard work and sacrifice. Then, it took a turn.
In the business of the NFL, there’s consequences for not doing your job. As a professional in this business, you have to live with those consequences. Some of us will be here next year; some of us won’t.
Guys, I want you to hear this from me first … I just met with Art Rooney and Omar. I think it’s best for the organization for me to step down.
The Athletic spoke with a half-dozen players, coaches and staff members in the room, who described what they saw, heard and felt during Tomlin’s final moments as the Steelers head coach.
“No,” star outside linebacker T.J. Watt said, sitting next to fellow defensive veterans Cameron Heyward and Alex Highsmith.
“No. No. No. No. No,” he kept repeating over and over, his eyes welling with tears as Tomlin continued his speech.
Watt has discussed his respect and admiration for Tomlin on numerous occasions in the past. That included two years ago, when he said publicly on locker clean out day, “It was huge in my contract talks. I don’t want to play for anyone other than Mike T.”
As Tomlin spoke, Joey Porter Jr. was almost hyperventilating. The son of a Steelers legend, he has known the coach longer than almost anyone in the locker room and grew up with Tomlin’s son, Dino. In some ways, Tomlin is more like an uncle than a coach to Porter.
I want it to be better for you guys, because I care so much about you guys.
When Tomlin finished his speech, every player in the room rose for a standing ovation. They could tell it meant a lot to Tomlin that he had the opportunity to break the news directly to his team. He seemed to be at peace with the decision, multiple players said.
Then, in one of his signature moves, Tomlin tipped his cap and went to the door. One-by-one, every player walked past Tomlin, exchanging hugs.
“It felt like a funeral,” one staff member said. “I teared up. It’s like finding out your dad died.”
When the meeting broke, no one knew what to do. They just sat there, stunned that a coach who had been the organization’s one constant over 19 seasons was gone.
A day later, the feeling was still surreal. For one player, reliving it over the phone on Wednesday brought back the wave of emotions. “You’re going to make me cry again,” he said multiple times during the conversation.
“I felt that the meeting was going to go completely different,” he added. “When he said, ‘Some of us will be here and some of us won’t, that’s when I was like, ‘Is this guy really stepping down?’”
A year ago, in a similar end-of-season meeting, the “Hard Knocks” cameras captured Tomlin telling players “I love what I do; I love who I do it with; I love where I do it… As painful as it is, I love this game and I love this business at this level. Man, I need this.”
One of Tomlin’s many catchphrases is “We’re prepared to die with our boots on.” Many players thought that, backed into a corner, Tomlin would fight until the very end and never walk out until he was carried out.
“No one really saw it coming,” another player said. “Did we have an inkling? There were rumblings, but we thought he would play out his contract, at least one more year. We all thought at least one more year.”
Players anticipated changes to the coaching staff. They didn’t think it would be Tomlin — nor did they believe it should have been.
“Every single player in that building wants to play for Mike T.,” said one player. “Were guys upset with coordinators? Yes. Was it the head guy? No.”
Added another player: “We knew something was going to change. We just didn’t know it would be that. The guys that have been here longest, we don’t think that Mike T was the issue. We genuinely never lost the belief in the locker room. It was super emotional for us, because it’s not him.”
The overwhelming feeling from the group was a sense of guilt, the weight of the responsibility that this happened on their watch.
“Everyone feels that way,” a player said. “He’s the only guy that guys wanted to do it for. You think we didn’t want to get that monkey off his back that the whole city has been berating him for? Yeah we all wanted that. That’s why it sucks.”
In recent years, Tomlin has been a challenging coach to evaluate at times — always in contention but never truly a contender. On one hand, he has never endured a losing season and this year matched the legendary Chuck Noll with 193 regular-season wins. On the other, the now-nine-year drought without a playoff win has led to rampant frustration from the fan base. It came to a head in Week 13 when, during a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, fans chanted, “Fire Tomlin.”
Talking with players, it’s clear there was a significant divide between the public’s discontent and locker room’s belief. Tomlin had the support of his team until the very last moment.
“There’s always noise, but I felt like it was getting to the point it was getting f—ing ridiculous,” an offensive player said. “I felt bad for him. I started thinking, if that was me, how long would I want to put up with that? Every time we lost it felt like the sky was falling. He took it all for us.”
Aaron Rodgers worked his way through the impromptu receiving line toward Tomlin.
Rodgers has only been a Steeler for seven months, but he said joined the team for one reason: Tomlin. The quarterback and head coach are forever linked after their head-to-head matchup in Super Bowl XLV, but working together this season they forged a strong bond, one that started when Tomlin earned Rodgers’ trust through a long courtship.
The Steelers had brought Rodgers to Pittsburgh with the hope of snapping their postseason losing streak — it’s the hole that’s been punched in the coach’s résumé.
On several occasions this year, Rodgers has taken interview sessions as an opportunity to defend his coach. On Monday night, speaking publicly for perhaps the last time as a Steeler moments after another wild-card-round exit for the team, Rodgers delivered an impassioned defense of Tomlin.
“Mike T’s had more success than damn-near anybody in the league for the last 19-20 years,” Rodgers said after Monday’s game. “More than that, though, when you have the right guy and the culture is right, you don’t think about making a change.”
Inside the team meeting room on Tuesday, Rodgers, through sobs, mustered a two-word message to deliver to his coach: “I’m sorry,” several players heard him say. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
