Close Mike Tomlin friend thinks he is ‘done’ coaching; Ravens LB still fuming about losses to Steelers
Friday’s “First Call” has a look at Mike Tomlin’s future from a trusted confidant. A Baltimore Ravens linebacker is still fuming about the team’s losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
We examine the Penguins’ next intra-divisional clash. The Pitt hoops team has a high-profile game Saturday. And Duquesne goes on the road to what has become a difficult place for them to win.
Coach T is ‘done’?
Many people think Mike Tomlin is just going to take a year off to reboot and then come back and coach in the NFL again.
One of his close friends from the league doesn’t think so.
Hall of Famer Ronde Barber believes Tomlin is finished coaching. The former Tampa Bay cornerback said on his WFLA video stream that he spoke with Tomlin last year, and Tomlin was considering 2025 to be his final year in advance of the season.
“There’s a lot of stories out there about Mike coming up and wanting to take one year off and go coach (again),” Barber said. “I’m gonna tell you right now, I think he’s done. I think he wants to be done. Last year, I was in Long Island with him, and he told me then. He said, ‘I think this is my last year.’ And didn’t say anything to anyone else for the entirety of the year.”
Barber, who received his gold jacket at the Hall of Fame from Tomlin, made a special trip to Pittsburgh to watch that last game of Tomlin’s Steelers career in Houston.
“In the event that they lost — and they lost — I wanted to be there for the last one. Because I was there for the first one when he was here in Tampa in 2001,” Barber said.
Bill Cowher left his future open-ended when he resigned too. Many expected that he’d return to coaching as well. But he never did.
Barber was a cornerback with the Buccaneers when Tomlin got his first NFL coaching job as the Tampa defensive backs coach in 2021.
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Pouty Raven
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy is upset about how his team’s 8-9 season went.
And how the Steelers played a role in that outcome.
As mined over at SteelersDepot.com, the veteran LB told the “Throwbacks” podcast with Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara that he’s not over the two losses to Pittsburgh yet.
“We let a 42-year-old (Aaron Rodgers) wax us twice, which just eats at me,” Van Noy said. “Because they weren’t a good football team. They were better that day, but they weren’t a good football team collectively. And we weren’t a good football team either.”
At least Van Noy acknowledged that the Ravens are subpar too. But he wasn’t done.
“The first game, there were a couple of calls that didn’t go our way. I hate saying that, but they were huge plays in the game,” Van Noy added. “Then, the second game where we lost, we battled the first half. In the second half, they just outplayed us. It was Aaron Rodgers basically saying, ‘F you’ to Arthur Smith, ‘I’m calling my own offense.’ It ended up working. They ended up winning. So they were the better team.”
To Van Noy’s point, the Steelers scored 23 second-half points in Baltimore during that second game on Jan. 4.
That second result eliminated Baltimore from playoff contention and advanced the Steelers to an AFC North title.
Back on track
The Penguins snapped their three-game losing streak with a 6-3 win over Philadelphia at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night.
Sidney Crosby had one of the team’s three power-play goals on the night.
Sid scores his 25th of the season ???? pic.twitter.com/5syPqfyolC
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 16, 2026
The captain added an assist as well. Thirteen Penguins, including all 12 forwards, got on the score sheet in the game.
That boosts Pittsburgh’s point total to 54. That’s good enough to be in a playoff spot for now, third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Crosby and company next face divisional foe Columbus at PPG Paints Arena at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Blue Jackets have 49 points. The New York Rangers (46 points) are the only team in the Eastern Conference with a lower total.
The Blue Jackets have been picking up the pace lately, though, winning three in a row over Utah, Calgary and Vancouver. The 4-1 win over the Canucks on Thursday featured a 2-on-1 goal from Kent Johnson.
Clark Kent? nahhh that’s Kent Johnson ????
CBJ x @FanaticsBook pic.twitter.com/jp7yFscQOT
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) January 16, 2026
This is the fourth — and final — game between the clubs this year. The first three have all gone beyond regulation.
Columbus won a 5-4 shootout on Oct. 25. The Pens won 4-3 in overtime on Nov. 28 and again on Jan. 4 in OT by a final score of 5-4. Kris Letang and Crosby had the game winners in those contests.
Looking at Louisville
Pitt has a big home game Saturday night. The 20th-ranked Louisville Cardinals are in town.
The Panthers won their first home game on Wednesday night at Georgia Tech, 89-66. Brandin Cummings had 23 points. Bary Dunning had 17.
all smiles on the way back to the 412???????????? @BarryDunning6 pic.twitter.com/6saaaaq19J
— Pitt Basketball (@Pitt_MBB) January 15, 2026
Now they’ll take on a Cardinals team that is 12-5. But the Cards have lost three of their last four ACC games to Stanford, Duke and Virginia. Pat Kelsey’s team is just 2-3 in conference play.
The Duquesne men’s team (9-8, 1-3 A-10) is at Fordham (10-8, 1-4) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Dukes haven’t beaten the Rams in New York since 2021. That’s a four-game losing streak. They won the last meeting between the teams in Pittsburgh, 73-64, in February of last year.
Robert Morris is coming off a 96-93 overtime loss to IU Indianapolis on Thursday night. They try to rebound Saturday at Northern Kentucky at 7 p.m.
Pitt’s women lost to Florida State 69-65 on Thursday. They host SMU Sunday at 1 p.m. The Duquesne Dukes battle 15-2 Rhode Island on the road Sunday at 1:30 p.m., and the RMU women’s team has a road date at 2 p.m. Sunday at Cleveland State.
Pointing toward West Point
The Robert Morris men’s hockey team is on the road at Army this weekend. Those games are at 7 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Colonials are looking to snap a four-game losing streak. They have 15 Atlantic hockey points. The Black Knights have 14.
The women’s team is looking to heat up on the road. They were shut out in back-to-back games against Syracuse last weekend (3-0, 2-0). Now they’ll try to get back on track this weekend at Mercyhurst for two games, Friday and Saturday.
Out in State College, No. 8 Penn State hosts Notre Dame for two games on the men’s side Friday and Saturday night, while the fourth-ranked women are in Syracuse.
