The Pomp And Joe Show
11AM - Joe rejoins Trib! Nick Farabaugh on Steelers loss, Tomlin's future; Will Aaron Rodgers be back next season
13 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What news did Joe Starkey announce about his career?
Nick, it's a pleasure to have you. I don't believe we've ever spoken before. You're a recent graduate of Slippery Rock. Am I right about that? No. Wasn't the first mistake I've made, Limits, and it wasn't the last.
That was really a funny moment that I love coming back to.
Yeah.
It's a good open.
You know what I enjoy is stale candy canes. Do you? No, not stale ones. There's something poetic about it, and they still taste good, I think. It's a way to hang on to Christmas. I think that's what I'm trying to say. It's a way to hang on to Christmas.
She makes this great flavored rock candy where you just kind of have it dissolve in your mouth, and I usually eat those well into June because they just stay fresh and they're still good. Fresh and good. Yeah.
So we're going to bring on Nick in a moment. I have a personal career situation that I'd like to address. And that's on the writing side of my career. The radio side hopefully still lasts for a long time. We'll see. Business is booming right now because of you and Bob. Things are going well. But on the writing side...
After a decade or so at the Post-Gazette, I'm going to be joining, you could say rejoining, Trib Live. And I'm very excited about that, Limits. Your mic is off right now. I can't wait to get started, restarted. I think my first column there, which is actually probably like my 500th column there, if you include that. How long was I at the Trib? 20 years?
That's where everything began to happen for me. That's where I started to cover the Penguins in 1997 when I was a savvy young newshound. I believe will be Saturday. I think that's when it's going to be running. I hope that you'll be reading. I know so many people over at the Trib already, including Jen Bertetto, the CEO, whom I covered in softball when she was Jennifer Wolf for Leachburg Limits.
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Chapter 2: What were the main reasons for the Steelers' loss?
And there's my old friend, Jonathan Bamboli. who I've known since that time. He used to be the beat writer for Wilkes-Barre. I was the beat writer for the Penguins, and they used to train in Wilkes-Barre, and immediately we hit it off. Very cynical and funny man. So maybe I'll be doing some stuff with him. He's a big-time editor now, but maybe I can convince him to do some fun things.
I don't know what we'll do. Maybe point-counterpoint, maybe just some ridiculous stuff on Facebook. I don't know what we're going to do. We'll see. But I'm really excited to get started there. And I hope that you read my stuff out there. over at Trib Live, and also the time at the Post-Gazette was great.
Stan Wachnowski, the executive editor, Ryan Wynn, the sports editor, we did, I thought, some great work together, and I have a lot of respect for the people there. Obviously, all the writers that you hear on the station here, the Badconian Mongoose, we could start with him, and Ray Fittipaldo, love those guys, and I can't wait to get started at Trib Live. So that's my bit of news limits.
Reaction?
That's awesome, Joe. And you held it for me as well. I said, Joe, I think you're going to talk about this. And you were like, yes, I am. And then you did a 180 and talked about something else. So I'm really happy for you. I know how much you love writing and how much I love reading your columns. So that's going to be really cool to be able to see that again for the Trib.
And people on the text line are also flooding in a lot of congratulations to you and a lot of people saying that they would have been very sad if you were announcing that you were leaving the station.
So it's good to hear that the writing will continue. I'm sure some would have been happy. Believe me, a lot would have been happy, too. But it sounds trivial. Like we're going to celebrate the Marconi Award that we won on Wednesday night, which is the equivalent to literally the Academy Award for radio. It's not just sports stations. It's any sports station.
We're going to celebrate that as a staff on Wednesday night. obviously that doesn't happen if people aren't listening. And the same goes with, with writing that if, if there's no readers, then there's no writing. Correct. That seems rather obvious. And it's so interesting to me after all these years. And I started way back when as a stringer for the post-gazette in 92.
And I apologize, Nick, we'll be with you in one moment. Um, All these years later, through all these different iterations at the Valley News, the Trib, the Post-Gazette, back at the Trib, people will just come up and start talking. I got accosted in a good way at a Steeler tailgate party last night. I had parked to go over and talk to some people at the Post-Gazette.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Mike Tomlin's coaching future?
They've changed general managers. They've flipped over the roster two or three times over this stretch. He's been the one constant. He's going to give you a high floor. He's going to get you into the playoffs. And when you get there, he's not going to do all that much.
And so to me, for Mike Tomlin, if I were Mike Tomlin, I think there's a real natural point for him too where, okay, I can go to TV for a year, make Lord knows how much on CBS, and then come back in 27. I think Mike Tomlin can go the Mike Vrabel route, which is take a year off, look at the league, study what's going on,
So revamp what I do, revamp my process, look at my assistants that I would want to hire, put all your ducks in a row, and then when 2027 hiring cycle comes around, you're the top candidate on the market and you get to choose wherever you want to go. to whatever roster, and you feel like you're reinvigorated. And that's, I think, for Mike Tomlin personally, what he needs.
For the Steelers, I just think it's insanity to keep running it back. So I agree with you. I think this has reached its natural end point. But I don't think they're in a fire, Mike. I don't think that's going to be something that happens. I think if he's not here next year, I think it's going to be because he walked away.
Yeah, what about a trade? Here's where I think Tomlin would really enjoy himself and be perfect for. And that is the Raiders. He just sort of has that persona that fits the Raiders. And they have the first pick. And you can make all your own calls. And like you said, bring in your own staff. I just think that would be ideal for him. You?
Yeah, I could see it because, you know, I mean, I guess it would depend on how much he believes in Mendoza and more. But if you don't go somewhere where there's an established quarterback, I think that is a good spot for him. He would be able to kind of mold that franchise as he sees fit. Yeah. I can also just see, I mean, listen, I mean, Baltimore, I know that's a funny one, but Lamar Jackson.
Oh, my God. Wait a second, limits.
We haven't talked about Baltimore yet. right? Could you imagine if they just traded coaches, John Harbaugh comes here and Mike Tomlin goes to Baltimore?
It's too late. They fired Harbaugh.
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Chapter 4: Should the Steelers consider Aaron Rodgers for next season?
I would love to anytime.
See you, buddy.
See you.
Man, he was a good addition to the club this year. Very good. Unlike Jonu Smith, he was a good addition.
Jonu Smith had like 220 yards receiving this year.
Why don't we talk about a couple of those issues next? Studs and duds. Well, we should probably talk about Rodgers next. We've focused so much on Tomlin. Let's talk about Rodgers a little bit. Let's hear what he said last night and talk about his future coming up next on Pomp and Joe. Top of the hour, the Mongoose is locked and loaded. Am I right? You're correct.
And then after that, man, we have report cards and futures and pasts and the head coach. I think Nick is right. That may be the best avenue here. If you don't want to do your job, if your art is to tell Mike that you're not going to pick up that extension and see what happens from there.
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Chapter 5: What factors contributed to the Steelers' offensive struggles?
Limits, now there's a story on Trib Live about me returning to my journalism roots there. I'm reading it right now. Can you read the last line about my family? I really enjoyed that.
It says, a native of Long Island, New York, Starkey grew up in Buffalo and endured four Bills losses in four consecutive Super Bowls, but only after moving to Pittsburgh in 1989 to attend graduate school at Duquesne University. He lives in Green Tree with his wife, Susie, his daughter, Marianne, and a tiny dog named Bailey.
Bailey finally gets the press that he deserves. I'm glad.
I love Bailey.
Yeah. You've met Bailey. He likes you, too.
I have multiple times. Great dog.
He's very trusting of the world. Again, on this morning's walk, he just walks up to random people from the Duquesne light, somebody from a tree service and just makes friends right away.
Muffin used to bark at people when like they would approach the door or saw a car coming down the driveway. But then as soon as somebody would enter the house, would immediately go up to them and try to, you know, embrace them.
Yeah. Very nice of Muffin. Shouldn't we all live our lives that way limits? Well, I guess not. You can't be too friendly at times, right? Um,
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Chapter 6: How did the Steelers' defense perform against the Texans?
I worry about her capabilities. Yes.
Right.
Not good. How about the future of the quarterback? Listen, I just had a horrifying thought here. I can open the show every year at this time and say it's time to move on to Tomlin. The horrifying thought I have after a brief discussion with Malzi is this. There's a better percentage chance that they run the whole damn thing back with the quarterback and the coach than there is not.
Do you agree with that? There is a better percentage chance that both the quarter and the quarterback was pretty good this year. The coach was okay. But it just wound up in a worse spot than ever. It wound up in another ditch.
Crowley gave the coach an A for his performance in the regular season. I think they might run the whole thing back. Well, we've already seen reporting that they're interested in bringing the quarterback back. And Rodgers has been noncommittal either way on retirement or coming back. He's kind of just left it out there in the open for what he might want to do. I would agree with Malzi.
There's probably a higher likelihood that they keep the coach.
No, no, no. I didn't say Malzi said that. I just said that I, after a conversation with Malzi, it struck me that that could very well be the case.
I would agree with you then. Yes.
This is incringulant.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential next steps for Mike Tomlin and the Steelers?
And I make a decision as the guy who's entrusted to run this franchise. And to me, it's an obvious, obvious decision at this point. This isn't getting better. It's getting worse. It was the worst home playoff loss in the history of the franchise. To the quarterback, as I said earlier, he played better than I thought he would.
He was pretty darn good in a lot of games, but it's always better to part ways a year too early than a year too late. And we saw, I think, last night in the Cleveland game, a couple of others, of what this could become. More to the point, do you really think you have a chance to win the Super Bowl next year? That, to me, would be the only scenario in which you bring back Aaron Rodgers.
And the Steelers belong more with the non-playoff teams and non-contenders than they do with anybody who has a right to believe they can win it all next season. It's just time. But Rodgers had a pretty good year. It's very hard to read whether he wants to be back. Do you have a couple clips from him, Limits?
Yeah, so it kind of struck me a couple of different things that Roger said. First off, just about how they were never in control of the game before we go into some of the big picture things.
I don't feel like we ever got the momentum on our side, honestly. We had a lot of chances. Defense played really good in the first half. They got a good defense. But we had a lot of opportunities. A lot of opportunities. Didn't make the most of hardly any of them.
I completely disagree with his thought that they never had any momentum on their side. They forced three turnovers. One was inside the red zone. There was the YA Blacks interception or fumble, whatever you want to call it. They made significant defensive chunk plays where Tomlin preaches this turnover culture. And the offense just came out three and out.
stale-looking offense, no play calls down the field. I completely disagree with that assessment, Joe.
I think he might have meant offensively, but you're right. They did have chances. C.J. Stroud wanted to give them the game. He was begging to give them the game. Even after three quarters, it looked like a Tomlin win, didn't it? Yeah, it did. That they were going to get outplayed, but basically the other team was going to screw it up. I was convinced of that, and it just never went that way.
Let me say this, though, Limits, is that the Texans have a great, great defense.
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