Chapter 1: What shocking news does Mike Tomlin announce?
What do we got here, Donnie? We got a Schefter.
Okay.
Fellas, we got a bombshell. What? After a historic 19-season run, Mike Tomlin just informed his team he is stepping down. Oh, my God, dude.
Fellas, we got a bombshell. It was a line that goes down in fan history, Donnie. Right up there with Ron saying, I'm flabbergasted when Ben said he was talking about retirement. Right up there with Ron talking about Ron Burgundy. Whoops, Ron Jeremy.
Chapter 2: What historical significance does Mike Tomlin's resignation hold?
It goes down in history, Donnie. Fellas, we have a bombshell. What a week it's been here on The Fan. What a week. You talk about big news. It's a Donnie football Friday. Austin City Limits. Beck told to my left, for some reason, wearing a Yankees cap. Any idea why that's happening, Donnie?
I guess he's going for big market baseball after the Dodgers move last night. Are you? The Yankees are now small market after the Dodgers. No, I got this at when I was at the Pinstripe Bowl in New York. Ah, okay. I like it. It's classic. I feel like wearing a Yankee hat or at least a New York hat, it's kind of like a fashion type of thing for a lot of people.
You're not really rooting for the Yankees. I don't root for the Yankees. That doesn't mean you're rooting for the Yankees.
I've also made the point to people, do you understand how popular the pirate hat is? Oh, yeah. Huge. It doesn't matter how good or bad the team is. People love just like the simplicity of a Pirates hat.
No doubt. There's no doubt. Donnie rocking a Nike hat, and I have a Golden State Warriors winter cap on just to set all of our headgear before we get started. Donnie, we have so much to talk about today. I heard you tell me that Crowley said this was probably the least talked about Steelers playoff game in history. We might not get to the other playoff games for a while here either because...
Man, when it's the Steelers coach and the Steelers quarterback, we're going to be talking about this until each situation is resolved. And then for 10 years thereafter, it's just these are the two biggest topics in the whole city all the time. The coach and the quarterback. And now we have vacancies. What a week. You announced the news. Where did you see it?
And tell me, tell me what ran through your mind. Did somebody alert you to it? Did you happen to run across it on your phone? I want to know exactly what was going on. And then was there a moment of panic? If I go on the air with this and it's wrong, my career might be over.
Yeah, so the guys were going back and forth. We're only a couple of minutes into the show. Early rants about the playoff loss and how bad it was. Joe, I think Austin wants you to adjust your camera a little bit more angled to you.
Thank you, Lemon.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Mike Tomlin's departure for the Steelers?
Big surprise there. And I didn't hear it. I didn't hear live one of the great moments in fan history. What do we got here, Donnie? We got a Schefter.
Okay.
Fellas, we got a bombshell. After a historic 19-season run, Mike Tomlin just informed his team he is stepping down.
Oh, my God, dude. Give me some other famous sayings that that's up there with, at least for us. Anyone? Why can't I think of any? Like just of news breaking? No, just the famous most give me liberty or give me death. There you go. Eric, I thought about who you reminded me of in the TV business. Who's that? Ron Jeremy. That's got to be number one.
Chapter 4: How does the team plan to move forward after Tomlin's resignation?
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. That's a pretty good one.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Fear itself. That's right up there with one more...
We could just roll those bad boys out for an hour.
One more time before I launch into my opening soliloquy limits. Fellas, we have a bombshell. Is that it? Yep.
What do we got here, Donnie? We got a Schefter.
Okay.
Fellas, we got a bombshell. After a historic 19-season run, Mike Tomlin just informed his team he is stepping down. Oh my God, dude.
So here we are. Those were the words, and we've spent the whole week on it.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Mike Tomlin's departure from the Steelers?
That's legit, says Ray Fittipaldo, of the idea that Cam Hayward could be done. That's how I heard that. Did you, Donnie? I mean, you say 50-50, it's a coin flip.
Yeah.
What do you make of that?
It's yes or no. It's not I'm leaning one way, I'm leaning the other way. I mean, I feel the exact way I felt 15 minutes ago when I immediately responded with that has to be a Mike Tomlin thing. Cam Hayward was a second-team All-Pro this season.
Chapter 6: How do players react to Mike Tomlin stepping down?
It didn't show up in terms of sacks, so I think people are quick to say like, oh, Cam had an overrated season. He wasn't very good. No, you ask pretty much anybody. I'm not saying me in this. I'm saying the guys that crack down on film across the league, they will tell you that Cam Hayward had a great season. No doubt. Continues to just play great football.
I mean, the fact of the matter is he's going to be 37 before next year starts, too. And sometimes guys do surprise us, leave on a high note, that type of thing. But there's millions of reasons for him to stay.
Sure, I think he could do that. He's also the longest tenured.
Look what Tomlin just did. Tomlin just surprised us, right?
Yeah, I mean, Cam is also the longest tenured guy, so he played on Mike's defense longer than anybody else. More games than almost anybody in Steelers history. But I also believe like, you know, part of him, if he does decide, it would have a lot to do with Mike Tomlin not being the coach anymore.
Yeah. Oh, no doubt. And I also think, I think anytime you get to be 37 years old in any sport, everything's on the table, no matter what kind of year you had.
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Chapter 7: What factors contributed to the Steelers' struggles in recent seasons?
And also every pro athlete I've talked to who, well, every, almost every, They knew it was time when they didn't want to do the off-season stuff anymore. You know what I mean? They knew it was time when after two weeks of battering your body in a football season, you weren't already gung-ho to get back to it. And who knows with Cam and all he's been through and all those games that you mentioned.
I guess I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked. I just didn't expect to hear 50-50. But Donnie... There's something else you and I broached during the brief intermission there. I opened the show by saying something just feels weird about the whole Tomlin thing. It does. With Tomlin telling the team it was football and Art telling the team it was family and the suddenness of it all.
I don't know. I just have ideas swirling in my mind and I throw onto that. I throw onto that little fire of thought that he's not going to say goodbye. Ray just said he's not doing any kind of parting news conference or parting really, I guess, of any sort with Pittsburgh.
And that's parting with tradition of, even though there may have been some tension and acrimony with Cowher's departure, it was known for a long time that he wanted a contract extension going into that 2006 season and didn't get the money he wanted. So again, who knows what the real story was there in the end.
But still, when you spend 15 years, in this case, 19 years, in Noel's case, however many it was, and you leave and it's the Steelers and the family atmosphere that they foster, how much of it is real?
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Chapter 8: Who are the top candidates to replace Mike Tomlin?
How much of it is a front? I don't know. But you put on the front when you need to. And if you're saying goodbye after that long, you say goodbye. Right. And he's not doing it. And that strikes me as strange that he said, I'm gone 16 hours after the final gun and is never going to be seen again until some reunion years from now. There's no goodbye to Pittsburgh. That just seems odd.
It does. I think it's very bizarre. Not just a little bit odd. I think it is. Very, very odd. Because people's quick rebuttal to that will be, well, he told you he hates the media, he hates the local media, the media and the fans pushed him out. I'm still waiting for the first head coach of anything that has ever liked the media.
It's not exactly him going into foreign waters to not be a fan of the media. Bill Cowher, Chuck Knoll, you think those guys love the media? No, they didn't. Any coach that has ever been in the National Football League has disliked the media. So that can't be the reason. And if it is, it's a pretty soft one. I'll just be blunt. I think it's very soft if that is the reason.
I'm going to hope it's something else because it is very weird that even though we got departures from Chuck Knoll after 20-plus seasons, we got a departure from Bill Cowher and that lovely sweater that he wore, if you recall, Joe, on his resignation day, the Bill Cowher sweater that he wore. Yeah, yeah.
We're not going to get one from Mike Tomlin, who has, to the national media's admiration, he has the best soundbite in football. We've already seen ESPN and other outlets post, oh, here's 90 seconds of the best Tomlinisms. This guy was the best dude behind a mic. We're not going to get one final post. press conference with him, saying goodbye as Steelers coach.
Somebody that's been a coach that long, yeah, you're not going to get that from somebody who's been a coach for three years. Somebody who's been a coach for almost 20, you do.
And really, it probably happened the other day when Art came out and talked. That's how Cowers went. I fully anticipated that. I thought Tomlin would be. You put a happy face on everything at the end. There's no happy face here at the end. I'm sorry. I don't know what's happening here, but there's no happy face. There was a statement released by Tomlin. That was it.
And then as far as like what you said, yeah, of course, everybody hates the media, the fans and the players and the coaches, right? Everybody does. But he knows, we know, everybody knows that these news conferences, whether it's after a game or the weekly news conference or a farewell news conference, isn't about the media. The media is a conduit for the fans.
You're saying goodbye to the fans there. Now, maybe, maybe... What happened this season helped to push him out the door. Maybe what Josina Anderson says is true, that he felt underappreciated for what he thinks he was accomplishing here. And what he got for that was fire Tomlin chance. Maybe in his mind, it's out the door. You ain't going to hear from me again.
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