Football Rumblings

Where Does Tomlin Stand?

Posted on January 18, 2011 by James W

Mike Tomlin has quite a bit to live up to heading into his second Super Bowl in five seasons. The young and dynamic coach has earned himself the reputation as a smart and energetic coach and one the players respect and the media enjoys. The issue isn’t if he can coach, but rather where another Super Bowl win will rank him, and where it will put him as far as his reputation is concerned if he loses.

A win would put him in the discussion with the best coaches in the game today. There is sort of a mantle that the NFL has put Bill Belichick on for his three Super Bowl rings and his four appearances. He has coached the leagues most dominate team of the decade, so it would be hard for Tomlin to overtake that crown. Still, if there is a second best coaching award Tomlin would be able to take that over with relative ease.

The only other coach that would have the Super Bowl rings would be Mike Shanahan, but that was well over a decade and since those rings he’s proven to be more of a failure than he has been a success. So Tomlin would have to warrant the consideration of second best.

Still, there is the issue of how much credit he gets for all those wins. The Steelers have long been thought of as one of the best teams in the NFL from the stance of the front office, so many will look past Tomlin and look to his front office for credit.

It’s the same reason he will have a hard time passing Cowher on the list of Steelers lore. While Cowher could end up with one less ring at this point, he only had Ben for two years.

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