What It Would Take For Mike Tomlin To Be FIRED As Steelers Head Coach...

AtoZ Sports

Rob Gregson talks about Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, and what it would take for him to be fired, in light of Christian Horner's shocking firing from Red Bull Racing earlier this week.

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00:00Earlier this week, we saw one of the wildest firings in recent sports memory, and it got me

00:04thinking, what would it take for the Pittsburgh Steelers to finally part ways with Mike Tomlin?

00:12For those of you that are not the biggest F1 fans, you probably don't know who Christian

00:16Horner or Red Bull Racing are. But let me just make this abundantly clear. What Red Bull Racing

00:22did with Christian Horner would be the equivalent of Art Rooney going into Mike Tomlin's office

00:27in the middle of this upcoming season when the team is 6-3, 7-4, and saying, hey Mike, it's been a

00:33great two decades or nearly two decades, but you can pack your bags and you can kick rocks because

00:37you're no longer our head coach. That is essentially what they did over in the UK with Red Bull Racing

00:42and Christian Horner. This is a guy who won multiple championships, still has the best driver in the

00:46sport, and still is in the title hunt contention. And it really got me thinking. In recent years,

00:51I mean, you could go back to the NBA this season where they fired two head coaches that were in

00:56the middle of a playoff run. You go back to the Philadelphia Eagles and what they did with Andy

01:01Reed and then in recent years, Doug Peterson. There are a lot of parallels to look at where

01:05these teams who have historically been very good, maybe even great, they say enough is enough. This

01:11isn't good enough anymore. We have to get back to our standard. And that's where the Pittsburgh

01:14Sears are right now. Mike Tomlin, for all of those who don't like him, it's hard to ignore the fact

01:18that it has been nearly two decades and they haven't lost. That is a very, very hard thing to do in the

01:23NFL. But for those who do doubt Mike Tomlin, who are tired of Mike Tomlin, there is truth to that

01:27as well. You cannot be the Pittsburgh Sears, one of the proudest franchises, not just in the NFL,

01:32but in the entire sporting world and not have won a playoff game in a decade. You can't do that.

01:37You can't have not won a Super Bowl in nearly two decades at this point. That just doesn't work if

01:42you're the Pittsburgh Sears. So my question is, what would it take for them to start over? I personally

01:47think a complete bottoming out. I'm talking about the team earns a top five, maybe even top three pick in

01:52the NFL draft. They are completely uncompetitive. They don't look like an NFL franchise. I think

01:57that's what it would take. And even then, I don't think that you see that Mike Tomlin's fired.

02:01I think that it's a mutual parting of ways. Mike Tomlin's going to retire. He does a year of TV.

02:05He comes back and I don't know, coaches the Jacksonville Jaguars. Who knows? But the point

02:09being is for the Pittsburgh Sears and for Mike Tomlin, I really don't see a world where if they go 10 and

02:14seven again, or even nine and eight, and they make the playoff where anything changes, obviously he just got

02:19a huge contract extension. Omar Khan just signed a contract extension this off season. The status

02:23quo is going to be the status quo in Pittsburgh, but for how much longer, how much longer can Art

02:27Rooney look in the mirror, hear noise from his own family for that matter and say, man, this just

02:33isn't working. Obviously those million, a hundred million dollar checks are going to roll in for

02:37the TV money. He's more than happy with that. But when do the Pittsburgh Sears get back to their

02:41winning ways? If it's not soon, if we see them bottom out, if we see them continue to lose in the

02:46playoffs or not even make the playoffs, I think that heads are going to have to roll, that it's

02:50going to have to be a long, hard look in the mirror for Art Rooney, for Mike Tomlin, and for Omar Khan.

02:55When that happens, your guess is as good as mine. But if the Sears are not competitive these next

02:59few years, I really believe wholesale change could be coming to Pittsburgh.

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