TAMPA, Fla. — Everybody was told to gather around.
This was it. The big, bad Pittsburgh Steelers were about to meet their new head coach. They had had just two head coaches since 1969. Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher were all Pittsburgh knew the past 38 seasons. Both of them won. They won big.
And the Rooneys, Dan and Art II, hired who? Into the room strutted Mike Tomlin. He was young and had never been a head coach. This would have had all the makings of an awkward minute, except.
Except there was something about the way Tomlin stood. The way he spoke. The way he looked back at those staring at him.
“You could tell right away he came in trying to take over the room,” said Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel. “He was trying to make his presence felt right from the get-go. You could see a few nerves. He was a young guy, and the team he was addressing won the Super Bowl two years before, and he knew he had a big job in front of him.”
Tomlin was only 35 years old. He had been a defensive coordinator for only one season.
“But from the second he spoke, you could see why the Rooneys hired him,” Keisel said.
Tomlin went 10-6 in 2007, his first season, then became the third coach to lead the Steelers to the Super Bowl. They will play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIII at Raymond James Stadium.
While Tomlin has been busy getting his team through the AFC playoffs, the NFL has followed his lead. Two other teams, the Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, also hired 30-something coaches in Josh McDaniels and Raheem Morris during the past month.
“I’m not going to be so presumptuous to assume that me doing what I do has affected those guys and given them opportunities,” Tomlin said Monday at the Steelers’ first news conference of Super Bowl week. “I think all those guys are where they are because of what they’ve done in the business. Accomplished coaches. Young coaches, yes, but accomplished coaches.”
The success of Tomlin, and others with no previous NFL head coaching experience this past season, such as Atlanta’s Mike Smith, Miami’s Tony Sparano, Baltimore’s John Harbaugh and even Arizona’s Ken Whisenhunt, has all but placed a “No Experience Necessary” sign on the league’s numerous coaching vacancies this year. Six of the eight coaches hired this off-season have not had head coaching experience. The previous three years, 23 of the 30 head coach openings were filled by those who previously held a top job.
“I think the relationship with players, the personality thing and not the age thing, is in vogue to talk about,” Tomlin said. “I think people that have a way with people, that can communicate with people, and teach people, and convey messages to people, they can do it at 35 or 45 or 55 or even 71, in the case of Dick LeBeau. I think it’s a personality thing and not an age thing.”
LeBeau is a former failed head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals who has since become arguably the league’s best defensive coordinator with the Steelers. More and more, NFL owners prefer limiting such sage professors to just one side of the ball, letting the young and dynamic run the whole show.
It’s more than a trend; it’s a movement. Pity the longtime assistant coach who has paid his dues and celebrated his 50th birthday.
“Overall, I think it’s been alarming for some guys,” said Pat McPherson, a Broncos assistant coach the past 11 seasons who wasn’t retained by McDaniels. “There’s a lot of guys who have put in their time and they’re like, ‘Holy smokes, these guys aren’t going through the normal channels like they used to.’ But to me, if an owner’s spending the money he is to own a franchise and paying what he’s paying, if he wants to hire the equipment guy, that’s his prerogative.
“As far as age, I don’t think age is an issue. A guy’s either a good coach or he’s not. Hopefully I’ll be qualified enough one day to be considered for a head coach and hopefully somebody gives me an opportunity. But at this point, if they want to hire a young guy, I don’t have a problem with it.”
Almost every player who has a young coach will say it’s not about age but respect. Which is exactly the point. Is it not human nature to respect the elderly and instinctively patronize the kid with a pat on the head? Look at Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner. He’s 37 and in his 11th NFL season.
Let’s say McDaniels, who is 5 years younger and has been coaching three fewer years than Warner has been playing, just became his head coach. Even with all his recent success as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator, there is no way McDaniels knows more about football than Warner.
How can a player respect a coach if the player knows he knows more than his coach?
“I don’t know if it’s always they have to know more than you,” Warner said. “I think there’s a respect in sometimes coaches understanding that they don’t know more than you. And they’re open to the fact that, ‘Hey, I know what I don’t know.’
“And then there’s times when they may not know more than you in every area, but they can still bring something to your game. They can still push you to be better. They can still teach you something that you don’t know.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
