Steelers' Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger Discuss If Today's Players Are Still As Capable And Tough In 2023

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin appeared on his former QB, Ben Roethlisberger's podcast. While on Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger, Tomlin spoke about how the game of football has evolved and how the players of today compare with the ones when he first started. 

Roethlisberger and Tomlin have known each other for a long time. Tomlin took over for former head coach Bill Cowher in 2007, which was Roethlisberger's third season in Pittsburgh. Tomlin would be the last head coach Roethlisberger ever had as the two spent the next 15 years together. 

During Tomlin's time with the Steelers, they have appeared in two Super Bowls and won one, XLIII; making him the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl. Under his direction, the team has won seven AFC North titles and been to the playoffs 10 times. Tomlin also has the longest streak of consecutive non-losing seasons of any NFL coach.    

Steelers' Mike Tomlin On How Football Players Have Changed

Tomlin said when he took over the team from Cowher, it took him a full season to feel like the team was really his. He said when he started coaching, you wanted to push players to their limits:

"We're gonna build some collective character through misery, it was a different era."

He said now things are very different:

"Anybody in their early 30's or younger never had a two-a-day in their life at any level of ball. Think about it, the vast majority of people playing professional football right now have never had a two-a-day in their life. If you come from the two-a-day era and you envision camp with full contact, pads everything, there's a different perspective on the game. It's just different. We are all shaped by a relationship with the game and whether or not you're a two-a-day guy or not is significant just in terms of your attitude, about a lot of things."

Roethlisberger agrees, saying that his career straddled multiple eras because it was so long:

"I always say I got both. I caught a lot of two-a-days and caught the player safety stuff, then caught the protecting stuff, so I got to see a lot. I don't mean that people now aren't tough, but I would say the toughness of the game, not just physically tough, but mentally tough. To do a two-a-day at Latrobe or wherever your camp is when it's hot and it's full pads and you're hitting again and again. I remember my first couple of years, if a guy rolled his ankle in practice, he went to the sideline taped it up and came back in. He wasn't out for a week."

Coach Tomlin tells Roethlisberger that he isn't disagreeing with anything he said, but he said he acknowledges times change. Parents don't smoke around their children as often, kids wear helmets when they ride their bikes etc:

"It's an evolution component to this thing and I believe in it. I don't think these guys are any less tough. I think if these guys were put in a time machine and were in that environment, they'd still be the same guys. They'd just be dudes that went through two-a-days. I think they would adapt."

Roethlisberger's co-host Spencer Te'o asked Tomlin if he feels that the reverse is true, if players were taken from the 70's and made to play today, could they adapt?

"Yes. I think it travels. I think outliers, special people, travel. The coolest thing about the Steelers of the 70's is what big men they are. Just look at the frames of those men, like Mel Blount is a big human being. Joe Greene is a big human being."

Tomlin says that if you are going to survive in the NFL, you have to be willing to adapt and grow:

"I see it from that perspective, there's evolution and I see it that way increasingly so because I got a desire to do this for an extended period of time. So it's adapt or die for me. If you're stale, if you're resistant to the evolution, you'll end up moving slowly, you're gonna be a step behind. Now more than ever, I am open to the differences and secondarily, but probably equally as important, as a dad whose kids play football, how can I hate any movement to make the game safer for them?"  

What do you think about Roethlisberger's and Tomlin's comments? Do you think it's an adapt-or-die situation? How do you feel about the evolution of the NFL and player safety? Do you think the players from the 70's could be interchangeably swapped with players from today and be successful? Click to comment below.

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