Once it was announced that the Pittsburgh Steelers lost Head Coach Mike Tomlin due to him stepping down, it was assumed that he would find a TV role somewhere because of his strong charisma and his ability to come up with witty sayings on the fly. There had been conflicting rumors, but it was recently reported that the former coach has hired a massive agency group that will negotiate his contracts with these major markets to determine exactly where he will be taking his amazing vocal talents to.
Jared Wickerham / Pittsburgh Steelers
Former Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin prior to Pittsburgh's 26-24 win over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 18 of the 2025 NFL regular season.
Not everyone is excited to hear Tomlin on TV, however. While making an appearance on 93.7 The Fan, insider Mark Kaboly explained why he thinks the eventual Hall of Fame coach would not do well in that spot.
"I just don't think it's going to translate from what I've known from [Mike Tomlin] for 19 years," Kaboly said. "He's going to have to open up. He's going to have to let his guard down. He's going to potentially have to criticize people for people to take him seriously. I'm not saying nobody's going to look in; I would be the first one to tune in to see how he does. I'm just going to say he's going to have to bring what we see on the Ryan Clark podcast when he was on, he was on Ben [Roethlisberger]'s podcast -- that type of personality rather than the guarded one."
When Tomlin took the podium for a press conference, he was usually very careful with his words, not wanting to throw any particular player under the bus or get anyone on the team in trouble. In fact, that's where a lot of his "Tomlinisms" came from, as he would use metaphors to try and dodge a question about things that happened on the field or behind the scenes.
Steelers.com
Former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin speaks with members of the media during a press conference, addressing team performance, player development, and expectations for the upcoming season.
The concern is that Tomlin would move to the media and keep his unenthused personality that he has when there's a microphone in his face. He wouldn't be very willing to say any player or team is not doing well and be critical of what's going on, whether the Steelers are in it or not. There wouldn't be the fun, exciting quotes that we saw on Hard Knocks; it would just be very dry and bland to make sure to not upset anyone.
However, TV is a completely different animal than hosting a press conference while acting as the leader for a team. For one, he does not have to worry about giving other teams bulletin board information, as he no longer has a team. He can talk about all the issues that the Cleveland Browns have for example, since he no longer has to come up with a gameplan to defeat them twice per year, every year.
Steelers Should Listen To Their Own Advice
Tomlin may end up being very critical about the Steelers, which would likely get tons of views and high ratings online. Instead of taking that to heart, they need to do what they have been repeatedly taught to do: shut out the noise. If the former head coach truly believes that his own team will do that, he can be as critical as he wants to be, as there likely won't be any repercussions or love lost from these comments.
Michael Conroy / ap photo
Steelers Owner Art Rooney II (left) and former head coach Mike Tomlin (right) oversee practice during the 2021 minicamp in Pittsburgh.
As Kaboly mentioned, Tomlin did let his guard down on some of these podcasts that he was a guest on in the past, which led to more incredible quotes and another way of seeing him as a person. If that's the case, why would he not do that on TV? What would stop him from letting his true personality out and having fun? Time will tell.
What do you think about the idea that Tomlin wouldn't do well on TV? Let us know on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.
#SteelerNation