Monthly Archives: May 2017

Knowing What We Don’t Know, Part 4: More on Mike Tomlin and Coaching in the NFL

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Fred Vuich/AP Photo

By Ivan Cole

On Christmas Day 2016, the Baltimore Ravens were eliminated from both the possibility of earning the AFC North championship and a spot in the playoffs when Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown combined for a game winning touchdown with nine seconds left to play.

In the days following the game, some Ravens fans directed their ire at head coach John Harbaugh and his staff, asserting that the group should be terminated, for, among other crimes, poor clock management. Sound familiar?

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Knowing What We Don’t Know, Part Three: Mike Tomlin and NFL Head Coaching

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Peter Diana photo, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

By Ivan Cole

Part 1 of the series can be found here; Part 2 here.

The revolutionary hiring of Mike Tomlin

One need not be a moral troglodyte or harbor malicious intent to experience a moment of pause when considering whether to make a groundbreaking hire. While it is too often true that the assertion of nonacceptance by others serves as an alibi for one’s own bigotry or lack of moral courage, that does not mean that opposition and resistance is nonexistent.

This brings us back to incrementalism and nonlinearity.

Good intentions badly handled can do more harm than good. This is why Jackie Robinson was so heavily vetted before he was selected to break the color line in major league baseball. Read more

Of Tight Ends and Long Snappers: Farewell and Godspeed

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NFL: Preseason-Washington Redskins at Cleveland Browns

Via Steelers Wire, USA Today Sports

Well, I guess that sixth-round pick wasted on a long snapper isn’t looking quite so dumb. When the Steelers announced the pick of Colin Holba my husband and I were on our way to a St. George’s Day dinner. (Bet you haven’t been invited to one of those lately! It’s not in the same class as my sister-in-law, who has been invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace* in a couple of weeks, but it is still pretty nice.)

But to return to the subject, I looked at the name, which I didn’t recognize, and then the “LS” next to it, and I said “Why on earth are the Steelers drafting a long snapper?!!!” Me and about 99.72% of Steeler Nation. (My guess is that the rest didn’t notice.) Between the announcement of the pick and crossing the Ft. Pitt bridge, though, I said “The Steelers must have concerns about Warren’s health.”

And if they did, they were correct to do so, as Warren failed to pass his physical. It certainly makes the pick less surprising. And as someone pointed out, it isn’t often you can draft someone in the sixth round and be fairly sure they will still be playing for you in ten years. All I can hope is that Gerry Dulac is feeling at least faintly foolish right now.

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Knowing What We Don’t Know, Part Two: The Rooneys and Race Relations in the NFL

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Bill Nunn, Jackie Robinson, and others: Teenie Harris photograph, via Carnegie Museum of Pittsburgh website

By Ivan Cole

I want to thank Hombre for being a source of inspiration for Part One of this series. His first question in the latest 5 Smoldering Questions provides the launch point for Parts Two and Three:

Which of these key Dan Rooney decisions do you think was most consequential to the Steelers present day AND future legacy?

  • a) Listening to Bill Nunn’s complaints about how the franchise dealt with African American reporters and then convincing him to join the Steelers scouting department.
  • b) Hiring Chuck Noll.
  • c) Firing his brother Art Rooney Jr.
  • d) Choosing Bill Cowher over Tom Donahoe and replacing the latter with Kevin 
Colbert.
  • e) Hiring Mike Tomlin (or acquiescing to Art II decision to hire Tomlin)
  • f) Accepting the ambassadorship to Ireland and giving up control of the team.

I cheated and chose both a) and b) as most important, making the argument that to do justice to either demanded that their linkage be acknowledged. I feel that the Rooney (Dan and Art Sr.)/Noll/Nunn collaboration was in the same neighborhood of significance as Branch Rickey/Jackie Robinson, Paul Brown/Bill Willis, Marion Motley, and a handful of other collaborators whose actions resulted in significant transformation, not only in the supposedly trivial domain of sport, but also with significant spillover into the larger society. Read more

Character (Ac)Counts: CB Coty Sensabaugh

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Coty and Dominique Sensabaugh in the Dominican Republic

As I said in a previous post, the thing which keeps me watching the NFL, or, more specifically, the Steelers, is the stories. This is why I began my Character (Ac)Counts series five or six years ago. We have a new crop of Steelers, so let’s get to work.

I knew nothing about Sensabaugh, who Ivan called a “middling free agent signing,” other than I recalled having heard his name. The reason is most likely found in the picture which heads Ivan’s article, showing him getting rather badly beaten by Antonio Brown, back when he was a Tennessee Titan. All is forgiven now, however, and he wouldn’t be the first defensive back AB made look silly. In fact, AB has decleated, if you will, most of the top backs in the league against whom he has played. Read more

5 Smoldering Questions on the Dan Rooney and the 2017 Draft

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From lovable losers to Super Bowl champions

The 2017 off season has been an eventful one as Steelers Nation said good bye to Dan Rooney while welcoming the 2017 NFL Draft class. And while the “real” off season will begin soon (you know, the dead period where it gets hard to find, much less make, news articles), there’s still plenty of material here for us to wrestle with these 5 Smoldering Questions on Dan Rooney and the Draft. Read more

Knowing What We Don’t Know, Part One: Did the Steelers Fix the Secondary?

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Coty Sensabaugh gets to be on the same team now…

By Ivan Cole

That was the question posed by Hombre in response to my last piece on the draft. The only responsible answer is, we don’t know. But in the sports matrix that we occupy, one where attitude often trumps facts, acknowledging ignorance can seem equivalent to weakness.

I have been thinking about a series that focuses upon our ignorance because I subscribe to the idea that ignorance is strength, in that it is the entry point to the path to wisdom. With that in mind I’d like to tackle some of the general assumptions that we make concerning the draft and related matters, as well as Hombre’s specific concern. Read more

But, But, But…T.J. Watt?

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Screen Shot 2017-05-03 at 5.12.29 PMThe post title is not because I feel this way. I think I made my feelings clear when he was my Round 1 pick in Momma’s Mock Draft. But not everyone likes the pick as much as I do, and those who don’t have plenty to say about it.

I suppose part of the point of being a sports fan is to be passionate about your team. But I’ve always wondered if having a passion for something automatically makes you stupid. One would certainly get that impression from some of the things you hear on sports radio (mostly, although, alas, not exclusively from the fans) and particularly in the comment sections. Read more

Why I Still Love Football – and the Steelers

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Jarrad Henderson, USA TODAY Sports

A week and a half ago I wrote one of my patented Momma’s Mock Drafts.  I was out of town from the Monday through Wednesday before the draft, so I wrote a post encompassing Rounds 4-7, planning to then publish Rounds 1-3 on Thursday.

Strangely, I returned to discover no trace of my Round 4-7 post, and had to incorporate what I could remember into a 7-round draft on Thursday. One of the problems with this was that I had such a great ending for the Monday post. It didn’t fit in the middle of a 7-round draft, though, so I axed that part of it, with the intention of expanding upon the idea. Read more

Having Some Fun with the 2017 Steelers

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Most Likely To Succeed?

by Ivan Cole

Okay. The draft picks have been made, the undrafted free agents signed. There remains a lot of wiggle room, but the ingredients for what will evolve into the 2017 edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers are mostly in place.

This means for us cranky old traditionalists that a portion of our annual descent into fake football is coming to an end. We will still have to endure the nonsensical exercise in declaring winners and losers, and I am certain that somewhere out there in cyberspace someone is, as you read these words, gracing us with an Early Bird 2018 Mock Draft. But, otherwise, (it’s a little too early for fantasy) we are in a lull where we can luxuriate in speculating about things that hew somewhat closer to the reality of things.

Obviously, we are still a long way from knowing the exact configuration of the members of the roster and their roles, but a lot of the storylines, challenges and quirk potentials are in play. Here are my first thoughts. Read more