What's the big deal about what Tomlin said?

By Jeff

If you live in the Pittsburgh area, or follow the local media, you'll know that they took umbrage to Pittsburgh Steelers telling the media after Sunday's win "We're (Steelers) a little bit annoyed, to be quite honest, about our premature reporting of our death."

That's Tomlin's unique way of saying, the media wrote them off without Ben Roethlisberger, and the Steelers were not happy about it. Tomlin shouldn't have lumped all the media together. Sports Illustrated's Peter King picked Pittsburgh to win the Super Bowl. But the local media really went after Tomlin the past few days for his comment.

Multiple radio hosts on 93.7 The Fan ripped Tomlin for having thin skin and acted like they had no idea what he talking about. Well, what the coach was talking about was how local and national writers and radio personalities were saying the Steelers would be lucky to finish the first four games with a 2-2 record. They also had the Steelers missing the playoffs, even though the season hadn't started yet. John Seibel, a very talented broadcaster, said the team would lose the Atlanta Falcons because they had the advantage at quarterback. Numerous others picked them to lose to Tennessee. Few did say they would be OK and make the playoffs, but there were certainly enough doubters to warrant Tomlin's comment.

I guess my beef here, is that some members of the media are acting like this is a personal attack on them. They seem flabbergasted that Tomlin would say such things and starting asking "Who said the Steelers were dead? I wasn't aware of that." Well, no. The word "dead" was not used, but the idea was given that this would be an off year for the team. It's just Tomlin does not use common phrases. He has a unique way of saying things, and this was one of those moments. If he had said he was annoyed that people seemed to be writing the Steelers off, then there would be no story.

I haven't worked at a news organization for more than a year, but I still like to view myself as a journalist at heart. That's why I'm bothered by stories like this. You have individuals whose tell thousands, maybe millions of people, how a coach should call games, or what players should do. Then the minute someone takes a shot at them, they get defensive.

Of course, you can also blame the Pittsburgh Pirates. If they were worth talking about on a daily basis, maybe talk show hosts and writers would have ignored what Tomlin said. But with the Pens season still a few weeks away, and the Pirates sucking, they only have the Steelers to talk about.

Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere