The Pittsburgh Steelers saw their postseason hopes fall by the wayside on Monday, losing a competitive Wild Card matchup against the Buffalo Bills. And reporters wasted no time to ask longtime Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin about his future with the team.
With the Patriots and Bill Belichick parting ways, that leaves Mike Tomlin as the longest-tenured head coach in the league in Pittsburgh, a tenure that dates all the way back to 2007.
In the 17 seasons that Tomlin has coached in Pittsburgh, the team has missed the postseason just six times. He has also yet to have a losing season with the Steelers, which is a credit to the culture he has built on this team.
However, with such a lengthy tenure comes questions on just how long he will stay with the organization. ESPN’s Brooke Pryor began to talk about how Tomlin has one year left on his contract.
Immediately as she mentioned his contract, Tomlin walked off the podium, clearly upset with having to discuss this immediately after a playoff loss.
Emotions were predictably running high immediately after the loss. But fans had mixed opinions on how he handled the question from Pryor.
It’s not like this is the first time a head coach has been asked about his future with the team after a loss, so you can certainly argue that this question is very fair from Pryor.
However, it is also reasonable for Tomlin to not want to answer this at the moment considering his team’s season just ended minutes before the question.
At some point, Tomlin will have to address his future. But for the time being, his future in Pittsburgh appears to be up in the air.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.