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The Pittsburgh Steelers will be officially entering a new era after Mike Tomlin announced he is stepping down as head coach. It’s a move that apparently sent shockwaves through the team, as TJ Watt and his teammates were reportedly upset with Tomlin’s decision.
It’s said that Watt, who is 31 years old, had tears in his eyes and repeated the word “no” over and over while Tomlin announced his decision to step down, according to Mike DeFabo of The Athletic. Steelers players stood and gave the 19-year veteran head coach a standing ovation once his speech concluded.
“One player said Watt was ‘visibly upset.’ Sitting next to fellow veterans Cam Heyward and Alex Highsmith, all Watt could do was repeat ‘No. No. No. No. No,’ his eyes welling with tears as Tomlin delivered his speech.”
TJ Watt wasn’t the only player who was in the report. Aaron Rodgers, who was also emotional, told Mike Tomlin he was “sorry” for how the season ended in Tomlin’s final year with the Steelers. The 42-year-old quarterback credited Tomlin as the reason he chose to play in Pittsburgh this season instead of retiring.
“In the team meeting room Tuesday, Rodgers, through sobs, mustered one final, two-word message to the coach: ‘I’m sorry,’ several players heard him say. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.'”
The disbelief in Tomlin no longer being the head coach of the Steelers went into the following day of his announcement. Some unnamed players shared their point of view on the entire situation. One admitted that the meeting did not go the way he thought it would, while the other claimed he feels guilty for not helping Tomlin win another Super Bowl before calling it a career with the Steelers.
“I felt that the meeting was going to go completely different,” said one unnamed player. “When he said, ‘Some of us will be here and some of us won’t,’ that’s when I was like, ‘Is this guy really stepping down?'”
“Everyone feels that way,” another anonymous player said. “He’s the only (coach) that guys wanted to do it for. You think we didn’t want to get that monkey off his back that the whole city has been berating him for? Yeah, we all wanted that. That’s why it sucks.”
The Steelers first hired Mike Tomlin in 2007 when he was 35 years old. He led Pittsburgh to a Super Bowl win in 2008. Tomlin took the franchise to 13 playoff appearances in his 19 years with the organization, and never once had a losing record.
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