Steelers Now
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jonnu Smith shared the team’s initial reaction when head coach Mike Tomlin stepped down.
Mike Tomlin shocked the football world on Tuesday when he made the announcement that he was stepping down as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. It turns out the team was just as surprised.
Steelers tight end Jonnu Smith shared the locker room’s initial reaction when he told them the news.
“It was a very tough moment, man,” Smith said on ESPN’s Freddie and Harry. “To see a guy who was so quintessential to this entire city, this organization, this entire football program in Pittsburgh, it was a bittersweet feeling. To have him address the team in an exit meeting in the fashion that he did, man, it was a bittersweet moment. He got a standing ovation.”
“Guys, one at a time, as we’re leaving the meeting room, shaking his hand and giving our condolences and showing our gratitude, reminding him of the impact he had on us,” Smith continued. “It was probably the most emotional day, emotional exit meeting that I had in my past nine years of my career.”
The last nine years of Tomlin’s tenure with the Steelers has left much to be desired, maybe most notably, not having won a playoff game since the 2016 season.
However, there’s no doubting the impact Tomlin has had on all of the different versions of Pittsburgh’s locker room over the years. In fact, many players have expressed that the main reason they signed with the team was to play for Tomlin.
The Steelers will now have the difficult task of filling his shoes with another leader of men, but it will likely take some time for the locker room and fans to get used to not seeing Tomlin on the sidelines, even if it was time for a fresh start.
Tomlin will finish his tenure with a 193-114-2 overall record. In his final regular-season game, an AFC North-clinching victory over the Baltimore Ravens last week, Tomlin tied Chuck Noll for first place in team history with 193 victories doing so in 33 fewer games.
Tomlin’s legacy also includes a win over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, the franchise’s sixth, which came in his second season in 2008. He also made it to another Super Bowl in 2010, and another AFC Championship game in 2016.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Jonnu Smith Describes Scene When Mike Tomlin Stepped Down as Steelers HC
