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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has faced John Harbaugh countless times in their illustrious head coaching careers, but Sunday night’s thriller to decide the AFC North title was the last time with Harbaugh roaming the Baltimore Ravens’ sidelines. While Tomlin’s Steelers won the AFC North thanks to Tyler Loop’s missed field goal, Harbaugh’s Ravens missed the playoffs and then Harbaugh lost his job two days later.
Tomlin addressed the rivalry with Harbaugh and also his firing on the Rich Eisen Show. The Steelers coach made sure to first express his respect for Harbaugh after their “legendary battles over the years.” When discussing the firing itself, Tomlin lamented the lack of patience in the sports industry.
“It’s just a larger example of today’s sport culture in terms of not a lot of patience in the entertainment component of what it is that we do. There’s just not a lot of longevity. I’m sure we all want to be Don Shula or Tom Landry, but I think those days are gone.”
Asked the @steelers head coach his reaction to the stunning news Tuesday of his long-time rival John Harbaugh being fired in Baltimore and his own future in Pittsburgh:#NFL #HereWeGo #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/gCvTjtZR0m
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) January 7, 2026
Eisen pointed out that Tomlin knows a thing or two about longevity given he has been in Pittsburgh for 19 years, one year longer than Harbaugh coached Baltimore. Tomlin said he’s no Shula or Landry, but there’s no doubt the Steelers coach is a legend in his own right. And despite that legendary status, there has been no shortage of speculation and rumors about his own departure from Pittsburgh. One has to wonder what would have happened if Loop made his field goal and the Steelers were the team out of the playoffs.
On the other hand, there’s no guarantee Harbaugh sticks around even if the Ravens had made the playoffs. Even with successful coaches, sometimes it’s just time to move on and go in a different direction. The same could be true of Tomlin, who tried to deflect talk about a possible exit, though he admitted the “outside noise is pretty loud” before shutting down any participation in rumormongering about his own future.
As Baltimore embarks on a head coaching search, Tomlin is fully focused on Pittsburgh’s Wild Card Round game against the Houston Texans.
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