Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin became the first head coach in NFL history to not suffer a losing season in his first 15 years as a head coach.
Tomlin won that distinction by virtue of the Steelers 26-14 victory over rival Cleveland Browns during Monday Night Football in week 17 of the 2021-22 season. Today, the Steelers’ challenging season has nevertheless produced an 8-7-1 record with one game remaining.
The 49-year-old coach broke the record previously held by the late Marty Schottenheimer during his tenure with the Browns and Kansas City Chiefs from 1984-97.
Mike Tomlin becomes the first head coach in NFL history to have a non-losing record in each of his first 15 seasons pic.twitter.com/jT6QEjdqII
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 4, 2022
This is not the first time Tomlin has made history. He already holds the distinction as the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl at age 36. Overall, Tomlin has also led the Steelers to two AFC titles, seven AFC North division titles, and nine playoff appearances. Earlier this season, Tomlin became the 20th coach to win 150 career games, the fourth-fastest coach to reach that milestone.
Moreover, Tomlin’s players love working for him, as the likes of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and T.J. Watt attest.
“He’s just so commanding,” Watt said of Tomlin during an interview with Bryant McFadden on the “All Things Covered” podcast.
“When he walks in a room, everybody shuts up. His, ‘Good evening.’ … that deep voice, just very commanding. You want to run through a wall after every meeting, just the way that he dictates to the whole meeting room. ‘This is how we’re going to do it. These are the guys we need to attack, etc.’ It’s like, man, this guy really knows what he’s doing. He believes in all of us no matter what the circumstance is. Just a guy that I love playing for.”
Listen to Tomlin address the MNF game below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnnwOXBu4IQ
