I was sitting and thinking of the short two years Tomlin has been running this team.  Here are some things that came to mind.

I remember how things developed during the interviewing of coaches.  A report came out that the Steelers had hired Russ Grimm.  Shortly after, that report was pulled and it was reported that the Steelers would announce that Mike Tomlin has been hired.  Sure enough they announced it.

I remember the griping and moaning.  People saying "who is this guy?" and "He's got so little experience."  Then He takes the podium and begins to speak.  Immediately many realized that this guy is something special.  But many still wondered if this charisma could translate to winning games.

Another party was still angered that the former Steeler assistants were overlooked.  Some said continuity would be a problem.  No problem, Tomlin kept LeBeau as defensive coordinator and promoted Bruce Arians to offensive coordinator.  This was wisdom.  This was the first sign that Tomlin was way ahead of any of his naysayers.  His ability to coach the whole game, the whole man and the whole team makes him a complete coach.  He accomplished his first task, to keep the core intact and keep continuity.

His second was to exert his authority over this team without crumbling its integrity.  He made intricate decisions along the way.  First he had to allow the vocal leader of the defense go.  Common logic would say that if you let Porter go then you should release Faneca because he is pretty much a toned down Porter.  He has no buffer between his mind and mouth.  But personnel, one year left on his contract and the fact that Faneca was an anchor in the offensive line made the answer a bit different.

Tomlin chose to keep Faneca and deal with the distraction.  It's obvious that Faneca was a distraction on the line because this year's line actually did just as good as last year's line without Faneca.  Still, Tomlin got the team to an AFC North Championship and the playoffs.  His balance of keeping continuity and enforcing change kept the team from imploding.

With the Cardinals and ex-steeler coaches Whiz and Grimm beating the Steelers in the desert many started the grumblings again about the decision to hire Tomlin over Whiz and crew.  They did this while completely ignoring the fact that Ward was out, Polamalu was injured and Hampton left early in that game.  The fact remained also that Whiz was fresh from coaching Ben as O coordinator.

By the time the Steelers broke camp in 2008 Tomlin had completely taken the reigns of this team and you could actually hear Tomlinism coming from the mouth of the players.  Something else I noticed about this 2008 version of the Steelers, they had a finishers mentality.  They finished plays with pop and they finished games with precision.  The Steelers used to beat you physically, now they were beating teams physically and mentally.

As the year went on we started to realize that this team was not a flash in the pan last year and they could make some serious noise in the post season.  At the same time Whiz had his Cardinals taking control of the NFC West and on the verge of winning an historic NFC West championship.  The jury was still out in the minds of some as to whether the Steelers made the right choice at head coach.  I was still wondering why.

As the Steeler clinch their first round bye and AFC North Championship I reflect on Tomlin's press conferences throughout the year and realize I learned more about him in defeat than I did in victory.  He handled defeat well.  Not in the accepting way, but in the constructive manner.  He handles it well because his goal is to let his team know they need to get better.  He says that win or lose.  So when they lose nothing has changed.  I don't know if you get that or not but that is genius.  Sure you've probably heard it before but he was consistent.  I thought all year that his intangibles made him the best coach of the Big 3 Whiz, Grimm and Tomlin.

Now we get to the Super Bowl.  Whiz brings his crew into Tampa in suits; Tomlin brings his in wearing T-shirts.  I'm not saying that one is better than the other, but being loose is good when your preparation is so intense.  Don't get me wrong AZ came to play, but I think the loose approach the Steelers came in with played well on this stage.  It took AZ some time before they could relax.  Warner missed a few chances early and made a few mistakes. 

In the end, this team was backed against the wall and it showed its character.  I mentioned it before, they are finishers.  Coach Tomlin came in and gave them that persona.  It was budding in last year’s playoffs, but it has bloomed this year.  Listen, I am not downing Cowher, but that was one thing that bothered me about the team back then.  They wouldn't finish.  Granted Ben was younger and Kordell had some bad mistakes in AFC Championship games, but I was really confident they would finish.

I am glad to have Tomlin.  He is who he is.  He's a Super Bowl winning coach.  He did something that I think is just as difficult if not more difficult than turning a bad team around.  He took a team that was 1 year removed from the Super Bowl and not only improved on the former year, but improved on the improvement. 

In my mind we made the right choice.  Now start making up the slogan for Super Bowl number 7.