It was a "varsity football" victory for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

Although he probably cares little about the award, he has to appreciate somewhat the fact players chose Tomlin by more than a 3-to-1 margin over Patriots coach Bill Belichick as the coach players would want to play for, in a poll recently done by The Sporting News. Players could not choose their current coach.

Sports News quoted one player as saying:

What I liked about him the most is that he's very up front and honest with you. You kind of always know where you stand with him-good, bad or indifferent. You appreciate the honesty of knowing where you stand. And the other thing would be that he just kind of always says the right thing, whether it's to you, the group, the media. Once again, whether it's good, bad, he just kind of says the right thing. He's got that knack.

SN attributes the quote to an "NFC offensive player who used to play for Tomlin."

Making guesses on who it could have been, former Steelers tight end Matt Spaeth, who's now with Chicago, comes to mind. He was one of Tomlin's first draft picks, and played with him for four seasons. Detroit's Stefan Logan was with Tomlin's Steelers in 2009, a free agent signing. Former Steelers practice squad player Jamon Meredith is in Tampa Bay.

Green Bay's John Kuhn was released by Tomlin, so it wouldn't seem likely it was him.

Tomlin is 60-28 in five seasons and eight games into the 2012 year, with a Super Bowl championship, two AFC championships and three AFC North division titles.

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