Tomlin not giving Mike Adams any slack from stabbing

The standard is the standard, as coach Mike Tomlin says. It's what the Steelers are taught every year under Pittsburgh's head coach.

It's a phrase that the offensive line, specifically, has been forced to adopt a lot in recent years with injuries consistently changing the starting lineup. Yesterday Tomlin made it clear that this still applies to Mike Adams.

“When doctors told me he had clean health and medical clearance…that is in our rear view mirror. I’m not going to judge him on a curve in regards to what happened," Tomlin said. “He is here to play football, earn a job and be a positive contributor to our efforts. He gets no extra credit for that."

So any questions about how the stabbing of Mike Adams might affect the former Ohio State Buckeye this season, are now moot.

Coach Tomlin knows this team doesn't have time to overlook mistakes of Adams this year just because of the incident which occurred earlier this Summer. This isn't because the season is around the corner or because Tomlin didn't take Mike Adams' stabbing seriously (in fact there's much evidence that he did). Tomlin holds this fine line because he knows that's the mentality that great teams have among their depth players. Just because circumstances may be different, or you might not be slated as a starter doesn't mean anything else slows down just for you.

Once Mike Adams was said to be a fully ready for NFL football, he was back to being just like every other lineman in camp. Defensive ends or outside linebackers aren't going to feel sorry for Adams and give him a break; so neither should the Steelers in training camp. That's what's expected of you when you play under Tomlin.

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