Steelers News: Bill Cowher calls Mike Tomlin’s 2019 his best year yet

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2019 season is officially over. After finishing the year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, has another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take at how now Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher called Mike Tomlin’s 2019 season his best yet.

Let’s get to the news:

• 2019 was a tough year for Mike Tomlin, but Bill Cowher called it his best year yet with the Steelers.

Kevin Gorman: Why Bill Cowher calls this Mike Tomlin’s best coaching job for the Steelers

By: Kevin Gorman, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

As Bill Cowher reminisced about winning Super Bowl XL, he recalled how he was corrected after calling his Pittsburgh Steelers underdogs before playing the Seattle Seahawks.

“Someone said, ‘I think you guys are favored,’ ” Cowher said of the four-point odds. “I said, ‘Nope, we’re underdogs. I’m not going to let the facts stand in the way of this narrative.’ ”

Now that Cowher has been chosen for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of the Centennial Slate, he doesn’t want this narrative to stand in the way of the facts: Mike Tomlin won a Super Bowl only because of Cowher’s players.

That’s a slight Tomlin has endured since winning Super Bowl XLIII in his second season after succeeding Cowher, one that Tomlin’s detractors are quick to point out when comparing the Steelers coaches. I asked Cowher if he took such talk as a compliment or viewed it as an insult to Tomlin.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Does the Pro Football Hall of Fame need to change its criteria?

Tim Benz: Steelers inductions part of needed debate for Hall of Fame changes

By: Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Many debates have popped up this week over who should — and shouldn’t — get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a result of the 2020 “Centennial Slate.”

I default to one self-reflective question: “What makes me more angry? Borderline guy who gets in? Or those who are kept out?”

It’s the second thing. By far.

In other words, there isn’t one part of me that thinks the Hall of Fame is a worse place because the likes of Jimbo Covert, Donnie Shell, Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson are in it.

Can you really talk about the ‘85 Bears without Covert? Or the “Steel Curtain” without Shell? Or the 15-year swath of time between 1990 and 2005 without teams coached by Johnson and Cowher?

No. You can’t. So I’m not put off by their inclusion.

However, it bothers me that guys such as Alan Faneca and Roger Craig may not get gold jackets. At least not any time soon.

That’s the issue moving forward.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Bill Cowher can’t wait for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Kevin Gorman: After Hall call, Bill Cowher can’t wait for a lights-out Steelers conversation

By: Kevin Gorman, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

We watched Bill Cowher’s famous jaw drop Saturday night upon learning of his selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and saw his chin quivering Sunday when his daughter’s social media post was read aloud.

Now that the live reactions to his induction in August in the 20-member Centennial Slate to the Hall of Fame in celebration of the NFL’s 100th anniversary can be followed by reflection, Cowher is looking forward to a conversation in Canton between the bronzed busts of one Super Bowl-winning coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers and another.

“John Madden made a statement that he’s convinced when the lights go out, those busts in that one room all talk to each other,” Cowher told the Tribune-Review on Wednesday. “If that’s the case, you know who I’d want to talk to? Chuck Noll.

“I don’t think I ever really had the opportunity to sit down and talk with him to reflect on him and what he did. I’d love to sit down in that Hall with him when the lights go out, just talk about football, talk about football in Pittsburgh, to talk about some of the great players that have gone through there and the traditions and standards, the milestones that have been reached by so many people.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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