Tom Bradley seems like a perfectly fine choice to be the Steelers next defensive backs coach

Back in the old days (for me, the '80's and 90's), you'd hear that the Steelers hired someone to coach a particular position on the team, and you'd just say, "Cool."

In-fact, those moves used to be so low-key and uneventful, sometimes, I wouldn't even know who coached, say, the special teams until I found his name in the annual team program.

Maybe my old-school nature caught up with me late last week, because when I heard that veteran coach Tom Bradley was hired on Thursday to take the place of Carnell Lake as Pittsburgh's defensive backs coach, I thought, "Cool."

Actually, my initial reaction was a little more positive, considering I was fully aware of Bradley's reputation as a bit of a defensive guru, thanks to his decades-long reign at Penn State as a, well, defensive guru.

Of course, the difference between the '80's and 90's, and the reactions these days to things like the hiring of position coaches, is the Internet.

Much like that draft pick you're initially excited about, after reading social media and even BTSC all day Friday, I was suddenly not as enthusiastic about Bradley's ability to coach up the Steelers young and, by all appearances, fairly talented secondary.

But then I turned away from the Internet and decided to use my common sense once again.

After all, if the Internet had its way, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin would have done an extremely thorough search to find his next defensive backs coach. He would have examined every single candidate on the open market—and perhaps even tried to poach someone from another team.

Thankfully, position coaches are still hired basically like they were decades ago, as evidenced by Bradley getting the job one day after Lake announced his resignation.

But, in my admittedly amateur opinion, hiring Bradley to coach the secondary didn't seem like the kind of thing that required much thought.

We're talking about a guy who spent the past 39 years coaching just about everything on the college football level.

Most of those years were spent at Penn State, and most of Bradley's coaching focused on the defensive side of the football, where he spent the last 12 seasons there coordinating some of the best defensive units in the country.

But, make no mistake, Bradley's specialty was the secondary, a unit he oversaw from the mid-90's until the time he left the university.

If you're a Steelers defensive back (or a player at any position on Keith Butler's unit), you want access to Bradley's vast years of experience and knowledge.

People cite numbers, like the ones that were posted during Bradley's most-recent tenure as UCLA's defensive coordinator.

However, it's highly doubtful Bradley forgot how to coordinate a defense in such a short period of time.

It's more likely UCLA's issues had more to do with personnel than they had to do with the guy who was coaching it.

You might say it's a coach's job to coach up his players.

You don't think Bradley knows technique?

My God, he's been coaching that kind of stuff since Jimmy Carter was president.

Finally, the Steelers could have examined every possible candidate to coach their defensive backs, and it's highly unlikely they would have found a man with Tom Bradley's impressive credentials.

Give the guy a chance. He just might be the man to take the Steelers secondary, and by extension, the entire defense—to a whole new level.