When Pittsburgh Steelers former Head Coach Bill Cowher drafted quarterback Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th pick of the 2004 NFL Draft, there were high expectations for the former quarterback out of Miami of Ohio. “Big” Ben Roethlisberger was chosen in the same draft class that produced Phillip Rivers and Eli Manning. Rivers never played in a Super Bowl. Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger won two Lombardi’s each. Manning won Super Bowl XLII in 2008 by a score of 17-14 and finished with an 87.3 QBR. Manning also won Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 by a score of 21-17 and finished with a QBR of 103.7. Ben Roethlisberger won Super Bowl XL in 2006 by a score of 21-10. Roethlisberger’s QBR was 22.6. Roethlisberger also won Super Bowl XLIII by a score of 27-23. In that game, he fared better with a QBR of 93.2.
Ben Roethlisberger almost single-handedly lost Super Bowl XLV because Packers safety Nick Collins intercepted an ill-advised pass and navigated traffic to the end zone. Pittsburgh eventually lost the game by the score of 31-25 as a result of that costly pick-six. All of the aforementioned games had one common denominator: the teams involved fought to the very end to win. The primary, and oftentimes only demand that the late Al Davis (former owner of the Oakland Raiders) had was: “Just win baby.” Nowadays, the fortunes of some of the most storied NFL franchises have dramatically changed from “Just win baby” to win at your own risk. Take the example of two recent head coaches of the New England Patriots, Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick.
In 2024, Jerod Mayo was hired to replace their former coach, Bill Belichick, after Belichick and New England could not agree on a contract following the 2023 season. Belichick allegedly left on his own terms after a dismal 4-13 won-loss record in 2023. Mr. “Belicheat” was under the false impression that he could leave the team for greener pastures. However, the grazing land that he thought was greener pastures turned out to be leaner pastures in the blink of an eye. After all was said and done, he ended up eating a “plate full of pride” with no Tums on the side to help relieve him not of “acid indigestion” but of “ego indigestion.” After negotiating with several NFL teams, Belichick decided to eat some filet of crow and accept the gig of becoming the “King of Chapel Hill.” In other words, the headmaster of the University of North Carolina football team.
On the other hand, Jerod Mayo was fired for posting the identical 4-13 record in 2024 that Belichick posted in 2023! Did Mayo get canned because someone’s love life may have taken a hit in Miami? Maybe or maybe not. However, there are rumors swirling around the camp that because Mayo went all out to defeat the Buffalo Bills in the 2024 season finale, that untimely and unnecessary victory knocked the Patriots down a rung on the ladder of the NFL 2025 Draft and may have prevented New England from obtaining the first overall pick in 2025.
When the Tennessee Titans lost to the Houston Texans, and the New England Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills in their final game in the 2024 season, the Titans were elevated the right to choose the first-overall pick in the 2025 Draft. Jerod Mayo only lasted one single year as the head coach of the New England Patriots. Was it because of the fact his team did not lay down for the mighty Buffalo Bills? If the Patriots had lost, they would’ve said that Mayo’s team did not compete, or that he purposely laid down to get the first pick. Black coaches continue being attacked by a three-headed dragon. The first head is: damned if they do. The second head is: damned if they don’t. The third head is: damned if they fall betwixt and between. Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is a perfect example of a coach that falls betwixt and between. Tomlin has never had a losing season, so he is considered right in the middle and that is considered average and average just does not cut the mustard in the NFL.
There are multiple definitions of negativity attached to the performance of Black coaches. If coaches of color exhibit too much emotion, they are labeled “angry Black men.” If they don’t exhibit enough emotion and focus on discipline, they are labeled cold and indifferent. If they try to lead from the middle of the road, they are often accused of being afraid to take chances as well as being indecisive and intellectually challenged from a football perspective. What criteria must be met for them to establish credibility?
Let’s go local yokel for a moment. The year 1991 was the final year of the coaching tenure of Head Coach Chuck Noll for the Steelers. Bill Cowher succeeded Noll in 1992. From 1992-1997 Cowher did not have a losing season, mostly using players from the Noll era. However, in 1998 and 1999 the Steelers’ won-loss record was 7-9 and 6-10 and those were the years that Bill Cowher’s draft choices began to have a significant impact. When Cowher was winning, hardly anyone had questioned about him benefitting from the Noll era, did they? From the very beginning of Mike Tomlin’s career as the head coach, his accomplishments have been diluted and blurred by the ghost of Bill Cowher’s mediocrity. Bill Cowher had three losing seasons, Mike Tomlin so far has none. For three losing seasons, Bill Cowher was positioned very well on the draft board, but Mike Tomlin has not had that luxury. In 2003 the Steelers’ won-loss record was 6-10. That put Bill Cowher in a position to pick Ben Roethlisberger with the 11th overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. That selection turned a Steelers franchise upward when the trajectory of the team was rapidly headed south.
I am of the opinion that Mike Tomlin is an Al Davis disciple. Mike T. doesn’t care about draft picks, because he is paid for the Steelers to…”Just win baby.”
I am going to attempt to enlighten everyone regarding the many methods of “unfair” play that have allegedly been going on in the NFL almost since the league was founded. For example, take the New England Patriots. This has to be the umpteenth time that the forensic evidence of “cheating” tracks has been left across the back of the NFL and the sports world by the Patriots. For many years, these serial cheaters have been disguised as a football team. The Pats have employed a myriad of back-alley and underhanded methods to get the upper hand on the competition not just for weeks, months and years, but for decades! Don’t believe me? Check out their Super Bowl won-loss record B.S. (before spygate) and you will get the full picture.
Former Patriots QB Tom Brady has almost always been given the benefit of the doubt when he and his team have been caught committing “many out of bounds” transgressions, while he simultaneously promoted himself as the All-American savior riding in to save the NFL, on a white steed without blemish with the bling of Super Bowl rings adorning his saddle. Also, he was never short of expressing condolences to the opposition after they were defeated by a Patriots team that supposedly outplayed and outcoached the inferior competition. Brady never told his coach that he would never cheat!
At times Tom Brady was considered by many folks as “untouchable” simply because of his “fair market value” to the NFL. However, many folks have considered his unwritten advantages as an unfair market value. Talking about hit and run! As far as many players may be concerned, the NFL pays them but continues to create and enforce rules and regulations that help the league recoup some of that dough. Some of those fines may be insignificant to players on the higher end of the salary scale but to those on the lower end of the NFL salary ladder, that is a different matter. The owners are often seen “scrubbing for surgery, scalpels at the ready to slice and dice the salaries of players for in-game violations such as, ‘unnecessary roughness.”
However, when a player plays through injury and pain for the sake of the success of his team, will he be fined or suspended for “unnecessary toughness”? Perhaps, a few players might even be crooning: “Crosstown traffic, it’s so hard to get through to you.”
In the recent past, if a player was a member of the Patriots, they didn’t have to worry about rules especially when existing rules could be disregarded and ignored and when the franchise could create its own rules, “on the fly.” There were no green, yellow, or red lights because the light on the Patriots freeway was perpetually green. There was an internal investigation of “Spygate” by the NFL. That seems like a “crock” relevant to being tried for murder and having all twelve members of the jury picked from a pool of your immediate family members.
Let’s hit the stop button for a moment. Tom Brady is now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders ownership group. He is currently retired as a player. The following excerpt was recently posted on sportingnews.com. “Tom Brady’s first year as an NFL broadcaster is unique, as the former quarterback also serves as a Raiders minority owner. Therefore, Brady has to abide by certain limitations when calling games on Fox. Brady may have violated one of his personal rules on Sunday when broadcasting the Lions-Packers game. However, the NFL decided not to punish Brady.” Is Tom Brady sitting on the hot seat and the ‘cheat seat’ once again? Is there anything that Brady won’t cheat at or anyone that he won’t cheat?”
In 2024, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed one-year deals with quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields reportedly for less than 3 million dollars. Writer Tom Blow or should I refer to him as “Tom Blowhard” posted a piece online titled; “Aaron Rodgers gets Steelers boost as Justin Fields return would ‘leave stale taste.’” Blowhard offers us this piece of nonsense. “Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms doesn’t expect Justin Fields or Russell Wilson to return to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025. And that could pave the way for Aaron Rodgers to move to Pennsylvania. Rodgers, who will turn 42 in December, is on the hunt for a new team after the New York Jets told him they are planning to move in a different direction under fresh management. “But I feel like, one, if they bring Russell Wilson back, the fan base, and I don’t think the locker room, would be in love with that. Justin Fields, I feel like, is gonna leave a little bit of a stale taste in everybody’s mouth, too. I don’t think it’s gonna excite Pittsburgh if they go, ‘We’re bringing Justin Fields back to be the starter.’”
What player would leave a taste that could be staler than a loaf of month-old bread with mold on top than Aaron Rodgers? By the way, Aaron Rodgers was just unceremoniously put out to pasture by the New York Jets. Is “Tom Blowhard” a USDA Certified Nut with a reserved lifetime condo at Western Psychiatric Hospital? It is painfully apparent that some people will always try to, as some church folk used to say; “make a way out of no way.”