On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin emphatically denied the rumors that he would consider leaving his longtime position there to consider the USC or LSU jobs. Tomlin seemed very offended by the notion of even having his name thrown out there, as it had been by various people over the last couple of weeks.
Whew. Tomlin was heated when he got asked about the USC rumor linking him to the job.
"Never say never, but NEVER! There's not a booster with a big enough blank check. Anyone asking Sean Payton about that? Anybody asking Andy Reid stuff about that?" pic.twitter.com/ICz245zrQg
— Billy M (@BillyM_91) October 26, 2021
One of the people who threw some logs on that fire was former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who said last week that he hoped that LSU would make “an offer to [Tomlin] that would truly make him disrespectful to Lord Jesus Christ to turn down.” While not the loudest voice in the group, Clark, an LSU alum, regrets being part of the media frenzy that ended up angering Tomlin so much.
He appeared on ESPN on Wednesday to apologize and clarify his position.
“This is partly my fault,” says Clark. “That’s my fault Coach T, they said you might be in the running for it and when they asked me about it, coach, I was like, ‘I’d like for you to come.’”
“The fact that we (LSU) thought about it, if it’s true, I don’t care if he’s mad. … I said ‘coach, I didn’t say you were coming. I didn’t say you were interested. What I said was, if you are, we should offer you all the money we possibly can to get you to take the job.’”
It’s a good reminder for Clark and others that they have a national platform and the things they say and do can have real-world impacts on the people they discuss. But it’s also probably worth noting that Carson Palmer’s comments are what really tipped the scales in terms of requiring a comment from Tomlin. So while Clark did play a role in things, there are others who bear more responsibility for the situation.
[ESPN]
