Every time Antonio Brown has a meltdown, respect goes up for the patience and personality skills of coach Mike Tomlin.
When Brown’s sideline tantrum Sunday went viral on Twitter, some were quick to point out that Tomlin was able to manage the wide receiver’s erratic personality for nine years with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Mike Tomlin tolerating Antonio Brown for nine seasons is one of the great coaching achievements in NFL history,” tweeted Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith.
While Brown’s behavior has become more volatile in the last three years — a time when he’s played on three different teams and gone through a bevy of off-the-field incidents — he wasn’t without his moments in Pittsburgh, including live-streaming Tomlin’s post-game speech and throwing a football in anger at Ben Roethlisberger during practice.
can we retroactively award Mike Tomlin as Coach of the Decade for housing Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell & Ben Roethlisberger together for five years…
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) January 3, 2022
while going 13-3, 11-5, 10-6, 11-5 & 8-8 and winning 3 AFC North titles??
But, during his time in Pittsburgh, he also posted one of the best receiving stretches in NFL history. From 2013 to 2018, Brown averaged 114 catches, 1,524 yards and 11 touchdowns per season.
Tomlin’s coaching credentials don’t need a lot of burnishing — the longtime Steelers coach already has a Super Bowl ring and no losing seasons in 15 years with Pittsburgh. But Brown is doing his darnedest to make Tomlin’s reputation as a player’s coach unimpeachable.
“Mike Tomlin deserves a retroactive Nobel Peace Prize for keeping things together as long as he did,” tweeted Pittsburgh-based writer Alan Saunders.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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