James Harrison Explains Why Mike Tomlin Is Not a Hall of Famer
Pittsburgh Steelers legend James Harrison did not hold back on Mike Tomlin in a recent rant on his Deebo & Joe podcast. Harrison, who is an often critic of Tomlin, thinks his former head coach was a good coach but not elite. That’s why he believes Tomlin does not belong in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“I can’t give him a Hall of Fame coach because he hasn’t made disciples,” Harrison said. “You’re telling me you’re a Hall of Fame coach, but no one has followed you? That can’t be the thing. He’s the only coach that has coached this long and does not have a tree. Guys are emotionally attached to him, not performance.
“A great coach, the measurement of greatness, it’s not based on personal experiences and relationships you’ve had with them. It is purely what you did as a coach. Did you get championships? Did you build disciples? Wins and losses is great, but those wins and losses have to add up to championships. A Hall of Fame coach should be making history for having the longest losing streak in playoff history.”
Tomlin doesn’t really have a coaching tree. None of his offensive or defensive coordinators have earned head coaching opportunities elsewhere in the NFL.
Bill Cowher’s coaching tree features Super Bowl-winning head coach Bruce Arians, Ken Whisenhunt, Marvin Lewis, Dick LeBeau, Dom Capers, Jim Haslett, Mike Mularkey and David Culley.
Despite Tomlin’s lack of a coaching tree and 8-12 playoff record, Harrison thinks Tomlin will get into the Hall of Fame due to some of his stats.
“I do believe he’ll get into the Hall because of the numbers. Do I believe he should be in there? No,” Harrison said.
Tomlin has 193 regular-season wins and has 19 consecutive non-losing seasons, which is an NFL record for the start of a coaching career.
“When you look at the greats. The measurement for all-time greats. Nobody has a negative postseason record,” Harrison said. “And I can go back, back. Like back to George Halas, 6-3. You go back to Don Shula, 19-7. Even Paul Brown, 9-8. Bill Belichick, 31-13. Andy Reid, 28-17. What’s Tomlin’s playoff record? … 8-12, brah. He’s 8-12.”
This is not the first time that Harrison gave a brutally honest opinion on Tomlin.
“I have never been a person that thought Coach Tomlin was a great coach,” Harrison said on the Deebo & Joe podcast after the Steelers’ Week 13 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills . “I thought he was a good [coach]. I’ll be honest, part of that is because, when I was slated to be the starter when Joey [Porter] left, he drafted, one and two, outside linebackers. Right now, we have coaches on this staff.
“When I say coaches, I’m saying this as a coach is someone that tells you what to do and it doesn’t matter if what they’re telling you to do is right or wrong. A good coach gets you to play to your potential. And right now, the players we have on that team, I have seen play, they’re not playing up to their potential. A great coach gets you to play to your potential.”
Harrison has a past history with Tomlin. Harrison stated on several occasions that he did not like how Tomlin wasn’t upfront with him late in his career. Harrison ended his career with the New England Patriots in 2017 after basically forcing his way off the roster. The Steelers finally had enough and released the franchise legend.
Harrison also called out Tomlin this past June for being too much of a players’ coach.
“With Mike, the biggest thing I guess that I like about him is he is a player’s coach,” Harrison said on the Nightcap podcast with T. J. Houshmandzadeh. “And the thing that I dislike about him is he is a players’ coach to a point of, sometimes it can disrupt because it goes maybe a little too far with allowing certain things with certain players. And then it becomes an issue with that player.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : James Harrison Explains Why Mike Tomlin Is Not a Hall of Famer
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