In case you haven’t noticed, there are plenty of job openings every-damn-where. But while most of them have been abandoned due to inept leadership, unfavorable work conditions, or meager wages, there are a handful of rather desirable head coaching vacancies at Division I college football programs like USC and LSU. Yet despite being crippled with a dilapidated quarterback and a shaky offensive line in Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin has zero interest in any of them.
ESPN reports that during a press conference on Tuesday, the Steelers’ commander-in-chief squashed any rumors of his departure like Kanye did Soulja Boy’s verse on Donda.
“Hey, guys, I don’t have time for that speculation,” Tomlin said. “I mean, that’s a joke to me. I got one of the best jobs in all of professional sport. Why would I have any interest in coaching college football?”
I don’t know if I’d call being stuck with an 87-year-old Ben Roethlisberger one of the best jobs in all of professional sports, but OK, Mike. We get it. You aren’t Nick Saban.
“That will be the last time I address it. Not only today, but moving forward,” he continued. “Never say never, but never. OK? Anybody else got any questions about any college jobs? There’s not a booster with a big enough blank check.”
After dropping the mic, Tomlin then dusted it off just so he could drop it one last time.
“Anybody asking [New Orleans Saints coach] Sean Payton about that? Anybody asking [Kansas City Chiefs coach] Andy Reid about stuff like that?”
Can somebody please remind me how we even got here?
Oh, that’s right. Ryan Clark, who used to play for Tomlin in Pittsburgh prior to retiring and becoming a talking head at ESPN, started this shit, according to his ESPN colleague Brooke Pryor.
“This is partly my fault,” Clark said on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “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.’”
With Clark being an LSU alum, I can’t blame him for wanting the same man who has yet to have a losing season as an NFL coach (Tomlin took over the Steelers in 2007) to bring his talents to Louisiana. But apparently, that ain’t happening. So that’s that on that.