Willie Colon tried not to choke up as he told a story about Mike Tomlin, his head coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers for six years.
Colon, a veteran offensive lineman, had missed all of the 2010 season because of injuries and then tore his triceps in the first game of 2011. He knew he was done for the year again.
“That put me in a really, really bad place,” Colon said. “Not only mentally but spiritually. I couldn’t understand why this was happening to me. I loved football so much.”
That’s when Tomlin stepped in.
“He did something that a lot of coaches don’t do: He allowed me to travel with the team, which pretty much saved me,” Colon said. “I was in a deep, deep depression. There were times I wouldn’t leave the crib. I’d just be in there drinking and doing God knows what. He was like, ‘No, man, we’re not going to leave you behind.’ I’m not trying to get choked about talking about it because I just remember that place I was in. It was a dark spot.”
“I’m not trying to be overromantic about this or weird about it, but he saved me. He saved my life.”
A few minutes later, Colon told another Tomlin story.
After getting treatment in the training room for his aching knees, Colon bumped into Tomlin on his way to a meeting.
“He was like: ‘You’re late, ain’t you?’” Colon remembered. “I gave him a giggle, like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ He goes: ‘You can’t lead from the back, so if you want to be considered the leader, you can’t lead from the back. I’ll talk to you later.’ And then walked away.”
The words, Colon said, hit him like a “verbal slap upside the head.”
There is an interesting and obvious dichotomy when you ask current and former Steelers for their favorite Tomlin stories.
On the one hand, there are tales about Tomlin’s compassion and empathy, his heartfelt desire to help players grow, the feeling that he truly cares.
On the other hand, he is a master of the callout, unafraid and totally willing to put his players in check at any moment and in front of any audience.
“He can be personable, but he can also keep it black and white,” Colon said. “That’s a talent, that’s a skill — a unique skill.”
In his 18th season in Pittsburgh, Tomlin has famously never had a losing season and has already extended that streak this year, with a 9-3 record through Week 13. He has made the playoffs 11 times (with a 12th all but certain), reached two Super Bowls and won one of them.
He is the longest-tenured head coach in the NFL and a likely Hall of Famer, so The Athletic asked 16 current and former players for their best stories, hoping to learn his secret sauce … even if Tomlin himself says the secret sauce is that there is none.
What became clear is that Tomlin is a revered leader, not in spite of that dichotomy, but because of it.
Isaac Redman, running back: You don’t just buy into him because he’s a great motivator. You don’t just buy in because he gives a great speech. You buy into him because you can tell that he cares.
B.J. Finney, offensive lineman: My grandfather had two heart attacks and five strokes inside of three days at the end of training camp. I went up to him and said: “Hey, Coach T, this is what I’ve got going on. Will I be able to go home?” He looked at me like: “Why are you even asking?”
Donte Jackson, cornerback: He kind of instills that love instantly.
Robert Golden, safety: That’s what makes him a great leader. If you don’t feel that your leader cares about you as a human being, then are you a great leader?
Finney: My wife and I had a miscarriage. When I called to tell him the news that I would need to step away to deal with this, he didn’t even ask what it was. Coach T just grabs the phone and says: “Whenever, however, whatever. If we can help, you let us know, and don’t get back in this building until you’re right.” He didn’t even know we had a miscarriage. That’s just how he is.
Jackson: I was at lunch with my family when I got the news I was getting traded (from the Panthers to the Steelers). I’m kind of down. You kind of feel like a team gave up on you. Then you get on the phone with him and he has all this energy. He’s super excited about having me. … You understand how hard he goes for his players.
Sean Spence, inside linebacker: When I got injured my rookie year and all the doctors said I probably wasn’t going to play again, he was one of the very few people that came out and disagreed. He said: “I’ve seen the reports and everybody saying Spence won’t play again. I beg to differ.” Just hearing that as a 22-year-old kid whose career was maybe over before it started — it meant so much to me, man. I’m so thankful that he did that.
Calvin Austin III, wide receiver: My rookie year when I got hurt and was told I was going to have surgery. … I just went out to the field and just started crying. I felt small. He just didn’t make me feel small. He made me feel like I mattered.
Ike Taylor, cornerback: I broke my forearm in (Week 3) and he said: “Don’t worry, you’ll be back.” Then he kissed me on the forehead. That meant a lot.
Golden: Feeling valued and feeling seen.
Taylor: I couldn’t wait to get back that year. My (second) game back, I wind up getting beat by A.J. Green on a deep play because I still had a cast on my arm. And I wasn’t upset when I got beat. Usually I’m pissed off when somebody beats me. So I told Coach T in the game, I said: “Coach T, I’m done.” He said: “What do you mean?” I said: “Coach, I’m not mad no more.” He said: “What does that mean?” I said: “Coach, I won’t be no good for myself, this organization and my teammates by just going through the motions.” He took his headset off, he looked me in my eyes, he put his headset back on and he said to the other coaches: “Ike said he’s done. He’s done with football. I can see it in his eyes.”
Redman: A lot of guys that come over from other teams said: “Man, you guys don’t know how lucky you have it with him.”
Taylor: He wasn’t upset. He wasn’t mad. He knew. He saw how serious I was off the respect level between him and I. Fast forward. We made the playoffs and Coach T said to me: “You want to dress?” I said: “Nah, Coach, let the young boys get this experience. Playoffs in Pittsburgh? It’s gothic. Gothic. The air is thick, it’s tense — let the young boys get that experience.” I don’t think I could have done that with any other coach but Coach T.
Coach Tomlin Mic’d Up 🎤 pic.twitter.com/gepeSjYB4k
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 31, 2022
Taylor: He’d put you on blast.
Rashard Mendenhall, running back: He has a good balance between being a good guy, being a bad guy, whatever’s needed. But you know it’s only to drive you to your highest performance and your greatest good.
Nick Herbig, outside linebacker: My rookie year, he started talking about the first game. We’re playing the 49ers. They had this guy, (George) Odum. He’s a special teams guy. He had like 17 tackles, and (Tomlin) called him Mister. He’s like, “You’re Little Herbig. You’re not Mr. Herbig yet. You got to earn that.” And he kind of just called me out in front of the whole team.
Preston Smith, outside linebacker: His ability to push guys each and every weekend to light that fire under a guy’s ass.
Bryant McFadden, cornerback: There was a key member of our offense who wasn’t really doing what he needed to do off the field. Tomlin made his issues known to all of us as a team. In the team meeting room, he called that player out. Now, we’re talking about a player who we all respected on the field because he was a baller. But he called that player out. So for everybody in that room, no one is exempt from being accountable and being responsible. We respected that. We loved that.
Taylor: You just want somebody to tell you the truth. It’s going to hurt, but you respect it.
James Farrior, inside linebacker: We used to play cards after practice all the time. It was how we bonded. Eventually it got out that a couple of young guys were losing a little bit too much money. He came down one day after practice and pointed out two or three rookies who were playing with some of the veterans and was like: “You guys are fools.” … He stopped the game and let the rookies go and then it was just me and a bunch of veterans sitting in the room, and he was like: “Y’all know better than letting these young guys here in this card game.” So after he let the rookies have it, he let us older guys have it, too.
Willie Colon, offensive lineman: After practice, he would walk around to each guy in the locker room — each guy! — and just have a one-two with them: “How’s it going?” “I need you to do this on this play.” “Hey, get your weight down.” “You were late; let’s not have that bulls—.” He checked in on each guy in that locker room, put his face to their face every day after practice. It was one of those windows in life.
Spence: He does what he says he’s going to do. I love him for that.
Redman: I was on the practice squad, and my very close cousin who was like a brother passed away. I actually found out while I was sitting at my locker coming back in from practice. I was pretty distraught in the locker room. I went up to coach Tomlin and he said: “Man, look, go home, but we’re going to have to release you because we’re going to have to bring someone else in. But go home, be with your family for a week and when you’re ready, come back and we’ll release whoever we picked up and sign you back.” My mom was like: “I don’t know, Isaac …” I came home for a week and went through that rough time with my family, and when I came back, he signed me to the practice squad again. He was a man of his word.
Taylor: Straight shooter. We call it 6 o’clock. Coach T’s straight up and down. When you look at a clock with the two hands at 6 o’clock, that’s straight up and down.
Colon: I was feisty, man. I was getting in fights at training camp, I was getting in fights on the field. I was just a battle horse. He said one thing to me that really made me mature on the spot. I had gotten in a fight on the field; I had kind of thrown a punch or something stupid. He told me: “I love your heart, but you’re going to have to figure out if you’re helping us or hurting us.”
Redman: He always was capable of saying those one- or two-liners that had you thinking. Like, “S—, I’ve got to get my s— together.”
Golden: Whenever he caught me not being first in line, he always asked me: “Rob G, are you living your life out front?” Ah, man. To this day, that sticks with me. I can hear his voice in the back of my head.
Cory Trice Jr., cornerback: The man is a philosopher.
Taylor: We called him The Preacher because of his words. All he did was spit gold nuggets. That’s all he be spittin’!
Taylor: Everybody in that locker room took care of everybody. And that s— started at the top. That started with Coach T.
Mendenhall: In my room at training camp, I used to always have a record player, just to slow things down. So he would come to my room for bed check and be like: “What are we listening to tonight?” It would always be like Dionne Warwick or Stevie Wonder. I’d let him pick a record and he’d just kick back with me and talk about life. … Maybe he knew that mattered to me.
Finney: My contract was up. He told me: “I want the absolute best for you. Even if that means you’re not going to be a Steeler next season. I want the absolute best for you.”
Colon: We had a young offensive lineman who was on the bench, but he had the potential to start. But this kid’s personality, he was an introvert. He always liked to be left alone, was real quiet and to himself. The offensive line was on one side of the field at practice one day and this kid was alllll the way on the other side of the field. Mike T goes: “Willie, come here.”
McFadden: He’s a great understander of energy and vibes.
Colon: He goes: “Hey man, what’s going on with him?” He goes: “I need you to be a little mindful of him and talk to him and let me know how he’s doing, not only physically but emotionally. I just kind of need you to be by his side”. He was like: “Guys like that, they’re not just quiet because of their personality. There may be other things going on behind the curtain.” Mind you, what’s crazy about that: The defense was on the field. There were a million things going on, and he was talking about our second-string guard and tackle.
McFadden: He’s overly observant of every member of the team.
Colon: Sure enough, I had dinner with the guy and got to know him more personally, and I asked him: “Hey man, is there anything going on?” He was like: “I know I’m being given an opportunity, and I just don’t want to blow it. I get anxiety.”
Finney: He was always around us. Just monitoring.
Mendenhall: I took the hardest hit I’ve ever taken in my life. … It was T.J. Ward, a guy who came from 15 or 20 yards away. He exploded like a spring and he hit me and I felt like I lost all life. … I pulled myself up and I knew I had nothing left, so I ran to the sideline. I’m just scanning my body to make sure I’m OK, trying to get my breath. It’s funny because I was playing it pretty cool.
Finney: He observes everything.
Mendenhall: I didn’t think anybody could tell. But coach Tomlin, he walked right up next to me, almost like to cover me and shield me, and he was whispering next to me: “He’s looking at you. He’s watching.” Like: “Don’t show him any weakness.” He helped stand me up in that moment and stood up with me.
John Malecki, offensive lineman: We were in Baltimore and it was a night game, so it’s just an insane environment. The backup interior linemen, one of them has to play fullback, and I was the backup fullback on goal line. … Tomlin looks over at me and he’s like, “All right, Malecki, it’s no different than if you’re playing Hampton back in high school.” And I was like, “Oh s—!” He brought up a high school team in the area where I grew up that we used to play, right on a whim like that.
Mendenhall: He deeply understands what motivates guys and can tap into that at any time at a moment’s notice.
Malecki: That little moment for me garnered a lot of respect. Even if this dude didn’t think that I was great, he knew enough about me to at least inspire me to want to go out there and play to the highest level I possibly could.
Max Starks, offensive tackle: We’re sitting at a restaurant because I’m up at training camp now, Mike T walks in, before we even know it, he’s like, “Put their food on my tab.” Like, “Coach, you just stepped in here,” and he’s like, “Hey, listen, what you’ve done for me and allowed my kids to be Pittsburghers, I can’t pay for enough meals.”
Taylor: I owe a lot to Coach T, man.
Smith: I just love him as a coach and as a person.
Colon: I love him to death, really.
Finney: I loved every minute that I could play for that man.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Chris Unger, Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images, Jorge Lemus / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The story of the greatest players in NFL history. In 100 riveting profiles, top football writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NFL in the process.
The story of the greatest players in NFL history.
