Madden Monday: Art Rooney II is oblivious to, or disinterested in, criticism of Mike Tomlin

At PiratesFest over the weekend, designated hitter Andrew McCutchen told Pittsburgh Pirates fans to “be careful what you wish for,” when it comes to some of their demands of Bob Nutting to sell the team.

Funny. That’s a refrain we’ve heard quite a bit this week in the national media regarding Steelers fans who want Mike Tomlin out as Steelers head coach.

In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 the X and TribLive expressed a very different opinion.

“There were a couple days on the ESPN ‘grimace and shout’ shows where Tomlin was being questioned, and it’s really dissipated. Now it’s back to ‘Don’t you know, he could get any job he wants?’” Madden said. “Mostly it’s, ‘They’re lucky to have him. Pittsburgh, be careful what you wish for!’ I know what I wish for. It ain’t Mike Tomlin coaching, it ain’t Bob Nutting owning.”

A lot of people locally feel that way about Tomlin, regardless of what folks on the national networks say. Yet Madden believes that Steelers owner Art Rooney II is either oblivious to that opinion from his fans or is disinterested in listening to it.

“If he does (hear the complaints), I don’t think he cares,” Madden said. “How would (fans) be willing to express their displeasure with the Steelers in any way that would remotely rattle Art II?”

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It’s a fair question since the Steelers’ season ticket base seems to be a self-fulfilling entity. Plus, even if the stadium isn’t full on game days, ticket revenue is less of a concern for the NFL than it is in other sports because of the massive national television deals.

Madden suggests that because the Steelers and Tomlin tend to get such favorable coverage nationally despite zero playoff wins since 2016, Rooney II probably doesn’t worry about the heat getting turned up locally.

“He could turn on ESPN every morning and hear people say the Steelers are the best franchise in football and that Tomlin is one of the best coaches in football. Why would he think any different? Why would he be embarrassed?” Madden asked.

“They should absolutely trade (T.J.) Watt. They should absolutely trade Tomlin. What if you could trade Watt and Tomlin to come back with three or four first-round picks? … Mike Tomlin will never win another playoff game as coach of the Steelers. T.J. Watt will never win a playoff game as a Steeler. So why not get a legitimate rebuild in motion?”

Also, during the podcast, we talk about the Commanders’ turnaround and why the Steelers should take notice of it. We dive head-first into the Penguins’ goaltending now that Tristan Jarry has gone through waivers. We look at Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin, and we further examine the state of the Pirates after the PiratesFest embarrassment.