Tim Benz: Forget Mike Tomlin 'living in his fears,' it's Art Rooney II we should be talking about

One of Mike Tomlin’s favorite catchphrases is, “We don’t live in our fears.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers coach says it all the time when he feels like using some old-fashioned football coach machismo to justify a roll of the dice on a fourth down play call, a long field goal attempt, a deep shot at an atypical moment, or dialing up a trick play.

However, Tomlin is also the same guy who punted from the 50-yard line down 31-17 in Baltimore in Week 16. He punted from the Indianapolis 48 on fourth-and-4 in the third quarter, down 17-3 in Week 4. He also punted down 12 from the Steelers’ own 41-yard line early in the fourth quarter against Cleveland in the 2020-21 playoffs (after punting from Cleveland’s 38 earlier in the game, trailing 28-0).

So, I guess, sometimes, Tomlin does live in his fears. I’ll save that disconnect for a column somewhere else down the road.

Actually, wait a minute. I wrote it already. Never mind.

What feels more important right now, though, is how Tomlin’s boss — team President Art Rooney II — seems to be living in his fears even more than Tomlin himself does.

Rooney spoke with select media outlets (including TribLive) on Monday to wrap up the 2024 season. It was the eighth consecutive campaign without a playoff victory and the 14th time in 18 seasons that Tomlin has failed to win a postseason contest.

Yet, Rooney was steadfast in his support of Tomlin and didn’t give a hint that he was remotely considering replacing him.

“When you look at how many games Mike has won in this league, you don’t win that many games if you’re not a good coach,” Rooney said. “We still feel good about him being a leader and still think he has the strengths that he always had in terms of being able to lead a team. … We have six, seven, eight teams a year that turn their coaches over. It’s never a good strategy.”

But is it a good strategy to keep a guy whose last playoff win was in 2016? I don’t think so. Twenty-eight other coaches have won a playoff game since then.

Yet Rooney seems on board with keeping Tomlin because he is petrified of firing him. He’s scared to death that the next coach won’t equal even the slightly above-average results Tomlin has forged the past eight years, let alone that he’d be capable of getting to two Super Bowls and winning one as Tomlin did early in his career.

Rooney is paralyzed by fear when it comes to making a change because it’d be shattering the family-ownership tradition of never firing a coach since Chuck Noll was hired in 1969.

However, Noll was certainly eased out by Rooney’s father, Dan, after the 1991 season. And Rooney’s dad also put a little more heat on Bill Cowher after three straight playoff misses from 1998-2000 than Tomlin has ever felt during this drought.

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The great irony is Rooney’s apprehension to make a coaching change based on the premise of “Who else are you gonna get to replace him?” flies in the face of how Noll, Cowher and Tomlin were hired in the first place. All three of those guys were young, first-time head coaches with limited resumes who thrived upon taking the position.

As far as keeping the majority of the coaching staff, it appears Rooney and Tomlin are leaning in that direction as well.

“I don’t expect wholesale changes, but I think there are probably going to be a couple of changes,” Rooney said.

And at quarterback, it sure sounds like either Justin Fields or Russell Wilson will be back.

“My preference would be to sign one of them. So that will be the priority. I think that gives us the best opportunity to move forward,” Rooney added.

The “best opportunity” for what, exactly? Another season with nine or 10 wins and a first-round playoff exit (if we are lucky)?

Color me excited!

Although, who am I kidding? Whether it’s Wilson, Fields or “Quarterback X,” 2025 is likely going to be Pittsburgh’s first losing season since 2003. That’s just where this team is right now.

Maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe that’ll force Rooney to face his fears instead of running from them. Because that’s what’s at the crux of all this, isn’t it? It’s Rooney’s allergic reaction to the very thought of finishing 8-9 or worse.

“My God! What will the fans say? What will the national media say? What if the non-losing season streak finally ends?”

Well, you’ll draft higher. You’ll have an excuse for a more significant roster turnover. You’ll finally be able to disassociate the coach’s postseason shortcomings from his fluffed-up, overly magnified, non-losing season “accomplishment.”

Plus — and I hate to be the one to break this to you, Art — no one else but you (and maybe your brother) thinks the past decade has been all that great anyway.

There’s no reason to fear falling off a platform that’s only a few inches above the ground.