Troy Polamalu not only thinks Mike Tomlin should stay in Pittsburgh; the Hall of Fame safety feels his former team is on the precipice of returning to its championship form.
The two-time Super Bowl champion dismissed rumors that this might be Tomlin's final run with the Steelers. Tomlin, who reportedly may take a break from coaching after this season, was under heavy criticism from Steelers fans before he engineered a three-game winning streak that ultimately resulted in a playoff berth.
"They're probably the same fans that were saying get rid of Ben too, and me," Polamalu said with a laugh on "The Jim Rome Show". "Honestly, I think Coach Tomlin is one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. I think he's a Hall of Fame coach. Absolutely, I think the talk is crazy for people to consider or think that he wouldn't be our coach next year. I think it would be terrible for him not to be."
Polamalu has first-hand knowledge of Tomlin's coaching prowess. Under Tomlin, Polamalu was named the 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. He once credited Tomlin's mid-week coaching for the defense's rallying around James Harrison during Harrison's famous 100-yard pick-six that helped the Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII.
"First of all, I think that he's able to connect with the younger players unlike any coach that I've seen," Polamalu said of Tomlin. "He's an amazing coach from a tactical perspective. I've been in meetings with him and learned so much from him, even though I had a Hall of Fame coach as well in Coach LeBeau."
Tomlin, 51, has never had a losing season in his 17 seasons as Pittsburgh's coach. But that achievement loses some of its luster when you consider that the Steelers have not won a playoff game in seven years, an eternity for the NFL's most successful franchise since the 1970 merger.
Polamalu, though, feels the Steelers are close to returning to the franchise's glory years of the 1970s and 2000s.
"We have a new general manager in Omar Khan. I think he is going to make some new and exciting moves going forward," Polamalu said. "I think that partnership (between Khan and Tomlin) is starting to and is going to continue to evolve. I think there's a shakeup in the scouting department in terms of how we continue to build the culture in Pittsburgh internally, rather than how we've kind of done it recently with high-priced moves and really not sustaining the culture that really built all these championships that we do have.
"To me, with a little more patience, the Steelers will be back on top, soon enough."
Polamalu may be onto something. While there was some turmoil, this Steelers team did, in Tomlin's words, smile in the face of adversity when it was 7-7 and on the verge of a collapse. The Steelers responded with three straight wins and will look to keep their season going with a win in Buffalo in Sunday's Super Wild Card Weekend showdown.
As far as Sunday's game is concerned, Polamalu feels it is the perfect opportunity to show the outside world that the Steelers' culture is alive and well.
"Obviously, we don't have T.J. Watt," Polamalu said. "We've been having our injury problems. But to me, our program's always been bigger than names. For us to be able to go into a place like Buffalo and win would say a lot about how how we're building our culture internally. I'm excited to watch this game. I do think that we're going to give it a good run and come out with a big victory."
