How Big Three of Mike Tomlin Became Just Big Ben | Bleacher's report

It was at the start of the trials three seasons ago when Steelers players announced that they knew that trouble was about to happen.

The wide star receiver Antonio Brown appeared with two people in tow. They were part of Brown's new social media team and followed and recorded it throughout the practice.

Some veteran players have been knocked out. It was not just an unusual sight; it was unprecedented.

Brown's adventures on social media will continue this winter. In January 2017, unbeknownst to Mike Tomlin, Brown forwarded the post-game address of the coach to the Facebook Live team, a video in which Tomlin was answering unexpected questions about why he called the Patriots' "assholes" a few days before the team confronted them. AFC Championship Game. Brown's move has been universally condemned by many people in the NFL, but inside the Steelers, this has not been a surprise. Many members of the organization, including teammates, coaches and home office staff, thought Brown had started living by his own rules months before.

However, Brown was simply following in the footsteps of his quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who had operated on an island for years under Tomlin. Roethlisberger was not obliged to stay at the hotel teams for his home games, as his teammates. He also openly criticized them during his local radio show and often ignored them by coming late to the team meetings. All with little repercussions of the Steelers.

Many of the team's players had come to accept it. Brown, as well as star The Veon Bell, did not do it. Brown would openly say to his teammates how Roethlisberger had his own rules while the receiver justified his own behavior in recent years, according to current players and former Steelers players. Brown tore the veteran 15-year-old quarterback in private, also, once the caller, according to two sources from the team, "a fucking fake."

Mistrust followed all three in last season. The team's sources claimed that, as Brown argued, while his reserve had been dragging on for weeks, Roethlisberger had been operating for a long time in a world different from that of the rest of the team. "If Ben did not think he was paid enough, he would do exactly what I'm doing, and not a single Steelers fan would have a problem with that," Bell told a teammate.

Tomlin was caught in the midst of the bitter feelings that were tearing the Steelers apart. It's hard enough for a head coach to handle one or two attacking superstars. In this case, the team had three on Roethlisberger, who will one day enter the Hall of Fame, Brown, who will probably follow him, and Bell, one of the best defenders of his generation.

But the Steelers say that Tomlin did not serve when he sided with one of these stars: Roethlisberger. In doing so, as a former Steelers defensive player once said, "Tomlin has created a monster".

On the contrary, Tomlin's supporters – a group of league coaches and members of the Steelers' office – say that the main reason for the end of the Big Three is not the dynamic between the players and their head coach, but the more and more selfish and destructive behavior of Brown. Still others who have worked with Tomlin, such as former offensive coordinator Todd Haley, claim that Tomlin has done a solid job in bringing all the different egos together.

What is not questionable is that the potential of three of the biggest stars of the NFL has finally been overwhelmed by an ocean of bitterness, resentment and desire for independence in a sport that requires solidarity. And one of the most respected coaches in the game has struggled or even failed to manage everything.

Roethlisberger, Brown and Bell both opposed the football standards – destroyed them – and forced the Steelers to use their only option: to break a group that has won 62 regular season games in six seasons but has not not winning the Super Bowl expected by many such a talented team would do it.

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Tomlin and Roethlisberger have a close relationship. Throughout their term, it was common for them to go to dinner on Fridays during the season. In many ways, that makes sense. A coach and a quarterback must be synchronized. But in Pittsburgh, the relationship between Roethlisberger and Tomlin has inserted a wedge between the quarterback and the team, giving Roethlisberger an autonomy that no other player in franchise history might have, a margin of maneuver that many felt they could make him untouchable.

Roethlisberger exercised his power not only in the entourage, but also outside the stadium. In the last moments of a brutal defeat against Denver last November, Roethlisberger was intercepted in the end zone on a pass attempt to Brown. A few days later, on his local radio show, Roethlisberger blamed Brown for the choice.

"I told him: 'You must go flat,' said Roethlisberger. "You can not drift into the end zone."

Brown was not the only target. In the same show, Roethlisberger criticized the critics of the team, as well as rookie receiver James Washington, who attempted to make a decisive pass. stretched hold only for the ball to jump when it touches the ground.

"You're not going to be out there," said Roethlisberger in the series, "if you're not going to make these pieces for us."

When a source close to the situation was asked about Tomlin's reaction to the way Roethlisberger called his teammates, the source said about the coach: "He gave up."

Brown did not do it, which was not a surprise considering how he had spent most of the season quarreling with his QB. The two men barely spoke, according to a former Steelers player and coach. At least not directly. While Roethlisberger criticized Brown for his teammates, claiming that the receiver was selfish, Brown would say the same thing about Roethlisberger, also through players in the locker room.

At the end of last season, the situation was tense. the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was the first to announce that on the Wednesday prior to the regular season finale on December 30, Brown had a heated discussion with Roethlisberger during practice, left the room and then refused to train the rest of the week. When Brown came forward Sunday for the match against Cincinnati, Tomlin told him that he would not play.

Several Steelers players said the Brown rebellion last year surprised them. "I've never seen a guy turn so fast, from a guy to a guy I did not recognize," said a Steelers player. "He's a person I always admire, he was trying to change the way the players are perceived, and he's taken in the wrong way."

In fact, it was not what Brown had expected when he was selected by Pittsburgh in 2010. In central Michigan, NFL scouts saw him as a sporting and courageous talent who was also appreciated by his fans. teammates.

A screening report described Brown as "disinterested".

After nine years, however, Tomlin and many members of the Steelers organization – from property to coaches to players–felt that Brown was insoluble. (It was a feeling that was reminiscent of what the Raiders are experiencing.) Many reports on Thursday explained how Brown and Mike Mayock, the team's general manager, had an altercation after Brown posted a letter on Raiders' Instagram informing him of tens of thousands of dollars in fines.)

Brown's sittings have had a more dramatic impact on the offense than is generally known. Brown plays the X receiver and, because of his absence, JuJu Smith-Schuster had to play. But Smith-Schuster had rarely done it, according to current and past sources of the team, so much so that he and the offensive had to make massive adaptations on the fly.

According to several sources of the team, this is one of the main reasons that Smith-Schuster was named the team's most valuable player last year and not Brown. – even though Brown led the Steelers with a franchise record of 15 touchdowns. With all the turbulence created by Brown's actions, Smith-Schuster never complained, getting his teammates vote for the prize.

The Steelers' other missing star, Bell, also did not hide his frustration with his relationship with Roethlisberger. Last season, the running back remained in contact with several Steelers players. Inside the locker room, Bell was considered one of the best players and teammates on the team. But as for the quarter, Bell clearly expressed his feelings, which were not so different from those of Brown. "Ben demands loyalty," he told a Steelers player last season, "but do not give them back."

After six seasons together, four playoff games and three wins in the AFC North, the Steelers Big Three broke up after years of mismanagement of their ego. "Ben thought, I made you both, "said a current Pittsburgh player, who asked not to be identified for fear of the team's repercussions. Antonio would tell us, "I created Ben." "Veon would say:" I made them both. " "

Tomlin, the only person who could bring all three together, had clearly explained his point of view, even though he had not said it. The coach thought Roethlisberger was more valuable than Bell and that Brown was not worth the headaches he had caused, Steelers sources said of Tomlin's reflections. Bell and Brown refused to comment on this story. A spokesman for the Steelers said that Tomlin and Roethlisberger have publicly stated that they no longer talk with people who are no longer part of the team.

But Haley, who led the Pittsburgh attack for six years with Tomlin, said his former colleague had not turned into a coach who handed the keys to the franchise at Roethlisberger.

Haley added that what impressed him the most about Tomlin was his ability to skillfully manage all the different egos on the team, including Roethlisberger, Bell and Brown.

"I think he's done the best job possible," Haley said.

However, many sources describe a very different picture, which does not fit the story of the Steelers. To understand how overwhelming the public dissolution of The Big Three has been for the franchise, you need to understand how much Tomlin has changed the Steelers' culture and how the 21st century athlete has changed the Steelers.

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Chuck Noll etched into the Steelers' DNA the fact that the team came first. He led the franchise to four wins in Super Bowl in 23 years, while embracing a football style derived from the origins of the game – hard, tough and disciplined. Like his team, he was relentless and relentless, so much so that quarterback Terry Bradshaw respected Noll, he hated him too. In fact, most players had a healthy fear of Noll. Or they did not know him well because he intentionally kept an important emotional distance between them.

"I've been working there for 13 years and I do not know anything about it," said Steelers defensive defender, L.C. Greenwood once told Noll, according to Michael MacCambridge's biography Chuck Noll: the work of his life. "The only time I walked into his office was when he cut me off."

When Bill Cowher became a coach in 1992, he reflected the changing times of getting closer to players and giving them more leeway to express themselves in lockers and meeting rooms. Cowher thought, however, that veterans were essential cogs in the transition, and he gave many of them immense power for the police in the locker room. There was also a lot of respect for them.

Once, he told Jerome Bettis, an elderly man, that his thirteenth season in 2005 would be his last. Bettis appreciated Cowher's honesty and the fact that Cowher told Bettis. Bettis played all season, helped win the Super Bowl XL in his hometown of Detroit and retired with dignity.

The Steelers, like other franchises, have used veterans to pass on the knowledge of the game from one generation to the next. That's how power in a locker room is transferred. This is not given by a coach. It's won in game and in battle.

Tomlin was also known as the player's coach when he took over the team in 2007. He arrived after gaining a respected reputation for his work ethic and ingenuity.

As an assistant to the Buccaneers, he was often one of the first coaches to arrive at the office and the last to leave.

"He was energetic and smart," recalls Tony Dungy, Hall of Fame coach. "He always had a ton of ideas – it was someone who, even when young, showed a greater maturity than his age."

When Dungy was fired and Jon Gruden became head coach of Tampa Bay in 2002, he hired Tomlin. Gruden loved him instantly.

"Dude, we used to call each other," Gruden told The Fan in '93, in 2018. "We were going on the training ground and he's, as you know, very entertaining. He has great enthusiasm for football, he is a great leader, a great competitor, a man, he wants to win every training, he wants to win everything against him, it brought out the best of me, and I think it brings out the best of it … We had fun battles. "

The hiring of Tomlin in Pittsburgh in 2007 could not have been better. A defeat on a wild card in his first season foreshadowed the organization 's sixth victory in the Super Bowl the following year. Roethlisberger won the title with a six-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds to go. The Steelers won 27-23.

Tomlin then had this rarest product: a Super Bowl winner a quarter to one. When he looked around the league and saw how the quarterbacks dominated it, he thought, I now have mine, said two Steelers sources having discussed this topic with Tomlin. He did not just give power to Roethlisberger, these sources believe it. He gave him all the power.

It's not just that Roethlisberger had more control over the call to play than most quarterbacks. The influence of Roethlisberger was greater. The way he behaved had an impact on the team culture that some veterans found troubling.

When Roethlisberger started getting used to running late for team meetings or just minutes before, the Pittsburgh veteran leaders took note of it. Most of the veterans were early in the team complex, sometimes an hour or so before the start of a meeting.

Unsurprisingly, Roethlisberger's delay became a problem for the team's player council, a small group of veteran leaders who met away from coaches and the rest of the team to resolve issues between the players. Eventually, the board decided to fix the problem with Roethlisberger, but previously, featured security, Troy Polamalu, informed Tomlin that they were going to talk with the quarterback.

Tomlin, however, informed Roethlisberger before the players could speak with him. The heads-up was perceived by players as a massive protocol violation and so serious that some players felt they could no longer trust their coach.

After being informed of the upcoming reprimand, Roethlisberger went to Polamalu.

"I'm not late for things," Roethlisberger said.

"Yes, you are always," Polamalu replied.

Shortly thereafter, the venerable Polamalu realized that the protections granted to Roethlisberger did not extend to other veterinarians. Even a player as revered as him.

In early 2015, Polamalu received a voice message from Tomlin.

The 12-year-old veteran was being cut, transmitted the message, according to a person familiar with the call. Tomlin excused himself and hung up.

Polamalu was angry Tomlin did not release the news in person. Rather than trying to break away after spending his career in Pittsburgh, Polamalu retired in April. He still lives in the area but told the Steelers players and others that he would never come back in the team until Tomlin would have gone.

Few people in the locker room, sources said, felt that Roethlisberger was ready to lead the team in place of these deceased veterans. He was not known as a studier or a leader, and the players were not convinced that Roethlisberger had the maturity to handle all the complexities of the job, including giving the example to others. players.

The players quickly stated that Roethlisberger was starting to take advantage of his status. Tomlin did not rebuff when he did.

Haley, who has faced players on several occasions, has also faced Roethlisberger. In December 2017, according to CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora, Roethlisberger reportedly asked Tomlin to put a buffer between him and Haley on the sidelines.

Roethlisberger's stamp was quarterback coach Randy Fichtner, who left the coaching stand and walked away from the field. Roethlisberger told The 93.7 The Fan that the move had nothing to do with Haley, but few people inside and outside the organization thought so.

Such a request, said an NFC offensive assistant, is very unusual. The fact that the head coach accepted it, added this person, was even stranger.

"No player should be able to dictate what a coach does with his assistants," the coach said.

To be clear, the quarterbacks have a lot of power and are the centrifuges of all the teams. But we can not overemphasize how some of the coaches in the league think that Tomlin is playing with fire. Every quarter, it is said, even Tom Brady, has guardrails. Some coaches think that giving Roethlisberger so much power will eventually burn Tomlin.

When asked if Tomlin was giving too much power to Roethlisberger, former Steeler Ryan Clark, who played under Tomlin and was a teammate of Roethlisberger and Brown, responded that the wrong question was asked: "I would not say "power rendered" as much as "gave him power. He always wanted Ben to be the leader, and I have the feeling that he should if the team was [going] to win."

Indeed, some think that Roethlisberger used his influence for the good of the team.

The offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva declared at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Last month, "Ben … gives players a competitive edge," while receiver James Washington told the newspaper that last spring, Roethlisberger pushed him to improve his game during the second half of the year. last season. not in a delicate way.

"Ben had a conversation with me and it helped me a lot," said Washington. "I could be more relaxed and play the game I've been doing since I was a kid.It was nice to talk like that.He did not give up because in my eyes I had felt that when he [talked to me]it was like a second [set of] lungs. Every day he challenged me. It was like he had given me a tough love. He explained things to me. And he continued to believe. I enjoyed it. "

No doubt, Roethlisberger has a different side from the one publicly presented by some of his teammates. But for these more skeptical teammates, Roethlisberger did not motivate as much as to split the team.

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Since the breakup, Roethlisberger, Brown and Bell have talked little publicly about each other, that is to say until recently. Roethlisberger said Michele Tafoya from NBC in an interview in August, he regretted calling Brown for this sadly bad road.

"I would have liked not to have done it," Roethlisberger said. "Obviously, we saw what happened and, of course, it ruined a friendship, I just lost myself in the emotions and the heat of the battle."

Brown almost immediately took on Twitter and blasted Roethlisberger, saying that they were never really close.

"Never friends just had to get my ends ……. shut up already," Brown m said in a tweet deleted since.

Roethlisberger also said that despite the defeats of Bell and Brown, the NFL underestimated the Steelers' attack at the league's peril.

"We are still the Pittsburgh Steelers," he said. told reporters in June.

Bell also took his part, subtly recognizing in a recent Sports Illustrated Interview the belief of some members of the Steelers' organization that Roethlisberger gained virtually unchecked power and used it liberally.

"The organization wants to win." Tomlin wants to win, Bell said. "Ben wants to win – but Ben wants to win his way, and it's hard to play." Ben won a Super Bowl, but he won when he was younger, and he's now at this point where he tries everything. control, and [the team] let him get there. So, if I'm angry at a player and I do not throw the ball at him – if I do not throw the ball at AB and give all the shine to JuJu or Jesse [James] or Vance [McDonald] or whoever, and you consciously know that you are angry with your other receiver, but you do not care, it is difficult to win as well. "

"AB is not the only bad guy in the situation," Bell said. "Ben is not the only bad guy either – it's not just a person – it's not just me – it's everyone."

Brown added during an episode of HBO The shop This summer, Roethlisberger has "the impression of being the owner" of the Steelers, an idea that Pittsburgh General Manager Kevin Colbert helped feed when he told reporters in February that Roethlisberger was the undisputed leader of the team and he had "52 children under him".

Tomlin was more philosophical about the departure of Brown and Bell.

"It was not nothing against these guys, but all the trips are coming to an end, and their trip to Pittsburgh has failed," said Tomlin. told ESPN. "I know they're not looking back, and we're not either."

Tomlin also downplayed the fact that there was a major drama in the locker room last season.

And now, here they are, coach and quarter, intermingled and dependent on each other, for better or for worse.

By losing Brown against the Raiders and Bell against the Jets, Tomlin has total control of the team for the first time in years. This is because everything goes through Roethlisberger again. Only now, this is done without resistance from Brown and Bell.

"He's riding or dying with Ben," said a source close to the situation.

The players publicly and privately say that peace reigns inside the organization now that Brown and Bell are gone.

"It's very different just because players do not have to answer those questions anymore," Charlie Batch, an analyst with Steelers and former quarterback in Pittsburgh, told radio. Taz and moose. "You see the calm that reigns in the program of the offseason.The guys are much more connected.The goal here is to find out why they missed the series.How is it that this team, too? talented be she, missed the series? " They want to straighten the boat and get back on track. "

However, there are still many questions. Does peace mean victory? Or does the loss of so much talent mean that the Steelers will not be so good?

What is clear is that Roethlisberger has no rival for his power. There is no star running back. There is no star catcher who withdraws from the practice.

There is only Roethlisberger and Tomlin.

For now, it is exactly like that they like it.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.