Steelers owner Art Rooney II says he wasn’t shocked when Head Coach Mike Tomlin announced he was stepping down on Tuesday, but did say the announcement wasn’t expected.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday afternoon Rooney said that while he wasn’t going to speak for Tomlin, he believes the decision to step down was more of a family decision and less of a football decision.
“I’ll leave it to him someday to explain to you someday what all went into his decision,” said Rooney. “I think in my mind in the discussion we had it was more of a family-related decision than a football-related decision but . . . I don’t want to speak for Mike on that.”
As for his current contract, Rooney said he wouldn’t discuss the current parameters of what’s left on his deal.
“It was his decision,” Art Rooney II and added that Tomlin told him that coaching is “not on his radar” in the near future.
Summing up Tomlin’s tenure, Rooney called the “Tomlin era” a “winning era . . . always in contention, so when I think you start with that you have the opportunity to take the next step.”
“Frustrating for all of us, mostly for Mike but all in all, I’ll take being in contention every year and having a shot at it,” added Rooney.
Rooney also said they had a 15-20 minute conversation and that he didn’t try to convince Tomlin to stay.