You’ve heard the calls from fans that want to see Mike Tomlin fired or traded away from Pittsburgh.
But, one of his own former players is now saying its time for Coach T to move on.
Speaking during ESPN’s “Get Up” former Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who said there is a “cancer” in the Steelers wide receivers’ room, said that Tomlin’s time in Pittsburgh needs to end, using Andy Reid leaving Philadelphia as an example.
“It didn’t mean that Andy Reid couldn’t coach anymore, it meant that he shouldn’t be coaching there,” said Clark. “Coach Tomlin should now move on from Pittsburgh and everybody should line up to hire him because the freaking man knows how to do it but he shouldn’t do it but he shouldn’t do it there anymore.”
Tomlin and Clark remain close friends. The Steelers coach appeared on Clark’s “Pivot” podcast.
Clark says some of the blame of it no longer working is on Tomlin because his players are not getting the type of respect he did for giving his players space.
“I’m going to allow you to be you, I’m going to give you that space and in giving you that space, you’ll return effort and return professionalism, in return you will care about me and what we do with this team the same way I’ve cared about you to not jettison you, to not judge you, to not criticize you and allow you to be the human that you are, he’s not getting that from these guys.”
Clark says when he first came to Pittsburgh, he overworked the players and then realized the player would work for him and he didn’t need to grind them in practice.
“These dudes ain’t rewarding him, these dudes are taking advantage of him, these dudes know that ‘Coach T is gonna love me, Coach T is gonna back me, Coach T is gonna support me’,” said Clark.