Steelers Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw has long been a critic of the team’s current coach, Mike Tomlin. That criticism is not subsiding.
Bradshaw said on 97.3 the Fan in San Diego that he thinks Tomlin acts like too much of a friend to his players, and not enough of an authority figure.
“I played for a tough sucker, and I was afraid of him, and we played our ass off for him because we feared him,” Bradshaw said of his coach, Chuck Noll. “I don’t see that with this guy. He’s chest bumping and all that. I’m the head of the corporation, I’m the CEO, I’m the chairman of the board, I’m talking to the stockholders telling them here’s how we’re gonna do at the end of the quarter. I’m selling this thing, and I’m not delivering the goods, which is championships. You’ve got to face the criticism. I’m sorry, but he’s not my kind of coach. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.”
The Steelers were one of the best teams in the league last year and have won a Super Bowl under Tomlin, but Bradshaw says a better coach would have won multiple Super Bowls with the players Tomlin has coached in Pittsburgh.
“Mike Tomlin is winning football games, but at the same time, Super Bowls are disappearing, and that’s my criticism,” Bradshaw said. “How can you have this great offense and you being a defensive guy, and I think that football team should have been in another Super Bowl or two. How could they not be? And to lose at home to Jacksonville, I don’t care how good of a run Jacksonville is on, I don’t care how Jacksonville played New England in the championship game. You don’t lose 45-42. Are you kidding me? In a championship game?”
Bradshaw thinks firing offensive coordinator Todd Haley was a mistake, and it’s the side of the ball that Tomlin coaches, the defense, that needs to get better.
“He fires the offensive coordinator, and keeps the defensive coordinator,” Bradshaw said. “Now I don’t know the reason behind that, I’ve asked a few people and they’re as puzzled as I am. I don’t know why you fire the offensive coordinator who gave you 42 points, and kept the defense, unless you just thought you don’t really need an offensive coordinator, anyone can run that offense. So I’ll fire him, I’ll make the change there, and everybody will look and, go, he made some hard changes. But on offense? I’d fire that defensive coordinator, pack his ass out the highway, and I’d go find me somebody else who can do the job. I just don’t understand that at all.”
Late in the 2016 season, Bradshaw referred to Tomlin as a cheerleader, not a great coach. Nothing Tomlin has done since then has changed Bradshaw’s mind.