Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin holds his weekly press conferences every Tuesday. Each week, we will take a glimpse at what stood out from coach’s comments about the previous week and heading into the Steelers next game.

Considering the current political climate swirling around professional sports, coach Mike Tomlin may have had some of the best responses to the situation that I’ve read or seen anywhere.

Here’s a recap of his Tuesday press conference as heard on Steelers.com.

Opening Statement

Coach Tomlin opened his press conference by addressing the “elephant in the room” which has been the hot button topic surrounding the National Anthem:

Hopefully by taking the time to outline some of things that have transpired… it will minimize of the questions moving forward. I think that as an organization we’ve… worked hard to be extremely clear even though in these times, at times it’s difficult, to be perceived in that way in regard to the anthem.

These are divisive times.

I’ve been very proud that our team has always been a team of the anthem. We’ve had 100-percent participation in the anthem since all of these things started. Obviously, our guys have opinions regarding social justice and so forth but they never used that as a platform.

We’re not a group that is interested in making statements. We’re a group interested in making impact. Things that we feel strongly about. We give up ourselves in our free time particularly. Tuesday is a big day for that. It has been for us. Our guys are in the community as we speak. The things that they are passionate about and involved in.

It’s also another reason why I believe our group has never participated in anthem demonstrations. We have a former serviceman on our team in [Alejandro] Villanueva. Regardless of how guys have felt in the past whether they’ve had a desire to do it or not I think the respect for the anthem, the respect they have for Al as a brother has made those demonstrations zero. So, it’s never been an issue for us.

On Saturday night, I told the team whatever it is that you do, you do it together, 100-percent participation or we do nothing. We do business as usual. We won’t let decisive times divide us. So, the team met. They couldn’t come to a decision about how to express displeasure with comments while at the same time respecting the anthem. So, they decided to remove themselves from it altogether.

They weren’t going to be goaded into a demonstration of disrespect towards the anthem. They weren’t going to be pressured into it by those who are opposed. Those that goad. So, we decided that we were going to sit it out. We were not going to play politics. We were going to come play the game. That decision was come to and to the means of doing that was to stay in the tunnel and to not have a demonstration of any kind. Then take the field and go play.

Those of you guys that have been in the league a number of year, prior to 9/11 and so forth, you guys know that used to be customary. Teams were never on the field for the anthem. Those of us that have been in the league have that understanding. They wanted to maintain 100-percent solidarity so they came to that decision.

It wasn’t done in the spirit to be disrespectful to the anthem.

It was about that group being undivided. In the same ways that it had been undivided prior to the comments made last week.

Coach Tomlin continued by reiterating some of what Steelers President Art Rooney II mentioned over the last few days:

We tried to be extremely transparent to what we were doing and why we were doing it. I gave an interview prior to the game. Our president Art Rooney, II released a statement at halftime. I addressed it again after the game. None-the-less it was still perceived in some ways by those [who] wanted to perceive it that way as a point of disrespect towards our anthem.

To perceive our football team as anything other than patriotic is just not only incorrect but wrong. We have a group that is tremendously patriotic, not only in words, but in action. We love and respect the sacrifices made by those that provide the blanket of protection that we enjoy whether it’s the military or public service.  Our actions speak for ourselves in that regard. That’s what transpired in a nutshell. There are other elements of it to be discussed. I’ve been asked [why] I was on the field as a head coach when the team was not.

When I step to a stadium, I don’t play politics. I’m there to play football. I won’t be goaded into doing anything. I won’t be pressured into doing anything. There’s a lot of things going on with me prior to the ball being kicked off. I have to do communication checks, I have to check my headsets, I have to find 25-second clock and jumbotron information when I’m in unfamiliar environments. I was going to be unmoved by that.

I pulled the coaching staff up on Sunday and said I give you guys the option. If you guys want to stand with your players you can, if you want to go through your normal routine in terms of game-readiness you can.  Some guys chose to do that. Some guys chose to stand with their players.

There’s no cookie cutter answer to these things. We’re simply dealing with a circumstance and trying to deal with it as fluently as we could and go play a football game. So those are the things for us.

Tomlin then addressed what happened with Steelers left tackle and Bronze Star Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva.

Obviously, Al had a unique story. We respect Al. We respect the things that are going on with him. When they express their desire to stand in the tunnel and not be on the field in an effort to not take part in any effort of the politics. He said can I get toward the front so I can see and partake in the anthem. I said sure. Logistically, the team is going to be in the tunnel, the captains are going to be up front because logistically we have to get out and deal with the [coin] toss anyway.

Somehow that was perceived as division.

It’s a shame to put Al in that position because he is a team guy and has always been a team guy. As most of our guys. We work extremely hard to be united, particularly in things that are aimed at dividing us. So that’s those things in a nutshell. Hopefully I’ve provided some clarity.

He couldn’t get away from anthem questions

Coach went on to talk about the game that was played, but following his statements about football, he was continuously asked about the anthem rather than his team’s performance.

We were making a statement of non-participation one way or the other. Like I said, and I’ve said repeatedly, and so had Art [Rooney, II], we don’t have any problem talking openly about this. We feel like we have nothing to hide. We got into this thing with the purest of intentions to get ready to play a football game and we’re going to remain focused on that.

We’ve been respectful of the anthem. We haven’t participated in any demonstrations to this point and we take a great deal of pride in that. Not that we’re not socially conscious, not that we’re community conscious, we just don’t believe in demonstrations.

We believe in impact.

The statements that seemingly goad certain athletes into demonstrating or those athletes that get pressured from those that oppose the goaders to demonstrate. We wanted to protect those athletes. We wanted to have 100-percent solidarity in this matter so we chose not to participate in the same ways that those that have had feelings about social issues in their past have chosen not to demonstrate and respect for those that want to respect the anthem and we stand to respect the anthem.

Those are my feelings. These guys are football players. They don’t partake in politics. All they largely want to do is kick that ball off and play, but things are happening around them that apply pressure to them. Whether they feel like their being goaded and that’s your perception, or there’s another perception that those who oppose some of those statements are applying pressure for players to demonstrate.

I’m opposed to both factions to be quite honest with you. I’m an advocate for players. I’m an advocate for those who simply want to do their jobs. Everybody has opinions. Everybody is entitled to opinions. That’s what makes this country great, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We just believe there’s a place and time for it. The place and time for us has been in our free time.

Coach continues…

We’re just a group trying to play football, and people are using us in these circumstances for their benefit. We resist it.

However, some of the media still felt a need to continue, going as far to ask if the situation and what came out of it has been a distraction for the team:

Sure, there’s a potential for that, but this is professional football, professional sports. Distractions are part of it. If we’re as good as we desire to be, it comes with distractions. Good teams deal with distractions.

Hopefully we learn something from this past week’s experiences in terms of being able to be singularly focused in the midst of a potential storm that’s outside of our control. I don’t view those things as a negative.

Was it a distraction? I’m sure it was in a lot of ways. But we still have a job to do, and I hope we learn from it because if we’re as good as we desire to be, there are going to be distractions moving forward. That’s just the nature of this thing. It’s professional football.

Another member of the press asked Tomlin if things will “return to normal”, mentioning that Ben Roethlisberger had a sleepless night and players, such as Big Ben, Cam Heyward, and Alejandro Villanueva, held press conferences to address the off-field issues.

What’s normalcy? We move on. I don’t know Villanueva was apologizing. He had nothing to apologize for. I guess he just feels like he brought this upon us in some way, and that’s a shame.

But finally put a stop to them

He finally shut down the questions with one this statement:

I’ll say this globally one more time in case you don’t understand – personally, I have an opinion about a lot of things, but I keep that opinion to myself. I will not abuse this platform that is my job as I stand at this podium and express my personal opinions regarding things that are not football related. That’s just how I feel about it.

It’s Ravens week, but not much else to discuss

The conversation finally shifted to football where the Steelers coach addressed several items from Sunday, including the special teams captain and James Harrison‘s playing time.

[Tyler Matakevich was a] special teams captain last week, yes. He’s made some significant special teams plays for us. He blocked a kick in Week One. He foiled the fake punt in Week Two. We’re doing our special teams captain based on merit and play within games, and he’s been a really positive, consistent performer thus far.

…I don’t know if it was specifically the outside linebacker position that was viewed as an issue in that football game, and James [Harrison] speaks to the outside linebacker position. Largely, we have to do a better job of minimizing the run. I’m not singling out any position, and I think a discussion about his participation or non-participation does that. I don’t want to lead perception in any wild directions.

Perception has been led in enough wild directions in recent days, hasn’t it?

The final comments we wanted to highlight here is whether or not there is something wrong with the Steelers running game. Mike Tomlin feels they are progressing just fine.

 

Last week, I thought we had acceptable yards per carry, 4.1 or whatever if you look at Le’Veon’s [Bell] numbers. Our issue last week was simply volume of runs, and I outlined it when I outlined the game.

When we muffed that punt, we lost a possession in the first half and we gave them a possession. As you go in at halftime after the blocked kick, you’re down by 10 and you you’re playing with 30-minutes. You worry about balance as time becomes a factor and you play catchup football. We simply just didn’t run enough because of circumstances that had nothing to do with the run.

We got behind in the football game, and you’re going to lose your balance when you do that. They possessed the ball because they were able to run the ball. We lost time of possession because they possessed the ball. None of those things have anything to do directly with the running game.

The only issue I feel like we had with our run game in the last game was volume or lack thereof.