To be perfectly honest, I was really struggling to come up with a topic about which I could write today. There are only so many times I can discuss the Pirates’ bullpen, although Ben Heller certainly made his presence known. In two innings pitched for the club, he faced 20 batters, surrendering eleven (!!!) earned runs on nine hits, with one walk, four hit batters, and one home run allowed. For those keeping tabs, that is an ERA of *checks notes* 49.50. Nevertheless, the Buccos won four out of six games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins, two teams with winning records, on the back of some very strong starting pitching and the hitting of Nick Gonzales and…wait…ROWDY TELLEZ????? The same Rowdy Tellez that was having one of the worst seasons (by OPS) by a first baseman in MLB history? He is 9 for 17 in June with 7 RBIs–who would have thought?

I also could have touched on the US Men’s National Team being absolutely dismantled by Colombia, but I think you guys had enough soccer in my entry last week (please fire Gregg Berhalter).

I was unsure of what to discuss until a tweet from NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero rolled in at 2:00 PM Eastern, stating, “The #Steelers have signed Mike Tomlin to a three-year contract extension through 2027.” Two minutes later, the news was echoed by his colleague Ian Rapoport, and two minutes after that, by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Now this was news that I could write about.

Admittedly, I have always been a Tomlin apologist. Part of that may be my friendship with his son, but I have also seen him lead a team quarterbacked by Mason Rudolph and Devlin “Duck” Hodges to an 8-8 season. I have seen him coach teams led by subsets of Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph to winning seasons and even a playoff berth last year. Frankly, Mike Tomlin is one of the greatest regular-season coaches that the sport has ever seen.

Tomlin has a career regular-season record of 173-100-2, winning 63.3% of his games. He has never finished below .500 in his 17 years as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He managed to contain the circus that was Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell for long enough that fans thought they were somewhat sane. More so than any tangible record, keeping the so-called “toxic twins” quiet has been Tomlin’s biggest achievement on the Steelers’ sideline, save for winning Super Bowl XLIII.

There is also something to be said for the leadership skills Tomlin possesses. Players want to play for Mike. In a recent podcast, Dallas Cowboys’ star linebacker/edge rusher Micah Parsons recently stated that, if he was not a Cowboy, he would want to be a Steeler to play for Tomlin (paraphrased). He was also instrumental in bringing in inside linebacker Patrick Queen from Baltimore, one of the top free agents this past off-season.

The problem with Tomlin, although I hardly think that he alone is to blame, is a poor post-season record. The Steelers are 8-10 in the playoffs in Tomlin’s tenure as head coach, with three of those wins coming in the 2008-09 season (Super Bowl XLIII) and two more in 2010-11 (when the Steelers lost to the Packers in Super Bowl XLV). If you remove those two seasons, the Steelers have three playoff wins in fifteen seasons. Two more of those playoff wins occurred in the 2016-17 season, when the Steelers lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game. If you are keeping score at home, that is one remaining post-season triumph in fourteen seasons. That 2016-17 season was also the last time we won a playoff game, beating the Chiefs 18-16 in Kansas City behind Chris Boswell’s six field-goals and a Travis Kelce holding penalty on a potential game-tying two-point conversion. To put that season in perspective, Ryan Shazier was not yet paralyzed, Alex Smith was the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, and the Chiefs trotted out a running back by the name of Charcandrick West.

The NFL is very much a league predicated on the question, “what have you done for me lately”, and that is especially true in Pittsburgh, a city that prides itself on having six Lombardi trophies in its possession. So, while I am excited that Mike Tomlin secured a contract extension for three more seasons, it is high time for this team to win a damn playoff game. Is the AFC loaded? Absolutely. Is the AFC North the toughest division in football? Probably. Does any of that matter at the end of the day? Of course not! Beat the teams on your schedule and win a damn playoff game! It’s time Mike! No more one-and-dones!