Tomlin lost me when he sent a player and ex-Special Ops Army Ranger soldier Alejandro Villanueva out of the tunnel, alone, tears in his eyes, to place his hand over his heart, for the playing of the National Anthem. I don't care what he said afterward to whitewash it.
He lost me again when he stayed on the field of play until the last nanosecond, causing a returner to cut toward the field away from the sideline, and get tackled - on what could have been a much longer, possible TD, return. I don't care what he said afterward to whitewash it.
He lost me for good with his failure to police his own ranks. Here's some recent history, as of the last Steeler outing and the decking of Michael Pittman, who is now brain injured:
"Pittman suffered the injuries to his brain and shoulder while diving to make a catch last week against the Steelers. Safety Damontae Kazee launched at his head and collided with his shoulder, dropping Pittman to the ground, where he lay for several minutes as players from both teams gathered around.
“Honestly, I never saw him coming,” Pittman said Friday. “I was diving and I caught it, and then I woke up and there’s people looking down at me. Then I was like, 'Oh, (bleep). What just happened?’
"It's by the pure grace of God that I was able to get up and walk."
When Pittman got to the locker room, he saw his wife and daughter crying.
"That's the first time when I was like, 'Maybe this was bad,'" Pittman said.
Kazee was ejected for the hit, and the NFL later suspended him for the remaining three games of the regular season due to what it called a pattern of infractions of a similar nature. Kazee has been fined five different times this season."
And again, I don't care what he said afterward to whitewash it.
He tried to sell the line, despite Kazee being fined FIVE TIMES this season for those kinds ofplays, that "He's not a dirty player," and that these things are "unfortunate," and hint that the rules are at fault.
I'm not buying.
If the league fined and suspended coaches for a team's repeated dirty, cheap, "unfortunate" cheap shots, they'd come to a near-halt, quick.
The Rams don't have a cheap shot dirty player on their roster, one who, say, gets fined six times a season, do they? And if they did, would McVay whitewash it to keep him on the field, or deal with him?
Pittsburgh has had one dirty "hit man" or another on the roster for Tomlin's tenure and he's always turned them loose, and stood up for them after the fact.
Connect the dots. They don't paint an honorable and admirable picture of Tomlin.
