PITTSBURGH — Standing at the front of a ballroom in a Pittsburgh-area hotel on Dec. 22, the night before facing the Cincinnati Bengals for the second time, Mike Tomlin delivered the message his team needed to hear.
They were at their lowest point of the season after improbably dropping three consecutive games, including two at home to a pair of the league’s worst teams. Questions about effort and leadership swirled. The third-string quarterback was taking over the starting job after three dismal outings from the backup replacing an injured starter.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were in a bad place, but Tomlin knew just what to said His message was simple, yet impactful: “Scared money don’t make money.”
“The time to take chances is now,” special-teamer Miles Killebrew said, translating his head coach. “Essentially, if you’re going to do it, you may as well do it now.”
And that’s exactly what the Steelers did, rattling off three straight wins as they followed their coach’s message, buying into each other and taking calculated risks that paid off.
“He’s our leader, and he sets the trajectory, and it’s kind of his vision, our words, and we ride with whatever he’s saying, we’re selling it,” interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner said.
That knack for saying the right thing at the right time, for consistently preaching a message that isn’t a superficial speech, but one filled with meaningful directives that permeate the soul of his team is a quality that’s endeared Tomlin to locker rooms throughout 17 years at the helm of the Steelers.
This year, Tomlin’s “scared money” motto is the latest iteration of his oft-repeated mantra: “We’re not living in our fears.”
And in a season where questions around Tomlin’s leadership and ability to get through to his locker room churned outside the Steelers’ facility, the coach shut down the naysayers by rallying his team from a 4% chance to make the postseason (per ESPN analytics) to a wild-card matchup with the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., CBS), beginning with that pivotal pregame speech.
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