Players starting to see how Tomlin impressed Steelers brass

LATROBE, Pa. — When Steelers coach Bill Cowher left after 15 years, the franchise had two pretty good candidates on staff to replace him: offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and offensive line coach Russ Grimm.

But if one team does due diligence in the hiring process, it is the Steelers. The Rooney Rule, which forces teams to interview minorities for head coaching vacancies, is named after Pittsburgh chairman Dan Rooney.

"Let's bring (Mike) Tomlin in and see how he looks," Rooney said.

Steelers players were watching the hiring process. "It wasn't like we were going to go on strike if he didn't get the job," safety Ryan Clark says. "But the majority of players are of African-American descent, so it's something we looked at."

Tomlin, who keeps boxes loaded with old coaching planners and notebooks and has a log of every practice, impressed the Rooneys enough to reach the second round as one of five finalists despite only having one season of being the Vikings' defensive coordinator under his belt. "The second interview did it," Rooney says. "He was prepared and understood what we were saying. He just really sold us."

Although he had been the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator for just one season, Tomlin felt confident about his ability.

"But I didn't know about the landscape of getting a head job," Tomlin says. "I didn't know if it was politics. And if that was the case, I didn't know how to play those politics."

With the Rooneys, it was all about competence; that Tomlin was then 34 didn't bother them.

"We don't have a prohibition against hiring young coaches," Rooney says. "Chuck Noll was 35, Bill was 34. ... But that's not why you hire somebody, because they can relate to younger players. You hire them because they can do the job regardless of age."

Then Rooney adds, "If we didn't hire him this year, somebody else would soon."

On Jan. 22, Tomlin joined Romeo Crennel, Tony Dungy, Herman Edwards, Marvin Lewis and Lovie Smith as the NFL's black head coaches. Whisenhunt landed in Arizona, bringing Grimm with him.

Tomlin's two-a-day schedule with first-week contact was different from how Cowher ran the show. The transition took some adjustment for many veteran Steelers.

"We're still feeling each other out, still learning the process, the schedule," says Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca, who favored Whisenhunt or Grimm for the job.

Tomlin acknowledged some bumpy moments: "It's human nature to resist change. We're all creatures of habit."

But the Rooney stamp of approval lent credence to the movement.