As Mike Tomlin enters his 19th season as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, both the coach and franchise find themselves at a crossroads of sorts.
On the one hand, the Steelers have enjoyed unprecedented consistency under Tomlin, who has posted an NFL record 18 consecutive non-losing seasons to begin his head coaching career. Yet despite his resume including a Super Bowl title and 15 winning seasons, you’d have to go back to 2016 to find Pittsburgh’s last playoff victory.
As such, many have debated whether it’s time to expect more from the Steelers or if Pittsburgh should merely be satisfied with its minimum guarantee of nine wins each year. On Tuesday’s episode of First Take, Shannon Sharpe made it clear where he stands on the subject, putting a new spin on one of Tomlin’s signature catchphrases.
“We hear Mike Tomlin say all the time, ‘the standard is the standard.’ Well in Pittsburgh, now the standard is mediocrity,” the Hall of Fame tight end said. “What do we always highlight Mike Tomlin with? He’s never had a losing season. That ain’t worth a damn. We don’t pay you to not have a losing season. We pay you the big bucks to win championships.”
Sharpe then went on to make quite the analogy to illustrate how stale regular-season wins have gotten in the Steel City.
“What is 9-8? What good is that doing me?” the 3-time Super Bowl champion asked. “That’s like kissing your girl through a screen door. That ain’t doing nothing. There ain’t no lips touching, you don’t get to hold no hands. That ain’t nothing, Stephen A. I need more from Mike Tomlin.”
Shannon Sharpe: “We hear Mike Tomlin say all the time ‘the standard is the standard.’ Well in Pittsburgh, now the standard is mediocrity… what is 9-8? What good is that doing me?… that’s like kissing your girl through a screen door. That ain’t doing nothing. There ain’t no… pic.twitter.com/juoZ5E0Y4v
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 11, 2025
So if a tie is like kissing your sister, then apparently being one win over .500 is like kissing someone through a screen door. Sure, you’re kissing someone and it’s not even a family member. But as Sharpe noted, you can’t even hold hands.
For what it’s worth, the Steelers have actually been 10-7 in each of the last two seasons, although they haven’t won more than 10 games in a single season since the 2020 campaign. Perhaps signing Aaron Rodgers could help reestablish Pittsburgh as a legitimate Super Bowl contender, which would presumably be the equivalent of whatever Sharpe was doing to make Michelle make those noises in his accidental Instagram Live stream last fall.
