Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was in no mood to answer questions about his future with the team in his postgame press conference on Monday night. On Thursday, he was in a far more jovial mood, apologizing for his actions after walking out on a question from ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.
For those unfamiliar with Tomlin’s postgame press conference on Monday, Pryor began to form a question about his future with the team.
Before she even had a chance to finish her question for Tomlin, he walked off the podium, a decision he caught some flack for from fans wishing he would have handled the situation differently.
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On Thursday, Tomlin acknowledged in his season-ending press conference that he was wrong for walking out on his postgame press conference earlier in the week, offering an apology while detailing his mindset at the time of receiving the question.
“Good afternoon,” said Tomlin. “In a little better mood today. Anybody got any contract questions? I’ll say this, I certainly could have handled that situation better than I did. But I’ll also say this, I just believe there is a time and place for everything. Postgame press conferences are probably not the place to address contract issues and things of that nature. It’s just a very individual thing. And on gameday, I doubt any of us are in that mindset. Certainly, I am not. I just don’t believe that is the appropriate venue to talk about things of that nature. Certainly open and willing to do it today in this venue.”
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It’s an understandable response from Tomlin. It can certainly be debated whether that was a great time for Pryor to bring up Tomlin’s contract situation immediately after a playoff game.
That being said, as he said he could have handled the situation far better by respectfully saying that he simply wouldn’t be answering any questions on the matter at that time.
As he promised, Tomlin did indeed dive into his contract situation on Thursday, stating that a contract extension is “not a top priority” at the moment for him.
“It’ll get done when it gets done. It’s not a top priority, as far as the timing of it,” he said.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.