FanHouse MikeTomlin

Wade Phillips isn't much to look at, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn't hire the Son of Bum to model puffy jackets. He hired him for his football acumen. The bloodlines and several successful stints as a defensive coordinator suggested he was up for it, even if Phillips doesn't exactly exude confidence.

I often think owners and general managers fall in love with potential head coaching candidates because of their assistant coaching track record, even though the biggest part of the job usually has more to do with, in Mike Tomlin's words, "leading men," than it does with Xs and Os.

Which goes a long way in explaining why some fans aren't sold on Phillips as the long-term answer in Dallas. And some media types, too. Like, say the Dallas Observer's Richie Whitt, who uses a recent Phillips radio appearance to illustrate the point.

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

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NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

Consider this hypothetical: what if two coaches met in a dark alley and threw down in a no-holds-barred brawl? Who would emerge victorious?

First, some background: back when I was in high school, when my friends and I were pretty creative in finding ways to avoid actually paying attention in class, we'd create brackets (think NCAA Tournament) where we'd pit our teachers against each other**. Whoever we thought would win in a fight advanced to the next round. It always ended with our offensive line coach against our wrestling coach in the finals and a huge argument as to who would come out on top.

Anyway, last week, the Back Porch staff somehow ended up discussing whether Rex Ryan or Tom Cable would win in a old school playground scrap. I passed along the above information, and shortly after that, an idea was born -- NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament.

The Steelers are 1-2, without Troy Polamalu, and face a huge test against the Chargers on Sunday night. The biggest story line heading into the weekend? Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers' offensive line headlining a WWE Raw (!) event Monday night.

Evidently, there are concerns that Big Ben and his five fat friends aren't taking their day jobs seriously. Because everyone knows that true professionals think about football every waking moment.

In any event, left tackle Max Starks isn't worried. Via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

By now, you've probably seen the video of Kanye West, the biggest and most annoying attention whore in the music industry, interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday so he could express his love for a Beyonce music video as one of the greatest of all time (Frankly, I always preferred the Foo Fighters video for "Big Me" as the best video ever, but, hey, just my opinion and we'll agree to disagree).

Anyway, the outburst led to the folks at Benstonium (and seemingly every other person and website on the internet) to create a parody video, modeled after the Coors Light commercials, that has West interrupting the press conference of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

Video after the jump.

To think, when the Steelers announced that Mike Tomlin -- not Russ Grimm -- would replace Bill Cowher, the biggest concern was that the former Vikings defensive coordinator who had learned the intricacies of the Cover-2 while serving as Tony Dungy's secondary coach in Tampa Bay would get rid of zone-blitz architect Dick LeBeau and scrap the 3-4 defense.

Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher was often accused of running a soft training camp. Veterans were excused from practice, there wasn't much in the way of physical contact, and you could almost guarantee that at least one morning the team would skip a workout to take in a movie.

That all changed in 2007, Mike Tomlin's first year in the job. In fact, that training camp was so physical that it may have played a part in the team running out of steam late in the year. (Pittsburgh finished 10-6, but lost four of their last five, including the wild card game against the Jags).

Things changed in 2008; Tomlin had learned from his rookie season and had a better sense for how far to push his players. They responded by winning the Super Bowl. Now the third-year head coach has to find new ways to keep the troops motivated. And apparently that involves Jedi mind tricks.

The offseason can be summed up in two words: Vick, Favre. At various points this spring and summer, it seemed that neither player would ever take another NFL snap, and I was fine with that. In fact, I embraced it, because it meant I wouldn't constantly be beaten about the head with either story and I might actually get some, you know, football-related news as a consequence.

Pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams, it turns out. Commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated Michael Vick and he's now a member of the Eagles. The ex-con held his obligatory press conference last week. And now, Brett Favre, who should be forced to serve time for annually ruining my offseason, is a member of the Vikings. And his obligatory presser has just concluded.

The choicest nuggets below. Enjoy. And by "enjoy" I mean "grit your way through it because the mayhem is just beginning." Obviously.

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Last month, Bloomberg News (of all places), reported that the Steelers might be one of the teams interested in the services of Michael Vick, Wildcat specialist. At the time, it seemed far-fetched and I don't think much has changed since.

Of course, it hasn't kept people from asking, especially since former Colts head coach Tony Dungy recently told NBC that Vick should be signed within the week. So when Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about the possibility Tuesday, here's what he said. From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 4): Jarvis Moss returned to practice after taking three days off to contemplate his football future.

In 2007, a few months after Mike Tomlin was named the Steelers head coach, the team selected linebacker Lawrence Timmons with the 15th overall pick. The move underwhelmed fans partly because Pittsburgh is perennially in need of offensive linemen, but mostly because Timmons had shown up to his pro day workout out of shape.

But if the Steelers hadn't drafted Timmons, the Broncos would have. In fact, Denver tried to trade up, Pittsburgh balked, and now Timmons is on the verge of becoming Pittsburgh's next great linebacker. And Jarvis Moss, the defensive end from Florida that the Broncos eventually selected 17th overall, is mulling retirement.

It's the latest example that the NFL draft is a crapshoot.