Hello Twitter. Expect no BS from me. Just straight fire!
— Mike Tomlin (@CoachTomlin) July 26, 2013
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is known as one of the most well-spoken head coaches in football. Steeler Nation is well-versed in his affinity for unnecessarily fancy verbiage (for example, instead of saying a guy is versatile, he’d say they are “positionally flexible.”) and using ten words to explain what could be said in two. As of Friday, Coach Tomlin will endeavor to be answer capable while limiting himself to 140 characters or less.
Yes, Mike Tomlin has joined Twitter.
For those who’ve followed me since my days running Nice Pick, Cowher, you may have noticed a new addition to my run down of this season’s draft picks. For the first time ever, I included players’ Twitter handles in addition to particulars such as height/weight or which college they supposedly “graduated” from. Twitter isn’t going away, folks. If anything, it’s only going to keep getting bigger as not only players and owners but now coaches are joining up.
Assuming the account is actually Tomlin’s and not some dummy account set up and run by the Steelers’ PR department, let’s hope he avoids the social media pitfalls which have befallen countless NFL players. Santonio Holmes infamous “Wake and Bake” tweet was one of the final straws in his deteriorating relationship with the Steelers while many fans still remember Maurkice Pouncey pimping his friend’s rap single ear pollution less than an hour after the team was bounced from the playoffs, then big-shotting anybody who pointed out the poor timing. From misdirected dick pics to calls to murder George Zimmerman to Aaron Rodgers foolishly sticking up for Ryan Braun by offering to bet a year’s salary his scumbag friend wasn’t a PED cheat (a bet he apparently welched on), Twitter has gotten more than a few NFL players in trouble.
I don’t expect Mike Tomlin to fall into any of these traps. He’s far too thoughtful and considerate of his words to press send without thinking it through. The only downside to Tomlin on Twitter is it gives him yet another outlet to practice his deceitful tactics. On the plus side, instead of wasting 45 minutes on the non-stop lies and misdirections which we’ve come to know as his weekly press conference, we can now get the same non-answers directly from the source in 140 character (or less).
Progress!