‘A Bunch of Jackasses’: Travis Kelce Blasts Media for Wanting Mike Tomlin Fired

The Steelers have won two games in a row after looking dead in the water, which has brought on universal praise from the media that Mike Tomlin is pulling off yet another turnaround. When asked why the Steelers turned it around when things appeared so dire, T.J. Watt accredited that to his coach.

“Mike Tomlin,” Watt said on why the team has turned it around. “I’ve said this my whole career here. Never too high, never too low, always consistent. The team meetings are incredible. Everybody, I wish they had a chance to sit in those team meetings. And I think it’s just him giving a great message to us and running with it. And guys having true belief in this locker room and the guys in it. There’s been a lot of outside noise, but at the end of the day the guys have been working their (tails) off and trusting in each other and it doesn’t matter how depleted we are. We understand that’s happening all over the league. But if we want to win games, it’s going to take the guys in this building.”

A lot of NFL players respect Mike Tomlin from afar. That includes Travis Kelce, and he blasted the media of the New Heights Podcast with his brother, Jason, for ever calling for Tomlin to be fired at some point during this season.

“The media are so dumb. Why do we even do media? They’re just a bunch of jackasses,” Kelce said. “(They’re) just out there talking nonsense. One of the best coaches the NFL has ever seen, about to possibly get his 17th consecutive non-losing season. Jesus Christ.”

To his credit, Tomlin has taken his coaching mindset to a different place from where it was through the first 15 games of the season. Pittsburgh’s head coach, who by most metrics is one of the more conservative coaches in the NFL, has turned into a gunslinging, analytics-riding guru in the last two weeks. Seriously, there’s a lot to like about the process that Tomlin has made within most of his decisions over the past two weeks. But on Sunday, it was startling to see Tomlin go for it on 4th-and-5 in opponent territory from the jump. When you consider just how much he shelled himself in against the Colts, this is a dramatic change. Pittsburgh consistently went for it when in doubt, and their aggressive style paid dividends.

He has his flaws, but there is no doubt that Tomlin can waver teams through a tough storm that most other guys can not. But the flaws are obvious, too. And that has been driven over far too many times o count. Regardless, expect him to be back.