Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin declared on The Pivot in 2022 that Raheem Morris deserved to be a head coach in the NFL. Morris, who was a prodigy of Tomlin during his time in Tampa Bay, was coming off a Super Bowl championship as the Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator at the time.
“I know that some of the guys being denied are in the top 32. Raheem Morris is the best coach that I know and have been around that don’t have a head job. I don’t have a problem saying it, and I have never had a problem saying it,” Tomlin said.
Fast forward two years, Morris is now the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. And his first game as Atlanta’s head coach, ironically, is against his mentor Mike Tomlin.
“I didn’t, but I knew he did,” Morris said during a recent appearance on The Pivot when asked if he smiled when he saw the first game was against Tomlin. “I can speak for Mike on that note, but he was on this show when he proclaimed me as the best head coach that wasn’t a head coach, right? I know when he looked at it, he gets himself some little pride out of that because that’s my older brother. I got two older brothers because you know his brother Ed (Tomlin), but those are my brothers. That’s part of my family. That’s part of my makeup.”
“I know when he looked at that, he had such a sense of pride because he knows that he’s going to walk right in my locker room and we’re going to dap it up and we’re going to go out there,” Morris added. “But I’m not going to let him lull me to sleep either. He’s still Tom Brady, he’s still Batman. Batman will shake your hand, love you up.”
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The Week 1 matchup will be the second time that Tomlin and Morris have faced each other as head coaches. The first meeting occurred when Morris was the head coach of the Tamp Bay Buccaneers in 2010. It wasn’t a pretty afternoon for Morris, either, as the Steelers destroyed the Bucs, 38-10. Morris knows he will have his hands full in Week 1 with Tomlin.
“As much pride as I have about it being with him, for me, I better worry about it after the fact when we’re all said and done because big bro is coming,” Morris said.
The Steelers’ Week 1 game against the Falcons in Atlanta has several storylines in addition to Tomlin vs. Morris. The main one will be Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith returning to Atlanta after being fired as the team’s head coach at the end of the 2023 season. The Steelers also added four players this offseason who played in Atlanta for offensive coordinator Arthur Smith — Scotty Miller, Cordarrelle Patterson, Van Jefferson and MyCole Pruitt.