Mike Tomlin won his 150th regular season game Monday
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Tomlin got to 150 wins in just 232 games, ranking him fourth in the NFL in fewest games coached to reach the mark. He is in good company, the three doing it faster being Don Shula, George Halas and Curly Lambeau. He now is second place in career wins in Steelers history, behind only Hall of Fame Coach Chuck Noll.
Tomlin is now 17-3-0 on Monday Night Football and has a 39-19-0 record during the month of November.
“I love Coach. I love Coach Tomlin to death. I can’t even,” said cornerback Joe Haden. “He’s my favorite coach I’ve ever played for my entire life. And I’m not just saying that because I’m here. He is just a leader of men. Those team meetings. I sit in those team meetings, and I can’t wait for him to start talking. Anything he says, he just delivers a great message.”
Don Shula, George Halas, and Curly Lambeau are the only coaches to reach the 150-win plateau faster than Tomlin while Bill Belichick and Andy Reid are the only active coaches who have won more games over their careers.
Mike Tomlin moves past Bill Cowher into 2nd place in Steelers’ all-time coaching wins
Three months after Bill Cowher was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his successor passed him in career victories.
Mike Tomlin earned his 150th win as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach when his team defeated the Chicago Bears, 29-27, Monday night. That number carries more significance than a round digit, too.
Tomlin moved into 20th place on the all-time NFL coaches’ wins list — but it was who Tomlin passed that is most of note. Tomlin surpassed Cowher, who was 149-90-1 in 15 seasons at the helm of the Steelers from 1992-2006. About to hit the midway point of his own 15th season, Tomlin is 150-81-1.
Both trail Hall of Famer Chuck Noll, who had 193 victories in 23 seasons coaching the Steelers.
“Man, I’m just appreciative of the standards set by those that have come before me,” Tomlin said after the game. “All of us are here. That standard, man, is inspirational for us. It inspires us, challenges us. I’m just thankful to be part of this thing that is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I work to do my job to uphold the standard.”
With tonight’s win, Coach Tomlin became the 20th head coach in NFL history to reach 150 career wins.
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— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 9, 2021
Tomlin, 49, trails only New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick in wins and winning percentage since Tomlin was hired in 2007. Tomlin’s .649 winning percentage is ninth-best in league history among those who coached at least 100 games. Only three coaches reached 150 victories faster than Tomlin — Don Shula, George Halas and Curly Lambeau.
Among active coaches, Tomlin is third in wins behind Belichick (285) and Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid (226). The Seattle Seahawks’ Pete Carroll and New Orleans Saints’ Sean Payton are on his heels with 148 wins apiece.
“Congratulations to (Tomlin),” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “This team is full of tradition and history, and so I’m sure that he’s proud of it — as he should be… The coaches that have been here have been pretty historic and so it’s a pretty cool thing.”
In comparing Tomlin and Cowher, each advanced to two Super Bowls and won one. Cowher had 10 playoff appearances but three losing seasons; Tomlin can attain his 10th postseason berth this season but has never had a losing season. Cowher’s most notable edge is in playoff wins — 12, as opposed to eight for Tomlin. He also had twice as many AFC championship game appearances — six, compared to three for Tomlin.
Cowher won eight division titles and Tomlin has seven through 14 seasons.
Noll, of course, won four Super Bowls during the 1970s. He was 16-8 in 12 postseason appearances.
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Mike Tomlin
 Tomlin with the Steelers in 2007
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| Pittsburgh Steelers | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Head coach |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | March 15, 1972 Hampton, Virginia |
| Career information | |
| High school: | Newport News (VA) Denbigh |
| College: | William & Mary |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
As head coach:
As assistant coach:
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| Head coaching record | |
| Regular season: | 150–81–1 (.649) |
| Postseason: | 8–8 (.500) |
| Career: | 158–89–1 (.639) |
| Coaching stats at PFR | |
Michael Pettaway Tomlin (born March 15, 1972) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He began his coaching career as a defensive assistant before becoming the Steelers’ head coach in 2007. Never compiling a losing record during his 14 seasons with the Steelers, Tomlin has led the team to nine playoff runs, seven division titles, three American Football Conference (AFC) championship games, two Super Bowl appearances, and one title in Super Bowl XLIII. He is also to date the youngest head coach (age 36 during Super Bowl XLIII) to win the Super Bowl.
Early life
Tomlin was born in Hampton, Virginia, the younger of two sons; his brother, Eddie, is three and a half years older. Their father, Ed Tomlin, played football at Hampton Institute in the 1960s, was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, and later played for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. The elder Tomlin died in January 2012 from an apparent heart attack in Ocala, Florida, at the age of 63. However, Tomlin hardly knew his birth father and was raised by his mother and stepfather, Julia and Leslie Copeland, who married when Tomlin was six years old.
Tomlin graduated in 1990 from Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia. He graduated from the College of William and Mary, becoming a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. As a wide receiver, he was a second-team All-Yankee Conference selection in 1994.
Coaching career
College football
His coaching career began in 1995 as the wide receiver coach at Virginia Military Institute under head coach Bill Stewart. Tomlin spent the 1996 season as a graduate assistant at the University of Memphis, where he worked with the defensive backs and special teams. Following a brief stint on the University of Tennessee at Martin‘s coaching staff, Tomlin was hired by Arkansas State University in 1997 to coach its defensive backs. Tomlin stayed there for two seasons, before being hired as defensive backs coach by the University of Cincinnati.
National Football League
Positions coach
Tomlin was hired as the defensive backs coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, where he first learned the Tampa 2 defense that he would use in later coaching jobs.
In 2002 and 2005, the Buccaneers led the NFL in total defense (fewest yards allowed per game). During Tomlin’s tenure, the defense never ranked worse than sixth overall. When the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII in January 2003, the team recorded a Super Bowl-record five interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns.
Defensive coordinator
Tomlin was selected by Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress to be his defensive coordinator in 2006.
Two of the players on the Vikings roster were older than Tomlin, and Tomlin had been a teammate of Vikings’ safety Darren Sharper while at William and Mary. The 2006 Vikings finished with the NFL’s eighth-best overall defense, but had the unusual distinction of finishing as the top-ranked defense against the run[6] and the worst-ranked defense against the pass.
Head coach
After spending 2006 as the Vikings defensive coordinator, Tomlin was selected to interview for the vacant head coaching position with the 2005 Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. With only a year of experience as a defensive coordinator, Tomlin was hired on January 27, 2007 to become the sixteenth Steelers head coach. Tomlin replaced Bill Cowher, who retired after spending 15 years with the team. Tomlin had also interviewed for the head coaching vacancy with the Miami Dolphins, a job that eventually went to Cam Cameron.
With Tomlin, the Steelers continued a trend of hiring head coaches in their 30s. The others were Cowher (age 34 in 1992), Chuck Noll (38 in 1969), Bill Austin (38 in 1966), John Michelosen (32 in 1948), Jim Leonard (35 in 1945), Aldo Donelli (33 in 1941), Walt Kiesling (35 in 1939), Johnny “Blood” McNally (33 in 1937), and Joe Bach (34 in 1935).[citation needed]
Tomlin is the 10th African-American head coach in NFL history and the first for the Steelers franchise. The Steelers owner, Dan Rooney, has served as the head of the NFL’s diversity committee and proposed the Rooney Rule, requiring that teams interview at least one minority candidate when hiring a new head coach. Although Tomlin’s ascension to an NFL head coaching job has been cited as evidence of the rule working as intended, Rooney himself disputed this, as he had already interviewed a minority candidate prior to interviewing Tomlin.
Terms of Tomlin’s contract were not officially released. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported a four-year deal paying $2.5 million per year, with an option for a fifth year. He is the team’s third consecutive head coach to win his first game, and the first in team history to win his first game against the rival Cleveland Browns.
In contrast to Bill Cowher, who retained only longtime running backs coach Dick Hoak from Chuck Noll’s staff (Hoak himself retired just before Cowher’s resignation), Tomlin did retain many of Cowher’s assistants, most notably defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, whose defensive philosophy contrasted with Tomlin’s. This was done in order to keep team chemistry with the players, since the team was only one year removed from a Super Bowl win at the time of Tomlin’s hiring. The Steelers finished Tomlin’s first season as head coach with the top-ranked defense in the NFL. Tomlin led the Steelers to the 2007 AFC North Division championship and a 10–6 record in his first year as head coach. The Steelers lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31–29. Tomlin began his career with a 15–7 record in regular season play—as did his predecessor Cowher and all-time win-leader Don Shula. Tomlin set a Steelers record for most wins, after winning 22 games in his first two seasons as head coach; in addition he became the first Steelers coach to win division titles in his first two seasons.
When the Steelers defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 AFC Championship Game, Mike Tomlin became the youngest NFL head coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl. He also became the third African-American to coach a team to the Super Bowl, following Chicago‘s Lovie Smith and Indianapolis‘s Tony Dungy, the two opposing coaches in Super Bowl XLI. After two seasons, with a record of 22–10, he was the winningest head coach in Steelers history based on win percentage (68.8%).
On January 29, 2009, Tomlin was named the 2008 Motorola NFL Coach of the Year. On February 1, 2009, at age 36, Tomlin became the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl when the Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII. The previous record was held by Jon Gruden, who was 39 when he won Super Bowl XXXVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Coincidentally, Tomlin was the defensive backs coach under Gruden when the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl and was a key component in their success that year.
On July 13, 2010, Tomlin signed a three-year contract extension with the Steelers. In 2010, he coached the Steelers to a 12–4 record and led them to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. In Super Bowl XLV the Steelers lost to the Green Bay Packers 31–25.
On November 13, 2011, Tomlin won his 50th game as the Steelers head coach with a 24–17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Of the Steelers’ 16 head coaches in franchise history, Tomlin was the fourth to reach this milestone. On July 24, 2012, Tomlin received a three-year contract extension through the 2016 season.[16] The financial terms were not disclosed.
At the end of the 2020 season, Tomlin was tied with Pete Carroll for 21st place on the NFL’s all-time regular-season wins list with 145.
After Week 9 of the 2020 season, Tomlin recorded his 14th consecutive non-losing season since becoming a head coach, tying him with Marty Schottenheimer for the longest streak of all time.
On April 20, 2021, Tomlin signed a three-year contract extension to remain the Steelers head coach through 2024. The 2021 season will be Tomlin’s 15th with the team, tying him with predecessor Bill Cowher for the second-longest tenure as head coach.
Head coaching record
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| PIT | 2007 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 1st in AFC North | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Jacksonville Jaguars in AFC Wild Card Game |
| PIT | 2008 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 1st in AFC North | 3 | 0 | 1.000 | Super Bowl XLIII champions |
| PIT | 2009 | 9 | 7 | 0 | .563 | 3rd in AFC North | — | — | — | — |
| PIT | 2010 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 1st in AFC North | 2 | 1 | .667 | Lost to Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV |
| PIT | 2011 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 2nd in AFC North | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Denver Broncos in AFC Wild Card Game |
| PIT | 2012 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 3rd in AFC North | — | — | — | — |
| PIT | 2013 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 2nd in AFC North | — | — | — | — |
| PIT | 2014 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 1st in AFC North | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Baltimore Ravens in AFC Wild Card Game |
| PIT | 2015 | 10 | 6 | 0 | .625 | 2nd in AFC North | 1 | 1 | .500 | Lost to Denver Broncos in AFC Divisional Game |
| PIT | 2016 | 11 | 5 | 0 | .688 | 1st in AFC North | 2 | 1 | .667 | Lost to New England Patriots in AFC Championship Game |
| PIT | 2017 | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 1st in AFC North | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Jacksonville Jaguars in AFC Divisional Game |
| PIT | 2018 | 9 | 6 | 1 | .594 | 2nd in AFC North | — | — | — | — |
| PIT | 2019 | 8 | 8 | 0 | .500 | 2nd in AFC North | — | — | — | — |
| PIT | 2020 | 12 | 4 | 0 | .750 | 1st in AFC North | 0 | 1 | .000 | Lost to Cleveland Browns in AFC Wild Card Game |
| PIT | 2021 | 5 | 3 | 0 | .625 | — | — | — | — | |
| Total[26] | 150 | 81 | 1 | .649 | 8 | 8 | .500 | |||
Personal life
Tomlin met his wife, Kiya Winston, while they were students at The College of William & Mary. Tomlin graduated with a Sociology degree in 1995. They have three children: sons Michael Dean, born in 2000, Mason, born in 2002; and a daughter, Harlyn Quinn, born in 2006. Tomlin resides with his family in Squirrel Hill and is a Christian who attends a Christian and Missionary Alliance church.
