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The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

NEWS: Mike Tomlin steps down as Steelers head coach after 19 seasons

The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

The Athletic

Sports, Football, Nfl Draft, Robert Mays, Nfl, Football,

4.63.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After 19 years as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers—a run that included one Super Bowl Championship, two AFC titles, and eight AFC North crowns—Mike Tomlin stepped down on Tuesday. Robert Mays and Dave Helman discuss what's next for Tomlin, and what's next for the Steelers, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.


Host: Robert Mays

Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman

Executive Producer: Michael Beller

Video Producer: Katy Duffy

Audio Producer: Michael Beller

Social Producer: Scott Krinch


Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social

Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social

Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social

Follow Robert on X: @robertmays

Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass

Follow Dave on X: @davehelman_


Theme song: Haunted

Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs

Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This has been just an incredible two weeks covering the NFL.

0:16.1

Every single moment, it feels like something newsworthy or exciting is happening. We finished that

0:22.5

playoff game last night. The Texans destroy the Steelers. We have a considered conversation

0:27.5

about what the future might look like for Mike Tomlin thinking that it's probably a remote

0:31.8

possibility that this actually ends. When you think about how long Mike Tomlin has been there,

0:36.4

what sort of mainstay that he's

0:37.6

been. And then this afternoon, news comes across Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach of

0:44.2

the Pittsburgh Steelers. We addressed a lot of this last night, but now that we know this is the

0:48.8

situation, the question becomes what happens next? But just walk me through your initial reactions

0:54.0

to the fact that

0:55.0

Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin, will not be the head coach in Pittsburgh. My official reaction is

1:00.9

if I had a nickel for every time you and I had to hop on an emergency live stream after a long

1:07.4

tenured AFC North coach moved on from his job in the wake of a very disappointing loss,

1:12.5

I'd have two nickels, which is not a lot.

1:15.4

But it's weird that it happened twice.

1:17.3

It's more nickels than you might think you'd have.

1:20.3

And I also will say I actually, I listen to our shows back a lot when I walk my dog.

1:25.8

And I listened to the show from last night this morning.

1:31.9

And I like, so it was fresh in my mind when I heard the news.

1:35.1

And I was like, I feel like that conversation aged really well, all things considered,

1:39.0

which is it's not always the case when you're dealing with up to the minute news and

1:43.3

major changes for organizations.

...

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