One of the by-products of writing about quotes after each Steelers game is that you invariably wind up parsing Mike Tomlin statements longer than it feels like you should. Where most coaches are some combination of bland-cliche and cloak-and-dagger, Tomlin has a way of being bluntly direct while also subtle enough that you only realize what he’s told you the next morning. It’s probably an indicator of the way the man thinks—one part metaphor, one part music, one part connecting-unexpected-dots, and five parts icy clarity.
Here’s an example that you may have seen this week, following the Steelers’ upset loss against Washington, which I think has been misread quite a bit already:
“Different points along the journey you get a chance to learn about yourself, who you are, what you’re made of, individually and collectively.