As Bill Belichick and the Patriots parted ways this offseason, Mike Tomlin is the longest-tenured head coach in the NFL. He’s entering year 18, a number that would be impressive in any era but is even more so, given how much player and coach movement has ramped up recently.
When you coach for that long or do anything for that long, it’s hard not to get comfortable in a specific routine. You develop a set of traditions or rules and apply them over and over because they seem to work in the long run. Just look at the one guy in your office who refuses to use his phone calculator and instead uses an old-school one.