When referring to what he likes to see out of his linebackers, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is known to say that he would rather have to say ‘whoa’ than to say ‘sic ‘em’”, which means that he likes his linebackers to have a controlled recklessness about them that he would rather have to reel in than to instill.
The Steelers have been telling third-year linebacker Ryan Shazier to ‘sic ‘em’ since the day he became a member of the team, but not because he lacked aggressiveness. He was installed into the first-team defense next to Lawrence Timmons during his first practice with the full defensive unit.