Mike Tomlin became the longest-tenured head coach in North American pro sports this offseason — a feat that doesn’t happen by accident. It takes an intrinsic drive to keep going, and Tomlin explained exactly what fuels him.
“I ain’t gonna kid you. I got a love affair with this game,” Tomlin said via The Pivot Podcast on YouTube. “It’s a real personal thing for me. I just love football. I love every component of it, every component of the journey, man. I’m excited every year because of that.”
If there wasn’t a genuine excitement to keep going, it may have been a natural for Tomlin to transition to the next phase of his life when Ben Roethlisberger left.