I saw a thread the other day in which a colleague mocked a suggestion by Steelers fans to fire the coaching staff. Someone responded that it's the media's job to hold the coach accountable and someone else responded that, no, the media's job is to get clicks "and that's what he just did."

I had to chuckle. Not at the ire of Steelers fans. Losing sucks, and when you lose, the coaching sucks. That much I believe to be true.

But it's an old argument that I've watched play out every time one of the Steelers' faces on Mt. Rushmore endures such vitriol. The part about the clicks is the only new part, and probably the only false part of this fan-media-coach love/hate triangle.

Back in the 1980s there were no clicks. There was Myron Cope and talk radio and newspapers and word of mouth, and it still seemed as if the world was railing at Chuck Noll the way it's railing at Mike Tomlin.

The other day, in my post-game column for Steelers Digest, I mentioned Vic Ketchman. This must be Vic Ketchman Week because I'm still thinking about those medieval days of sports journalism when Vic defended Noll to the bitter end.

Vic hired me out of college. I answered phones in the office and wrote up the local briefs, and on Fridays I got to cover the worst football game of the three our paper had highlighted. It was called being the low man on the staff, and that's another lesson for the modern-era writers who think they only have to start a blog, steal someone else's work, re-write it and call yourself a sportswriter.

But I digress.

So I read all of Vic's work. He's since gone on to internet fame with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers, and back then, coming out of the 1970s, he was a big believer in Noll.

And who in their right mind wouldn't be? You cover a guy like that and you think you're unlocking every key to success in every walk of life. Noll was John Wooden without the luxury of recruiting precisely whom he wanted.

Of course, that will eventually catch up to any NFL coach, because talent comes in cycles, and that new cycle was coming to Pittsburgh about the time I joined Vic's staff in 1984.

Terry Bradshaw had just retired and Jack Lambert was about to limp away with a dislocated big toe. The answer to Franco Who? became Frank Pollard, but Louis Lipps injected life into the offense opposite the great John Stallworth, so there was hope. Tunch and Wolf manned the left side of a line that still included Mike Webster and the vastly underrated Larry Brown, but the Steel Curtain of John Goodman, Gary Dunn and Keith Gary just wasn't Steely enough, even with Donnie Shell still roaming the secondary.

That team went 9-7, followed by 7-9, 6-10, 8-7 and 5-11. Fans calling Myron were furious, and even I had to admit that perhaps Noll should move on with his life's work.

Vic did not. He raged against the dying of the light. In column after column he supported Noll as the calls for the legendary coach's job became louder, even in Vic's own office.

While I didn't agree with Vic, I was appalled at the hate directed his way. And he didn't even have to look at something called Twitter. So I was moved to write a column called "Kill the Sportswriter," in which I mocked the hate dished out to those whom fans felt would not hold the Steelers and their over-the-hill coach accountable. It was the media's fault, fans thought, and if reporters would only drive their logic home the Rooneys would read it and re-consider Noll's status.

Hey, Dan Rooney eventually fired his brother, who was in charge of presenting personnel to Noll, and then Rooney asked Noll to fire some assistants. But none of it worked and eventually Noll stepped down and Bill Cowher took over.

About three years later, Vic moved to Jacksonville and I began covering the team.

Cowher and the Steelers went to the Super Bowl my first year, and I guess that became my expectation because 1996 was a disaster, in my opinion, and 1997 was yet another big loss for Cowher in a big game. In 1998 and 1999, Cowher endured losing seasons as I wrote that his message was becoming stale.

The Steelers rebounded to 9-7 in 2000, and in 2001 they lost another AFC Championship Game. That gave Cowher a 1-3 record in such games - all at home - and the only win came courtesy of a dropped Hail Mary. That team went on to lose in the Super Bowl anyway.

In 2003, being spurred on by so many in and around the team, I repeatedly - in the team paper - called for Cowher to be replaced.

In those days, the Digest was placed on every stool in the locker room, and I could only imagine how it was delivered to Cowher's office. But I remained oblivious as I called for his firing. His message was stale, he couldn't win big games, his teams were undisciplined, his assistants stunk and his ability to procur talent was worse, I reasoned in every way imaginable.

But the Rooneys stood by their man, just as they had stood by Noll. Those who rail against poor coaching as NOT being the "Steelers Way" must also understand that patience and stability are the true hallmarks of this franchise.

Of course, the Steelers drafted a quarterback, went 15-1, lost another home AFCCG but rebounded to win a Super Bowl. Cowher and "The Way" were redeemed and Cowher bid adieu to the craziness one season later and resigned.

I remember his last day. He was walking up a stairway as Ed Bouchette and I walked down. Neither of us acknowledged the other, and that was the way we left it, which was a shame. I remember the good times, when Cowher must've viewed me as some kind of a good luck charm back in 1995. Or maybe he thought I was someone else, an old friend or something, because he routinely went out of his way to treat me well. But of course, the relationship deteriorated as I thought I was doing my public duty.

It was a shame more so because it turned out that I was wrong about Cowher and his coaching, and that's why I was determined not to give into impatience when Tomlin was hired.

Am I less courageous these days for not calling for Tomlin's firing right now?

That's up to the reader to decide, but I believe I'm just more experienced to the inevitable dark days of any franchise.

Of course, at 1-2-1, I do consider the fan questions that were the same in 1988 as they are in 2018: Is Tomlin's message stale? Is his team undisciplined? Does it come out unprepared? Does the talent need a shot in the arm? Does he have trouble adjusting to opponent's adjustments? Does the locker room lack camaraderie? Do they need new assistants?

To some, the answers are yes. And if the sum of those answers is taken into consideration, the only answer can be yes, because the Steelers have a losing record. That's what matters, and that's why I couldn't disagree more with the arguments that Tomlin won with Cowher's players, or the other part of the chorus that says Tomlin has never had a losing season because of talent.

For one, you never win a Super Bowl because of another coach. I don't even accuse Barry Switzer of that. If you win a Super Bowl, you've done a tremendous coaching job.

As for the talent, Tomlin is the primary source for bringing in the talent. Kevin Colbert provides the personnel menu and Tomlin has more power in the decision-making process; it's just another staple of the franchise.

But when I look at Tomlin's struggles - or lack of more than one Super Bowl ring - in spite of having Ben Roethlisberger quarterback his team, I think back not to Noll or Cowher but to Don Shula, who couldn't win a Super Bowl with Dan Marino.

Shula coached Marino through 13 seasons. Together, they had only one losing record. And it was probably because of Marino that the Dolphins would find their way to .500 and above after rebuilding a team that had reached the Super Bowl in Marino's second season. Because of the play of the Hall of Fame QB, the Dolphins drafted 19th, on average, in those Shula-Marino years. In a 28-team league, that put them in the 68th percentile every season.

Even after Shula retired, Jimmy Johnson couldn't get there. With Marino in four seasons, the Dolphins under Johnson were 2-3 in three playoff appearances, the last one a 62-7 drubbing at the hands of the Jaguars.

Will last year's drubbing at the hands of the Jaguars be Roethlisberger's final playoff appearance? It could be. He's in his 15th season. Marino played 17. And with Tomlin, Roethlisberger's in his 12th season. They've appeared in two Super Bowls together, and won one, but they're now on the talent-deficient end of drafting 23rd on average throughout their partnership. In a 32-team league, that puts them in the 73rd percentile every year.

And while free agency is now available to teams that need talent, so is a salary cap that's hamstrung by the contract of a franchise quarterback.

Have the New England Patriots been able to sustain championship-level play with similar parameters? Yes. But no one else has ever done so, and firing a coach because he can't be the second in history is just too unreasonable of a standard.

Of course, the Steelers are trying. They went 13-3 last year. But the dam burst from the strains of that talent-deficient defense when the highest draft pick since Roethlisberger, Ryan Shazier, went down with an injury.

Do I think this team is poorly coached? Yes. They are 1-2-1 and the won-loss record means everything.

But of course, so does Tomlin's 117-62-1 overall record.

I'll agree that this team has been ragtag out the gate. I'm also questioning the defensive scheme Tomlin has patched together with his Tampa-2 ideals and his 34-based reality. The mixing of the two just isn't working, especially without anyone like Derrick Brooks in the middle of it all.

So while assistant coaches may need to come and go, the head coach won't. Not with the energy he brings every day to the practice field, the message that still resonates with what's become a young team, and a locker room that's more unified than the actions of Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell would have any of us believe.

And, really, there's no reason to kill the sportswriter today, because Art Rooney II won't respond.

Oh, he's listening. He's not condescending of fans in that fashion. But he has his way. It's the Steelers Way, a philosophy of stability and patience that's survived the test of time, as well as the rantings of young sportswriters who've considered themselves to be the next smart thing, but who've only learned that the Steelers Way works.

It really does.

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