Last night, Cleveland Browns running Nick Chubb ran a normal running play up the middle and at the end of the play one Pittsburgh Steeler player tackled Chubb high, and a second Pittsburgh Steeler targeted Chubb's knee.
That is the very definition of a dirty play. My social media feed lit up almost immediately debating whether it was a clean hit or not. Well guess who doesn't get the benefit of the doubt anymore? Steeler Coach Mike Tomlin.
You see that? Your knee is not supposed to go that way. I don't even blame the player. Tomlin's teams have been 'playing through the whistle' for a generation.
In 2010, Steeler James Harrison tried to decapitate Brown Mohamad Massaquoi.
In 2011, Steeler James Harrison almost put Browns QB Colt McCoy in the morgue. The hit was so vicious, the NFL had to change the rules as to when a player could return to game action.
The Steelers led the league in Unnecesary Roughness calls in 2016 and 2017.
Between the years 2020-2023, the Pittsburgh Steelers were named the "Dirtiest Team in the NFL."
For 20 years, Mike Tomlin used tough phrases like "I'm not into moral victories, I'm into victories" or "the standard is the standard." But what he really is, is a street bully.
The NFL is not your everyday workplace. The NFL markets the sport of football, which is inherently violent.
So if I'm Owner Jimmy Haslam, I put out a bounty on Mike Tomlin today. You blow up that picture of Nick Chubb and hang it in the locker room wall and say Tomlin is going to pay for the rest of his career. Not his team, BUT TOMLIN. And you're not gonna pay people in dollars, so you can't get suspended, you're going to tell them what to do and DARE the NFL to suspend you.
The next time the Browns play the Steelers and the game is out of hand, one way or the other, I'm ordering the coaching staff to call a sweep run and telling the running back to dive at Tomlin's legs when he gets to the sidelines.
And the game after that? I'm going to call an out pattern and I'm telling DeShaun Watson to aim his throw, not for the receiver, but right at Tomlin's face.
And the game after that? I'm going to tell my punt returner just to run at Tomlin. Straight at him like he's a defender.
And the game after that? I'm going...
What if Tomlin retires? The next time he's at Browns Stadium calling a game for a network, I would have my punter shank a kick, right into Tomlin's lap-
You think I'm just an irrational Browns Fan? YEAH, I am. Nick Chubb was a generational player. He is 27 years and that hit may have, for all intensive purposes, ended hist career. What if he has knee reconstruction surgery and he's out for 16 months? He'll be ready for the 2025 season?
The surgery Chubb is about to have is potentially life-altering on a number of fronts. This was not a non-contact injury, it was another chapter in a very long book of Steelers crossing the line.
Listen, I'm not beneath BOTTLEGATE II for Mike Tomlin.
(Just a reminder, the fans were right in bottlegate, the NFL was wrong. Not in the throwing of the bottles, but in interpretation of the ruling on the field.)
You're a Steelers Fan and you're crying about Miles Garrett? Let's hear Tomlin go ahead and defend Mason Rudolph, today.
You think I crossed the line? I've gone too far?
The NFL is a sport of violence. A fan just beat another fan to death 2 DAYS AGO. The NFL continues to struggle with the difference between "good violence" and "bad violence."
If the Browns spark a couple of bench clearing brawls against the Steelers coaching staff, like in baseball, cheap hits from the Steelers will start to decline.