Mike Tomlin, Who Once Used A Video Board To Try To Trip A Punt Returner, Is Complaining That Referees May Have Used A Video Board To Call A Helmet-to-Helmet Hit

PFT – Steelers cornerback William Gay was flagged for a hit to the head of Browns receiver Ricardo Louis on Sunday, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin described himself as “irate” about it.

Tomlin said he didn’t necessarily have a problem with the penalty itself, but he was furious that the officials appeared to call the penalty only after they saw a replay of the hit on the stadium’s video board.

“I’m a big player safety guy. I’m on the competition committee,” Tomlin said. “Very rarely are you going to hear arguments from me regarding calls relative to that, provided they are done in real time. I thought they called it off the JumboTron, and I won’t accept that.”

On a conference call today, an NFL spokesman confirmed that officials are not permitted to use the video board in the stadium.

“Officials are all instructed that they are not to use the stadium video boards to aid in officiating in any way,” spokesman Michael Signora said.

It’s unclear whether the officials in the Steelers-Browns game actually did use the video board. If they did, they screwed up — even as Tomlin acknowledges he has no problem with the call they made, only the way they went about it.

This fuckin guy. Pot meet kettle much… is Mike Tomlin really this dumb? Is his memory really this short? Or does he not remember the time he used a video board to target Jacoby Jones coming down the sideline to try to keep him from scoring… in front of a national Thanksgiving audience no less?! Oh the irony…

The most comical part about his complaint is that he prefaces it with saying he’s a big player safety guy. If he was so dead set on player safety, he wouldn’t have such a problem with facing the music on something as serious as helmet-to-helmet hits. It’s one thing to gripe about a ref spotting holding on the jumbotron and tossing a hanky out there. There’s an art to getting away with judgment calls such as those, that’s just gamesmanship. But don’t preach about being a player safety guy and then get mad when you may or may not have gotten dinged on it through questionable methods. Mike Tomlin, big foot in mouth guy.