This is a Braves blog, of course, so you might wonder what inspires me to discuss Josh Tomlin’s last three years (2019-2021) in the majors, his time with the Braves in which he accumulated -0.5 WAR, But no. I’m going to discuss his brother from another mother, Mike Tomlin, who left the Pittsburgh Steelers today after compiling a regular season record of 193-114-2 and won a Super Bowl, but even including that magical year, had an overall playoff record of 8-12 and lost his last seven playoff games coached.

Mike Tomlin was in Pittsburgh, and coached football, but he is in many ways the Bobby Cox of football, and he garnered similar loyalty from the guys who played for him. But, like Bobby, he only won it all once and eventually his welcome was worn out and he quit before he was fired. (To be honest, I don’t think Bobby would ever have been fired.)

But c’mon! I watched the Pittsburgh game last night, and Mike Tomlin had about as much chance of winning that game as this blog post does of winning a Ford Frick award. You have a great pass rush against an immobile QB and so the the defense plays close, leaving exactly what theory of offense? You dance with what brung ya, but sometimes what brung ya is a little too drunk on the dance floor to execute the moves. Now I know exactly nothing about the interplay between NFL GMs and coaches, and maybe Tomlin should said: “Don’t give me Rodgers, cos even if we make the playoffs we’re going to get crushed.”

But my real point here is to harp on the crapshoot theory. Getting to the playoffs gives you a chance, but all but one playoff team ends with a loss, and half of them lose in the first round (ignoring technicalities like byes.) And the crapshootiness of baseball is far worse in football, where a single loss is doom. Football has a bigger home field advantage, of course, which mitigates this somewhat, and has nothing like the rotating series of starting pitchers which throw so much uncertainty into baseball, but they call it Any Given Sunday for a reason.

I heard some speculation that the Falcons might be considering Tomlin for their open coaching job. I am not qualified to judge his fit. But what I do know is that an 8-12 playoff record ought to count for nothing.

Back to baseball, and why we should care which set of deep pockets signs Kyle Tucker. I’d pay him myself, but the loss of ad revenue here at Braves Journal diminishes my checkbook, unfortunately.