(January 17, 2026) – By its primary definition, ex-Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, who resigned Tuesday (Jan. 13) after 19 seasons with the team, might have been the furthest thing from a “Renegade.”
He was fiercely loyal to the Steelers’ cause, unwaveringly devoted to his own mantra (“The Standard is the Standard”), and — even in his departure — made it clear that he wasn’t interested in coaching any other group of players than the one that sat before him as he gave his farewell speech on Tuesday. In short, Tomlin’s values – unlike his ability to carry his team past the first round of the playoffs in recent years – have never been in question.
Indeed, the Steelers’ history with head coaches makes it difficult to cast any one of the Black and Gold’s last three field generals as renegades in the truest sense. The Rooneys’ loyalty to them has been legendary – and that loyalty has been reciprocated by all three, with neither Chuck Noll nor Bill Cowher leading another team after their Steelers retirements, and with no indication that Tomlin, now only 53, will don headphones on another team’s sideline (at least not any time soon).
But if ever there was a coach who embodied the definition of “Renegade” as the rock group Styx intended it in their 1979 hit single – the one that has been the Steelers’ 4th quarter rally anthem for the better part of two decades — it was “outlaw” Mike Tomlin.
For years, Tomlin has been on the wrong side of some of the most vocal Steelers fans – or ‘the law,” borrowing the Styx lyrical metaphor – while facing mostly unwarranted criticisms and being accused of the most baseless indignities. When he took the team to the Super Bowl – and won – following the 2008 season in his second year as head coach, people accused him of winning with “Cowher’s team.” When he returned to the Big Game two years later and lost (to Aaron Rodgers’ Green Bay Packers), irate fans declared Tomlin’s Cowher honeymoon period over.
In the 15 years since that heartbreaking defeat (thanks, in part, to Steelers’ running back Rashard Mendenhall’s fumble during a crucial series in the second half when the Steelers had momentum), Tomlin’s Steelers have never had a losing season, a franchise mark that has now stood for 22 consecutive years.
Still, weary and — at times — ungrateful Steelers fans have been calling for the hangman to come down from the gallows for the better part of two decades, even as Tomlin was first introduced as Cowher’s replacement in January 2007. Some criticized the Rooneys’ willingness to give the then-34-year-old, untested defensive coordinator — the job Tomlin held with the Minnesota Vikings for just one season before arriving in Pittsburgh — the Steelers’ reins.
Then there were those who decried the “Rooney Rule” – the one named in 2003 for late Steelers owner Dan Rooney who was then chairman of the NFL’s diversity committee. It required teams to interview at least one minority for vacant head coaching positions going forward. And despite his winning results on the field, which included two Super Bowl appearances in his first four seasons, Tomlin was viewed by haters as the poster child of a rule that was maligned as the sports equivalent of today’s MAGA-mocked DEI policies.
If Tomlin was the “Renegade who had it made” – and he may well have been, considering his employer’s patience and proven loyalty to head coaches for nearly six decades — then the “long arm of the law” were those unrelenting folks in the bleachers and on social media platforms who would sooner have him see his Steelers end than continue as the team’s head coach. He was their “wanted man,” but not the kind of wanted that would make anyone feel welcome.
Yet with each passing season of mediocre-to-good records and first-round playoff disappointments, it never felt like Tomlin was running, even from unruly fans. He owned his and his team’s failures, often laying them bare for the world to hear during one of his signature press conferences. Unlike the “Renegade” in Styx’ classic rocker, an undaunted Tomlin stood tall week after week, month after month, year after year, while his detractors called for his coaching life.
That is, until this 19th season. This year felt different even as the Steelers climbed to an impressive 4-1 start — with Rodgers, 42, now their quarterback and the league’s then-oldest player — while the other teams in the AFC North fell way behind in the standings. The Steelers’ faithful had grown tired of hearing about Tomlin’s stellar-but-meaningless, non-losing regular-season record. They wanted – and understandably so — at least one playoff win during this year’s campaign.
Yet, with every team slip-up, fans would put up an even bigger bounty for the coach’s head, which culminated during a Thanksgiving weekend home blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills as the Black and Gold were seen chanting and holding up signs reading “Fire Tomlin!” That loss evened the team’s record at 6-6 and temporarily tied them with the Baltimore Ravens – who had started 1-5 — in the division standings.
But this time even Tomlin agreed. When asked about the “Fire Tomlin” chants, the head coach told reporters during a post-game press conference, “In general, I agree with them, from this perspective: football is our game. We’re in a sport-entertainment business. And so, if you root for the Steelers, entertaining them is winning. And so, when you’re not winning, it’s not entertaining.” He further added, “I understand what makes this thing go, and winning is what makes this thing go.”
And now, with the most recent loss being another playoff blowout one at home that ended the Steelers’ 2025 season, Tomlin surrendered. Not because the Rooneys wanted him to go (at least not publicly), but because the coach knew it was time. The “jig was up and the news was out.” Tomlin reportedly told his team, “You deserve better, and right now I can’t deliver.”
Fate had finally found him, the “Renegade who had it made, retrieved for a bounty” — a bounty levied by fans who had simply had enough. Tomlin would nevermore go astray, for Tuesday had marked the end of the wanted man.
For years to come, Styx’ “Renegade” will continue to blare from speakers at the beginning of every 4th quarter during home games as devoted fans dance in the stands with their Terrible Towels waving wildly, but that rock anthem may never embody a coach as much as it did the one that just left: the future Hall of Famer Mike Tomlin.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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