Feb 14, 2007 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – The expectations for Mike Tomlin, or any other person who would be coach of the Steelers this season, are high. The team is young, intact, and two years removed from a championship season, not to mention mere months removed from a 6-2 finish after the Super Bowl hangover wore off.

For a 34-year-old African-American in a city with its fair share of racists, that’s plenty of pressure.

Tomlin’s feelings?

“Pour gasoline on the fire,” he said without batting an eye.

“If you don’t like pressure, you’re in the wrong business,” was how Tomlin began a series of questions – that went both ways – on the topic of the pressure, Pittsburgh football-style.

“I thrive on it. That’s how you know you’re alive. If you don’t want to get out the bed and meet the challenges of the day, I don’t know what you do for a living at a high level.”

Tomlin then turned the question on the group of nine print reporters who were invited to the team’s South Side facility for the informal chat.

“Do you guys feel a little pressure when you’re competing at the highest level?” he asked. “I always laugh when people ask me that, because if you’re competing in any industry – if I’m in mortgage banking and I’m competing at the highest level in the international stage of mortgage banking – I would imagine there’s some pressure.”

Tomlin had only begun to laugh. He let rip after the following question: Wouldn’t it be easier for him to step into a 2-14 situation with young talent, plenty of high draft picks, and much more money to spend in free agency?

“Personally,” Tomlin said, “I’d rather step into this situation.”

He laughed heartily – some might say insanely – before resuming.

“Would you rather go to a newspaper with absolutely low expectations in terms of your performance? Or do you want to compete? I struggle to understand why someone would think I have an issue with expectation. It’s part of the business. You love it. That’s what drives you. That’s the competitor in all of us that do what we do. I welcome that.”

But there’s less margin for error here.

“Great.”

But if he were to implement new ideas with the Steelers, as, say, Jimmy Johnson did at the start of his tenure with the Dallas Cowboys, he wouldn’t be getting as much time for them to take effect.

“Great,” Tomlin said. “Pour gasoline on the fire.”

It could become the defining comment of Tomlin’s character.

“Really,” he continued. “Really. That’s what we do, man. That’s what we do for a living. We compete, and you’d better have confidence in yourself and your ability to do the job if you expect your men to take the field with that kind of swagger. And I do.”

No doubt the new coach is a tough guy, but not in the macho sense. He explained that he doesn’t motivate through fear.

“Fear is not a good long-term motivator,” he said. “I think you motivate true professionals through teaching, so that’s my approach.”

Nor is he so insecure that he hopes to make friends with the players.

“I’m not here to entertain them, or try to win them over immediately with glitz and glamour. That’s short-lived. I’m going to be myself,” he said. “We’re going to get started about the business of putting together a great football team. That’s just rolling your sleeves up and going to work on a day-to-day basis. That’s what they’re going to see from me. The things that they see from me Day One, once we get started on our off-season program, are the same things that they’re going to see from me next January when we’re in the thick of things.”

And no one in the room doubted him for a second.