Steelers DT Cam Heyward: Why Mike Tomlin’s Coach Days are 100% Over

"I win every week now."

According to Cam Heyward, that's what Mike Tomlin told him as soon as he walked in. And the Steelers defensive tackle thinks that one sentence explains why Tomlin won't be coaching again anytime soon.

Rich asked Heyward the question that keeps coming up around the league. Tomlin is halfway through his first season as a pundit, an analyst, a TV guy. Is he done coaching?

"Guys, he's not coming back," Heyward said. "He's way too comfortable."

Heyward said he gets it, and he isn't going to fight against it. "That's a pretty sweet job he's got going on over there," he said.

Rich explained why that line resonates with every coach who makes the jump to television. They realize they win every week. There are no losses. But Rich added a caveat that every former coach knows too: they miss a lot of what it was like to coach. So he pressed Heyward on whether coaching was really out of Tomlin's system.

Heyward's answer revealed that the competitive fire hasn't gone anywhere. "It's not out of his system, because I'm still receiving a lot of texts in our group chats," he said. "I know he still cares deeply." Even so, he said getting Tomlin out of his current situation is "going to be pretty tough."

Rich wanted to know who's on that chain. Heyward said it's just him and T.J., and that Tomlin "tends to poke and prod."

When Rich asked if that meant a little jab here and there, Heyward made clear it's a lot more than a little. "It's a straight uppercut most of the time," he said.

"That means it's still in there," Rich said.

"It's there. It's there," Heyward said.

So Rich went for the bottom line. Is there no bag large enough to bring Tomlin back to coaching?

Heyward answered with a question of his own. "Is there a bag large enough to get you to play in the NFL right now?"

Rich laughed. "There is not, sir. No."

Point made. "I guess I'm picking up what you're putting down," Rich said.

It's a revealing look at Tomlin from someone who knows him well. The competitor is still there, showing up in a group chat and landing uppercuts from the broadcast booth. But to Heyward, the coach who now wins every single week has found a job he has no reason to leave.