Tim Benz: Mike Tomlin's conversation on Steelers' Super Bowl XLV loss puts new spin on result

To hear Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin talk so openly about the Super Bowl XLV loss to the Green Bay Packers adds a different perspective on that defeat.

Tomlin appeared on a recent edition of “The Pivot” podcast with ex-Steeler Ryan Clark and former NFL players Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor. During the conversation, Tomlin and Clark wandered down the path of reminiscing about that 31-25 defeat in Dallas on Feb. 6, 2011.

“When you lose a Super Bowl and that confetti is raining down, there’s another team on the field,” Tomlin said. “You think about all the confetti and the celebration. You’re thinking about the winners, their faces, their families, people trying to get kids to them, the podium and all of that. … In the midst of all of that, there is another team that’s like, ‘Alright, we’ve got to get out of here.’ We lost to Green Bay. The game ended. All of that stuff started happening and that confetti started raining down. And I’m looking around like, ‘I got to get out of here.’”

Tomlin — who won Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals two years earlier — said that, while the pain of the loss hit immediately, the enormity of that defeat didn’t wash over him until he got home.

“When I sat down here in this room and the gravity of that, it was tough,” Tomlin said of the loss. “When it’s all moving and things of that nature, particularly when you lead, I can hide behind taking care of others, you know what I mean? Checking on others. When I got home, when I got here, man. You realize what’s lost. It’s more than a game. We’re talking about lifetime scholarships for people. We’re talking about gold jackets.”

Upon his return from Dallas, Tomlin said that’s when he realized what winning a third Super Bowl in five years could’ve meant for the players on the team and the franchise itself. Specifically, Tomlin mentioned Hines Ward’s Hall of Fame candidacy. He insisted that if the Steelers beat the Packers that day, Ward would be in the Hall of Fame by now.

“It didn’t hit me until I got back here, and I sat down here in this basement, and I started thinking about the ramifications of losing that game,” Tomlin said. “Careers. Gold jackets. Because that’s what we were hunting. That’s what we were talking about. That was the third (Super Bowl) this collective had been to in about five years. So we were on that type of tip, that legacy, that football immortality.”

Tomlin might be right about that. Ward had seven catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. For argument’s sake, let’s say Rashard Mendenhall doesn’t fumble in Packers territory to start that fourth quarter. Then, hypothetically, Ward caps off that drive with a touchdown reception and picks up a few more yards along the way during the game to get to 100.

Is he the game’s Most Valuable Player? Picking up his second Super Bowl MVP trophy, after claiming another in Super Bowl XL?

Yeah. Tomlin might be onto something there.

To be honest, I didn’t have that same gut-punch reaction that Tomlin did after that loss. While I picked the Steelers to win, I’m not stunned they lost. After all, Green Bay actually entered the game as a three-point favorite. I remember leaving Dallas thinking it’d be arrogant to assume that the Steelers would be preordained to win it all for a third time since 2005. I mean, they lost to a star quarterback who was on the rise (Aaron Rodgers) and a team that was in the playoff mix in 2007 and 2009 as well. No shame in that.

Plus, they’d be back.

Perhaps, that was the more arrogant assumption. A belief that the Steelers would surely return for a ninth Super Bowl appearance at some point in the near future.

But why not? This team went 12-4 despite a four-game suspension for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger was only 28 and had just completed his best statistical season of his career in 2009.

Troy Polamalu was about to win the 2010 Defensive Player of the Year. James Harrison finished third in the balloting that year, after winning it in 2008. Brett Keisel made his first Pro Bowl. Heath Miller was in his prime. LaMarr Woodley picked up three sacks in the postseason and had gone to the Pro Bowl the year before. Lawrence Timmons was coming into his own as a starter. Maurkice Pouncey made the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

Even (prior to that fumble) Mendenhall was starting to look like a legit first-round pick, having gobbled up 1,273 yards rushing, including 121 in the AFC Championship Game win over the New York Jets.

And, hey, how about that young group of receivers? Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. They were all going to be something big someday.

Perhaps most importantly, the Steelers had hit yet another home run with a coaching hire in Tomlin. Two Super Bowl appearances and three division titles in his first four seasons. C’mon! There’s no way this team was done making it to the big game, right?

Wrong.

The next year Tim Tebow happened. Then two non-playoff seasons. Now here we are heading into a 12th season since that game ended and nine of them ended without a playoff victory.

Roethlisberger, Pouncey, Polamalu, Miller and all of those other great players never made it back to the Super Bowl — at least not as Steelers anyway.

Neither has Tomlin. Forget Ward for a minute. What about his own legacy? That would’ve given Tomlin his second ring as a head coach. Only four men (Bill Belichick, Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs) have three or more.

Of the 13 head coaches with at least two Super Bowl rings, nine are in the Hall of Fame and a 10th will definitely be added when New England’s Bill Belichick retires.

Normally, it’s the fans and media that are a lot more hyperbolic in the moments after a Super Bowl loss. The coaches and the players, while overwhelmed with disappointment, often tend to think more good is coming.

I certainly did for the Steelers after that game. And I bet Tomlin did, too. But his frank description of emotions in the immediate aftermath have proven to be far too accurate and appropriate for anyone’s liking.

Especially his own.