U mad, bro?: Readers defend Mike Tomlin and the Browns, attack replay and the Bucs

This week’s “U mad, bro?” features Pirates angst, frustration over the brawl suspensions, replay rage, Mike Tomlin defense, and Browns hysteria from Cleveland.

Todd is a Cleveland Browns fanboy. And he did not like the fact that I poked some fun at a little training camp turmoil surrounding his team.

Particularly at his club’s new head coach, Freddie Kitchens, getting snippy after criticism from former assistant Bob Wylie.

“Hey Tim quit trying to stir things up in the ’Land! No stopping us this year but good try!! You must be a Pittspuke fan? Hahaha! Just face the facts. The Browns are going to be good and you’re trying to stir up something negative.

All you negative media guys just trying to get hits and ratings! It will just bounce off Baker (Mayfield) and (Freddie) Kitchens and (John) Dorsey.

So good luck with your dumb article, Tim!”

And good luck with your dumb, blind faith, Todd.

Hey, I’m on record as saying that the Browns will be better in 2019. Maybe even win the division.

But the biggest stumbling block to that could be Kitchens, who, at times, comes off looking as if he is as over his head as Hue Jackson was before him.

This was one of those times.

P.S. The article did great. So, thanks.

Nick is replying to an article I wrote this week about NFL instant replay on pass-interference calls.

“REPLAY RUINS ALL SPORTS. I’d rather they get a few WRONG! Why not, half the time the replay decision seems wrong, or convoluted. Why not go with the call on the field? REPLAY RARELY GETS IT RIGHT.

SAD, SAD, SAD it will never go away. Replay has ruined sports forever and can’t be stopped.”

Yeah. It can’t go away because the minute a call goes against your team, people like you will scream, “How come they didn’t use replay? It was so obvious!”

Do the names Jerry Meals and Daniel Briere mean nothing to you?

Here is a very thoughtful and reasoned response to my Mike Tomlin piece denouncing the excuse some give him for having the misfortune of coaching in the AFC during the era of Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dominance.

It comes from a guy named Grant.

“Belichick is alone in the AFC in having any dominance as a head coach. And so while Tomlin’s paltry 3 playoff wins in the past 8 seasons seems abysmal, only two other coaches besides Belichick have won more than 3 playoff games as coach of an AFC team during that span, and I wouldn’t take either of them over Tomlin: Gary Kubiak (now an asst head coach for MN) and John Harbaugh who has just one playoff victory to his credit the past six seasons since their victory over the 49ers in SB XLVII.

I like Coach T and am highly optimistic about the coming season, as long as the team can stay moderately healthy relative to other AFC contenders.”

Grant, that is such a reasoned and thoughtful disagreement, I can only assume you meant to email someone else.

You raise a good point. And that’s why I defended Tomlin when he was only rated ninth in that recent NFL.com poll of top coaches.

You’re right. Most current coaches don’t have the kind of resume Tomlin does, which is part of the reason I prop him up when compared to his peers.

But remember, the question isn’t, “Could the Steelers have somebody else’s coach and do better?”

The questions are, “Is Tomlin doing a good enough at his job given the talent he has? And if he isn’t, can the Steelers find someone else to do better?”

Keep in mind when the Steelers hired Tomlin, or Bill Cowher before him, or Chuck Noll before them both, no one knew who they were. They didn’t have a resume to compare.

But now they all have Super Bowls on their resumes, don’t they?

Pete thinks I took it easy on Major League Baseball when I gave my thoughts on the suspensions of the Pirates and Reds after their brawl last week.

“They should have suspended the entire Pirate team for the rest of the season…..for impersonating a MLB team!”

What? They can do that? Somebody should look into that!

Lastly, Albert is just mad at the Pirates, in general. And manager Clint Hurdle most of all.

“Not having the tools to compete is one thing. Having the tools to compete up until the All-Star break, then completely mailing it in when they hit a little bit of adversity after the break is something the manager should be held accountable for.”

C’mon, Albert. You and I both know the Pirates haven’t “mailed it in.”

Bob Nutting would never pay for the stamp.