Pittsburgh signs coach Tomlin to 3-year extension
He is 145-78-1 in 14 years with Steelers; 1 SB win
PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin wants to be part of the post-Ben Roethlisberger era in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers on Tuesday signed their longtime coach to a three-year contract extension that runs through the 2024 season.
Tomlin is 145-78-1 in 14 years with the Steelers, winning one Super Bowl and going to another. The franchise has reached the playoffs nine times during Tomlin’s tenure and captured its seventh AFC North title under him in 2020.
The Steelers went 12-5 in 2020, winning their first 11 games before stumbling down the stretch, including a blowout loss to Cleveland at home in the first round of the playoffs. The team is in the midst of a minioverhaul, particularly on offense after two assistants were let go and center Maurkice Pouncey and tight end Vance McDonald retired.
Still, Roethlisberger restructured his contract to lessen his salary cap hit.
The 49-year-old Tomlin already is 21st in NFL history in career wins and is one of just two coaches to begin their career with 14 consecutive non-losing seasons.
RAMS: The Los Angeles Rams signed punter Corey Bojorquez, a former University of New Mexico player.
A Bellflower, California native, Bojorquez spent the last three seasons with the Buffalo Bills, where he averaged 45 yards per punt across 165 punts and 40 games.
The 24-year-old specialist originally entered the NFL in 2018 as an undrafted free agent signee by the New England Patriots.
The addition of Bojorquez gives the Rams three punters, including Brandon Wright and longtime starter Johnny Hekker.
RAIDERS: The Las Vegas Raiders got angry backlash for a tweet the team sent after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd.
The tweet sent by the team’s official account on Tuesday said “I CAN BREATHE 4-20-21.” Floyd told officers “I can’t breathe” more than 20 times before he was killed when Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck last May.
Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday for causing Floyd’s death.
Raiders owner Mark Davis said he was driving when the verdict was announced and heard Floyd’s brother, Philonise, make the statement that “we can all breathe again” and decided to make that message the team’s response.
“I thought that said a lot,” Davis said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “It said a lot about everything. I thought it was something where we could all breathe again. Justice was served. We still have a lot of work to do on social justice and police brutality. But today, justice was served.”
The tweet was widely condemned in replies on Twitter but remained pinned to the top of the team’s Twitter account more than two hours after being posted.
Davis said he won’t delete the tweet because it is already out there but is sorry if it offended anyone in Floyd’s family.
ROBINSON: Dallas Cowboys cornerback Rashard Robinson was suspended for two games Tuesday for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancers.
It’s the second suspension for Robinson, who was banned four games in 2018 for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
Robinson bounced back and forth from the practice squad during the 2020 season, appearing in four games with three starts.
HELMETS: VICIS has the top three performing helmets in the NFL/NFLPA’s seventh annual study, with a position-specific helmet tested for the first time and ranking second overall.
The VICIS ZERO2-R TRENCH, designed specifically for linemen, came in behind only the VICIS2-R MATRIX in the survey conducted by engineers who assessed in measured laboratory testing the performance of all helmets worn by NFL players in reducing head impact severity. The results released Tuesday are displayed on a poster shared with NFL players and team medical, training, coaching and equipment staffs.
Biomechanical engineers appointed by the NFL and NFLPA ranked 41 helmet models, including three new models never tested before by the league. All three new helmet models made the top 10.