Do it right

Tomlin conducts business from home, eager for fair starting line

If the NFL is going to open facilities, it needs to be done fairly.

Mike Tomlin conducted the Steelers annual rookie camp from his home, like every other NFL head coach. But for as much as he’s itching to get back to working inperson with his players, new and old, he wants to do so on two conditions.

1. That all 32 teams in the league are given the same starting line to resume business as usual;

2. That workplace restrictions in Pittsburgh due to COVID-19 permit the Steelers to reopen their facility.

The second one likely isn’t much of a choice, but it’s the first component that figures to be a hot topic around the NFL. It already has been in college football. If one team is in a city, state or region where shutdown orders and/ or social distancing guidelines are being relaxed, should it be on the same timeline as competitors dealing with a different set of circumstances in their respective parts of the country?

For Tomlin, it sounds as if the answer is simple. Don’t wave the green flag until each car is ready to race.

“Our game is extremely competitive,” Tomlin said. “It’s one of the things that makes football at this level so attractive to our fans. I’m committed to preserving and protecting that, and so all teams getting the opportunity to start on the same footing is a core element of that.”

The NFL has taken competitive balance into account in its approach to any and all football operations the past couple of months as COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on everyday life. First, it was taking team employees off the road during draft preparation. Then came mandating each organization to send home all personnel and close its facility.

But now as various state and local governments begin to pull back on which businesses can and can’t open in order to combat the pandemic — including here in Western Pennsylvania — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell might face some tough decisions. Should the entire league continue operating via conference calls and Zoom meetings until it’s deemed safe for everyone to return to work, or is it more feasible to stagger reopenings based on specific situations?

Allegheny County, for instance, will be allowed Friday to move from the “red phase” to the “yellow phase” of Gov. Tom Wolf’s tiered system for a return to normalcy, meaning some non-essential establishments can reopen, at least to an extent. But elsewhere, barriers are still in place, including on the other side of the state.

Philadelphia, where the Eagles practice and play, has had its stay-at-home order extended until June 4. New York and New Jersey, home to the Bills, Giants and Jets, might be two of the final states to start up again.

This weekend, the Steelers focused their energy on minicamp for the rookies. It was mostly about introducing them to life with the Steelers, from meeting members of the support staff, the media relations team, and in one case, a potential role model who recently departed from the roster.

Ramon Foster, the 11-year offensive lineman who retired two months ago after a successful career as an undrafted free agent, addressed the new guys Friday at Tomlin’s request.

“Ramon delivered in a big way,” Tomlin said. “I just thought he was a great guy to welcome those guys, a guy that understands the journey many of those guys are attempting to walk. … I thought he did an awesome job.”

Of course, there was an effort to learn a lot over the past two days, too. Rookies learning football, as well as Tomlin and his assistants learning them. How they absorb information, how much they can retain and how the coaches can most effectively convey knowledge to each young player individually.

The idea of doing it all through a laptop screen is a twist Tomlin has gotten used to the past couple of months, especially using it for the draft process. It’s just that in any other year, he could teach a concept to his second-round pick, then watch Chase Claypool put it into action on a practice field. In 2020, he can only imagine.

“It’s much more difficult to get the feedback, to get the feel of somebody receiving the information, when you’re working remotely than it is when you’re dealing with somebody in an intimate space,” Tomlin said. “It’s probably not about the material or the amount of material that we can give, it’s about the tools of evaluation. What they learn, how they learn, and reinforcing what we give them is probably the most challenging element of the circumstances.”