The Pittsburgh Steelers hold a team meeting every Monday afternoon.
In it, longtime head coach Mike Tomlin — in a language that everyone on the roster, from the stars to his assistants to the practice squad guys simply happy to have a job in the NFL can easily understand — outlines his message for the week.
Tomlin’s words and his tone can vary depending on the opponent and the circumstances, with one very important caveat: his relentless optimism.
It was there during their somewhat surprising 6-3 start in which they were often outplayed but rarely outscored.
It was there during an awful stretch from mid-November to mid-December that saw them drop four of five games, fire embattled offensive coordinator Matt Canada, and have former players that used to dot Tomlin’s locker room — Ben Roethlisberger chief among them — question whether the “Steeler Way” had died.
And it’s been there over the past three weeks when third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph revived one of the league’s most underachieving offenses, a defense littered with practice squad guys found a way to make it work and Pittsburgh ripped off a series of impressive wins that has it playing in the first round of the postseason in Buffalo on Sunday.
They’re not talking about the culture this week. Or wide receiver George Pickens’ effort level. Or Tomlin’s future.
They’re talking about the playoffs. For the 11th time in Tomlin’s 17 seasons.
And on Monday, the second-winningest coach in franchise history gathered his team to talk about the task at hand, a task few outside the building thought was possible after the Steelers were drilled in Indianapolis on Dec. 16, a humbling setback that saw Pittsburgh’s odds of reaching the postseason all but vanish.
Only they didn’t. With Tomlin — who has just coached one regular-season game (out of 275) with the Steelers eliminated from playoff contention — they never do.
“His ability to keep the team focused and motivated is one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of,” center Mason Cole said.
Veteran inside linebacker Myles Jack admitted there was a “red arrow pointing down” before a Week 16 visit from Cincinnati. That was the external perception anyway. It never made its way to the Pittsburgh practice field. Or Tomlin’s pathologically single-track mind.
Tomlin vowed the week before the Bengals’ game he hadn’t lost confidence in himself, pointing to his “51 years of life” but admitted he couldn’t necessarily transfer that swagger to his players.
