RUSH: Roberta in Pittsburgh, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hi there! Thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: You bet.
CALLER: I was just curious as to your opinion on the selection of the new head coach for the Steelers.
RUSH: Mike Tomlin?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: You know, I didn’t know anything about him until his name started showing up on the list of potential head coach candidates, and then I started reading about him. He’s a disciple of Tony Dungy; he’s worked with Dungy. Dungy is a class individual, does not hire people who aren’t great. But you know what struck me about this? The first time I met Dan Rooney was at Giants Stadium. It was like a preseason game. The Steelers were playing the Giants, and it was two or three years after they had hired Cowher, maybe a year after. So it would be 1993, something like that, and I asked him, because here’s a guy 34 years old. Nobody had ever heard of him, and the Steelers had hired him, and Mr. Rooney said to me, “Well, I had never met him before he came in to interview,” and the exact age, almost within days, of Bill Cowher is Mike Tomlin, and he’s assistant defensive coordinator. The Steelers’ Chuck Noll was an offensive assistant, but he was 37 when he was hired. I think the Steelers have a pattern here. And with two coaches in the last 10,000 years, I don’t think that you can object to it yet. I’m excited by it. He’s going to hold on to the 3-4 defense, kept Dick LeBeau. He’s not totally shaking everything up. I trust Steelers management on decisions like this. They could not mess up and they’re patient.