“We Were Under Attack”: Mike Tomlin Reveals Bitter Feelings as Ex-HC Calls Out NFL’s Rule Change for Villainizing Steelers

Mike Tomlin has coached plenty of great defenses in the Steel City, but when asked to pick his best, he doesn’t hesitate to point to the 2008–2010 unit. That was built with LB James Harrison, LB LaMarr Woodley, and NT Casey Hampton. It was a unit defined by pure physicality, the kind that, as Tomlin put it, was built for violence. But that identity came with a cost.

The same brutal style that made that Pittsburgh Steelers defense so dominant also became the reason the NFL rewrote its rulebook. The league enacted a major player safety rule ahead of the 2010 season. As the season progressed, matters got much worse; mid-season, the NFL began issuing heavier fines and immediate game suspensions for egregious or repeat helmet-to-helmet hits.

Looking back now, Tomlin doesn’t dispute that the rule changes made the sport safer. He’s even grateful for it as a father whose own sons have played the game. But such gratitude came much later; when that initially happened, Tomlin wasn’t very happy about it.

“They were not only special in that way, but they impacted the future of the game. They helped the game advance, and we hated it at the time. We felt like we were under attack. Our style of play was under attack, etc,” Mike Tomlin said to Chris Simms. “But looking back at it, and particularly looking back at it as a father whose sons have played college football since then, we did a lot for the game in terms of improving the level of safety, and advancing the game in a real positive way. And that group should take a great deal of pride in that.”

Now, there’s no doubt that the numbers back up why Tomlin still calls that group the best defense he’s coached. 

The 2008 unit led the league in points allowed at 13.1 per game and in total yards allowed at 223.2 per game, winning the Super Bowl that year with James Harrison winning Defensive Player of the Year.

Two years later, the 2010 defense repeated the feat, again leading the league in scoring defense at 13.6 points per game and reaching the Super Bowl. That level of production is exactly what Tomlin means when he says the group didn’t just play hard; it set a standard that shaped player safety rules in the NFL.

However, that came at a price. After the 2010 season started with a clear indication by the league not to hit a defenseless receiver, Harrison had an incident in Week 6.

Harrison alone drew a $75,000 penalty for a helmet-to-helmet hit on the Cleveland Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi. And he was not the only one. Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather and Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson were each fined $50,000 for hits back then.

Tomlin has time and again praised that lot, telling former NFL QB Ben Roethlisberger directly that he believed the 2010 team was responsible for the NFL’s modern player-safety rules. He said as much himself, adding that the group should “take a great deal of pride” in having pushed the league toward a safer game, even if it cost them in the moment.

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