Penguins coach Dan Bylsma and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin are awesome. So much so, that they jointly share the honor of Pittsburgh Magazine’s Pittsburghers of the Year…without actually being from Pittsburgh originally. Championships cure everything.
[W]hat separated Mike Tomlin and Dan Bylsma from your average head coaches was what they had to say about their adopted hometown in the wake of those victories.
“Until you are part of it, you have no idea the depths,” Tomlin said of Steelers Nation just hours after becoming the youngest head coach to ever win a Super Bowl in 2009. “I want to win for them because they are that special.”
And during Pittsburgh’s second, massive victory parade in five months, Bylsma proudly displayed the Stanley Cup for all to see. He then stepped to the mic and let his feelings be known to the sun-baked faithful. “I’ve only been in Pittsburgh for about 4 1/2 months,” he said. “But it was only about two months in that I knew I was ‘from’ Pittsburgh.”
Through a combination of intelligence, good fortune and plenty of hard work, both men have achieved greatness at a relatively young age.
Both are bound together forever in Pittsburghers’ minds as the coaches who helped restore the City of Champions title to its rightful owner.
Yes.
Both guys did absolute work in a very short amount of time to reach the pinnacle of their profession. Wade Phillips just won his first NFL playoff game. Lindy Ruff has never won a Stanley Cup despite numerous Jack Adams nominations (and a win).
So if I was wearing a hat right now, I’d tip it to these two guys. However their biggest accomplishment is probably not letting their combined awesomeness completely destroy the camera when that picture was taken. They do it all.
