Earlier this week, ESPN Radio host Mike Greenberg was asked about how often the narrative and perspective from national media differs from local media and the fanbase, and 93.7 The Fan host Adam Crowley felt like Greenberg’s response was directed toward him and his co-host Dorin Dickerson.
On #Greeny on Tuesday, Greenberg said the local media perspective being opposite the perspective of national media is a frequent occurrence, and one example was in the response to a Twitter question from November 3 asking if there were coaches in any other sport that have done more with less than Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
Greenberg pointed out that Steelers fans, including Crowley, responded en masse to the question.
The fans loudly placed the blame on Tomlin for the team’s lack of regular season and postseason success over the last several years. Crowley quote tweeted pointing out how off-base the national narrative is.
Greenberg said he stopped letting hyperlocal stories dictate the radio show he wanted to do. He admitted he’s not as plugged in as the local media would be or as the fans would, and that’s not a bad thing.
“I fully acknowledge I don’t watch every snap of every game of every season. I don’t read the transactions every single day, I’m not at training camp, I’m not at practice, I’m not at their games,” he said. “So there are people who know that team a thousand times better than I do. All I can give you is my opinion from where I sit.”
Crowley on the Wednesday edition of The Fan Morning Show called Mike Greenberg a baby for taking a more middle-of-the-road stance and not challenging differing opinions.
“He’s kind of like, he doesn’t want to fight back. He’s dancing around,” he said. “That is soft from a national radio host in Mike Greenberg. Show a little fire. Punch back, baby, and he kind of does but he soft pedals it.”
Crowley added that Mike Greenberg made a strawman argument at the end of his point when he said comparing success for Tomlin to the successes of coaches like Bill Belichick and Vince Lombardi isn’t realistic. But Crowley said that wasn’t the point fans and local media are making.
“That’s not what we’re doing. What we’re doing is, my man ain’t won a playoff game since 2016, and there is a long list of coaches who would not be considered as good of coaches as Mike Tomlin who have. That’s it,” Crowley said. “I ain’t comparing him to Lombardi. I ain’t comparing him to Shula. I ain’t comparing him to Bill Belichick. I am comparing him to other coaches who have won playoff games in the last seven years, something Mike Tomlin has not done. That’s it.”
Dickerson chimed in saying the love affair between the national media and Tomlin doesn’t let the recent past carry as much weight as the distant past.
“That tells me that you’re going off of past successes of Mike Tomlin,” he said. “Here in Pittsburgh, once you win and you’re still there, you expect success again. You expect to be there again, and that’s kind of I think what we’re saying.
“We’re not saying that he’s not an excellent coach. We’re not comparing him to Lombardi, but from what he did in the past and what has transpired until now, it hasn’t been much,” Doin added. “And why wouldn’t Pittsburgh fans expect much?”
Crowley continued saying that expectations are high for Tomlin based on those early years, and the frustration over the recent failures is something even Tomlin wouldn’t find joy in.
“Has Mike Tomlin become a victim of his own success? Unquestionably so. But if you ask Mike Tomlin, has he achieved enough in the last seven years, you know what he’s gonna tell you? Abso-freaking-lutely not. He has not,” he said.
