Tomlin

"The biography of a coaching pioneer. In 2007, at the age of thirty-four, Mike Tomlin was hired as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Replacing Hall of Famer Bill Cowher -- and two years removed from the team's first Super Bowl XL victory -- there was immense pressure on the first-year head coach, who many fans and those in media were largely unfamiliar with. After five seasons as an assistant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a single season as the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, the hiring came as a surprise to many. From his first day at the helm, numerous questions were asked: Was this young coach able to lead a veteran team that still had championship hopes? Did he get the job solely on the "Rooney Rule" -- named after Steelers' owner Dan Rooney -- which states that every team must interview at least one minority candidate for their open head coaching position? An award-winning journalist who covered Tomlin's hiring for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, John Harris works to pull back the curtain on the mystique behind this "coaching unicorn." Beginning with his days as a wide receiver at William & Mary, his several years in the college coaching ranks, to getting hired by Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy, Tomlin shares how a young man from Newport New, Virginia, was able to establish himself as a a leader of men in a business with so much turnover, earn the respect of his peers and players, and has continued to be someone admired by so many in the league."--