Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

Steelers HC Mike Tomlin 'dozed off' at end of Chargers-Raiders 'Sunday Night Football' game

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 1/11/22

Aside from the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers, there was one other fan base that likely had a rooting interesting in Week 18's "Sunday Night Football" battle between the teams.

Entering the NFL's final regular-season game, the winner of the contest would advance to the playoffs, while the loser's campaign would end. In the unlikely event that the clash ended in a tie, however, both teams would advance, leaving the Steelers on the outside looking in.

Despite the odds heavily in Pittsburgh's favor for making the postseason one way or another, Los Angeles erased a late 15-point deficit in regulation to force overtime. It took a game-winning field goal from Las Vegas' Daniel Carlson as time expired for the Steelers to breathe a sigh of relief.

Surprisingly, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin wasn't among those who stayed up to see the finish of the thriller.

Mike Tomlin says he wasn't awake for the end of Chargers-Raiders:

"I missed the end of it. I dozed off."

What????
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) January 11, 2022

Mike Tomlin admits that he "dozed off" at the end of the #Chargers-#Raiders game. Knowing now how close it got, and that a tie would've kept his #Steelers home and out of the playoffs, he jokes, "I'm probably better off not having watched it."
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) January 11, 2022

While Tomlin's admission is a shocker, fans can cut him some slack seeing as how the game ran past midnight EST and the Steelers had a long Sunday of their own, escaping with an overtime win over the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh was also helped by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, as their upset win over the Indianapolis Colts enabled the Steelers to continue their season.

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