Steelers legend Bill Cowher reacts to Mike Tomlin stepping down as head coach

Mike Tomlin officially stepping away from the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday left the club needing to hire a new head coach for the first time since early 2007. 

Before Tomlin accepted the job, franchise legend Bill Cowher served as Pittsburgh's head coach from 1992 through the 2006 season. During a Tuesday appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Cowher spoke about Tomlin's decision.

Bill Cowher views Mike Tomlin as "a tremendous head coach" despite criticisms

"I wish him nothing but the best," Cowher said about Tomlin, per Michael Kadlick of Sports Illustrated. "He’s been a tremendous head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the way he represented that organization. It’s a special place."

Similar to Tomlin, Cowher guided the Steelers to a single Super Bowl championship during his lengthy tenure with the organization. While pockets of Steelers fans made it known they wanted the franchise to make a change after it lost a seventh straight playoff game under Tomlin, Cowher mentioned how impressive it is that Tomlin never had a losing season with Pittsburgh. 

"I think it speaks volumes about his resiliency and his ability to — you back him into a corner, and he thrives on that opportunity there," Cowher said about Tomlin's streak. "...And I think the biggest thing it speaks to is the way his players have responded to him...When you don’t win [that] many games, you don't have a season like that without going through [the] periodic ups and downs that it entails. And [the] ability to relate to your players, and more importantly, for your players to respond to you, speaks volumes. And being able to do that for 19 consecutive years."

Does Bill Cowher think Mike Tomlin's message got stale in the Pittsburgh locker room?

Questions about whether or not Tomlin's messaging had grown stale inside the Pittsburgh locker room hovered over the Steelers long before they suffered a 30-6 wild-card playoff loss to the Houston Texans on Jan. 12. Cowher doesn't buy such theories. 

"So as you sit there and say, 'The message is getting stale.' No, it's not getting stale," Cowher added. "I think you find different ways of probably saying the same things, but he always had a pulse for his football team and an ability to relate to his football team, and more importantly, for 19 years, his team responded to him."

As much as Tomlin's players loved going to battle for him, their performances in win-or-go-home January games over the past nine years inevitably led to his departure. Those running the Steelers will now search for a coach they hope will do more than just guide the club on handfuls of empty-calorie trips to postseason tournaments.