Mike Tomlin is a special man, with the special gift of being able to communicate in a manner that not many are capable of. Tomlin serves up the most outlandish, but dead serious quotes in the entire NFL.
On this page, we plan to update you with all the latest Tomlin quotes and Tomlin-isms. We welcome any input you have for this page. If you hear a quote before you see it here, translate it and post it in the comment section.
We will bring you the actual quote from this hallowed individual, and when it is needed, the Mikey Tomlin translator will be used. Tomlin does not like to divulge into too much information during press conferences, so he usually gives round-about responses to reporters.
But here, our obviously fake Mike Tomlin translator will help us all out in understanding what this walking thesaurus is really saying.
TOMLIN-ISMS
“Showed us that they are capable of playing really salty football.” Mikey T likes his defensive players salty.
”We’ve had some splash, no doubt.” If you thought a defensive player being salty was good, wait until one of those guys make a salty-splashy playey.
“I really think its their whim of the week in terms of how they choose to attack you.” The Patriots use their whim of the week when determining their strategy against the Steelers.
TOMLIN-QUOTES
Ravens Week-Week 1
- “There’s a fine line between drinkin wine and squashing grapes, obviously last weekend we were grape squashers.”
Ravens Recovery-Week 2
- “We’re not thirsty right now, we’re still squashin.”
Texans Week-Week 4
- “Whether you call him an in or an outside linebacker, it doesn’t matter you better keep him out of your backfield. He’s a dangerous man.”
- “It has no bearing on us. If we’re good and that’s something that we desire to be. Things like game location and climate and things need to be irrelevant. Good teams are great at making those variables irrelevant and that what we strive to do, that’s out of our control and we really don’t care.”
- “I’ll assume we’ll play on a 100 yard field, that’s what is important”
Jaguars Week-Week 6
- “He’s not small he’s just short, hes got built in leverage of course, we’ve had problems with him in the past”
- “Every man’s different, particularly guys that are wired like James, we’ll leave a seat on the bus for him, if you know what I mean.”
In a conference call with the Jacksonville media, Tomlin was asked a question referring to the 2007 playoff matchup between the two teams in which the Jaguars won. Tomlin’s response:
- “I understand that might have been a big game in Jacksonville, but that’s old news.” Tomlin then said ”Anybody got questions relative to this week?”
Immediately after saying that, Tomlin paused and then hung up the phone while the next question was being asked. Mikey T Spittin It Real
Cardinals Week-Week 7
- “I think Hokie’s just trying to be interesting, I havent seen anything different from Hokie’s technique in five years that I’ve been here, he is a ridiculous creature of habit.”
Patriots Week-Week 8
In response to if the Pats have changed over the past four years or so.
- “They’re very multiple man, they can attack you in a variety of ways. They can line up and play empty no huddle football, they can put two and three tight-end-like bodies on the field and pound ya. They’re very multiple.”
- “You better be multiple, because they are.”
Coming up in the league as a young coach, people look at different coaches to figure out how they do things, was coach Bellichick ever a guy you looked at in that regard?
- “I didn’t I was blessed enough in my opinion to be around some top quality guys that I worked with in my building. Tony Dungy and John Gruden and guys like that so I didn’t have to look far for guys that were awesome guys to get information and inspiration from.”
Does your background as a defensive coach prevent you from going into weeks like thinking we have to score 41 points?
- “I would hope not. I would hope I wouldn’t let ego or pride, or anything of that nature, comfort zone, prohibit our team from doing whats required for us to win. I fashion myself to be more intelligent than that, well see.”
Ravens Week-Week 9
- “From a special teams standpoint, you know these guys are rock solid under coach Harbaugh, always have been; their specialists are special.”
- “They play ball the way they play ball and they impose it on you.”
Bengals Week-Week 10
Referring back to Week 9 Ravens loss.
- “Baltimore quite simply made more plays down the stretch than we did. Hopefully we’ll grow and learn from it, i know that will be our intentions. I truly believe that it will strengthen us movin forward like all our experiences do. We’ll put that game with the rest of them as part of our resume for the 2011 season and we’ll move forward.”
If coach was comfortable with the way his team would react to such a dramatic loss such as the Ravens game.
- “No, im not comfortable and I’m not looking for comfort. That’s not how we live, I think its important that we understand the urgency and gravity and preparation of this week.”
- “You know, they’re fundamentalist outfit.”
- “I’ll take it. I wouldn’t say I was pleased, I’d be pleased if we were 10-0, but we’re not. We are what we are.”
Chiefs Week-Week 12
Referring to Chiefs quarterback Tyler Palko.
- “I assessed him from the standpoint of my personal experience with him when he was here. He learned our offense extremely quickly, he’s a very intelligent young man of course, he’s a son of a coach. I think that oozes out of him in conversation. Hes’ just a good football man, one that we respect.”
- “We’re not a big picture circuit.”
- “We’re lookin forward to playin these guys tonight as are they, there will be no shenanigans tonight.”
Bengals Week-Week 13
Tomlin on Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton.
- “He makes generally good decisions and he makes them quickly. I think that’s an awesome statement to make about a young quarterback in this business, but I believe it to be true in regards to him. He takes good care of the football and he doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions and he doesn’t get sacked.”
Tomlin on 35-7 win against Bengals to take them to 9-3.
- “You know I’m kind of an idealist and a football purist. I’d like to think that were capable of having that sense of urgency in September cause you only get 16 opportunities to state your case. But acknowledging that we all fall short of perfection, the pictures a little bit clearer this time of year.”
Browns Week-Week 14
- “We cannot let Josh Cribbs do what he has done to us time and time again in the past, We’ve been dead Indians in his cowboy movie enough.”
- “I’m not going to be a spokesman for the league for hamstrings, I will talk about ours.”
- “He’s done a heck of a job from a punting standpoint. We thought we had two NFL capable caliber punters when we came out of camp. We were fortunate to be able to reacquire him. I’d like to see him make sure that ball is not snapped when we have 10 guys on field goal as a holder, but his main job he’s doing a heck of a job as a punter.” -In reference to punter Jeremy Kapinos
49ers Week-Week 15
- “If I had a brother in coaching, I’d like him to be 10-3 at least.”-in reference to comparing how the two Harbaugh brothers coach.
