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."--

John Harris is a veteran journalist who has covered sports, culture, race, and the executive search industry for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, Tampa Bay Times, ESPN's Andscape, CBS Sportsline, and others. Formerly the co-host of The Ike Taylor Show and radio analyst of the Pittsburgh Power (Arena Football League), Harris is also the co-author of From Gold Teeth to Gold Jacket (with Edgerrin James). He resides in Austin, Texas. Tony Dungy is a Hall of Fame football coach and New York Times bestselling author. Most known for creating a winning tradition as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and leading the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI, he was the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl. The coach responsible for bringing Mike Tomlin to the NFL, Dungy was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016 and currently serves as an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America.