Allen Park — The Lions don’t play the Pittsburgh Steelers all that often — once every four years — but when the sides meet, it’s easy to cast an enviable eye across Lake Erie at the sustained success the opposition has experienced.
Remarkably, it’s been 19 years since the Steelers have had a losing season. During that nearly two-decade stretch, they’ve won eight division championships, made 11 postseason appearances and won the franchise’s fifth and sixth Super Bowls.
The Steelers have had just two coaches during that time, Bill Cowher, who stepped down after the 2006 season and Mike Tomlin, who is in his 15th season with the franchise. And through it all the team has managed to maintain a culture and identity long recognized around the league, envied by many and replicated by almost no one.
“Regardless of all the things you just outlined about the history, the success and so one and so forth here, we better be prepared to earn it daily,” Tomlin said in a call with Detroit beat reporters this week. “That’s a real thing. It’s very fragile. Environmentally, it’s very fragile. The chemistry associated with creating a winning culture is very fragile. You better be prepared to work it daily.”
When things are going sideways for a franchise, one of the frequently discussed topics is whether the coaching staff’s message is getting through to the players. That might be the most amazing part of Tomlin’s tenure — he’s never come close to losing the Steelers locker room.
“The butts in the seats are different,” Tomlin, 49, highlighted as the secret to continuing to resonate with his roster. “Although I’ve been standing in there for 15 years, the only guy that’s really been standing in there receiving that message is (quarterback) Ben (Roethlisberger). That’s just the reality of our business, man. You as a presenter, or somebody that delivers the information, you get tired of hearing yourself saying it usually before the audience does because the audience is ever changing.”
Things are obviously different in Detroit. They can safely be described as the anti-Steelers. The franchise has long lacked success, and has attempted to change its culture and identity more than a dozen times.
The latest iteration is under the guidance of first-year head coach Dan Campbell, who is weathering the storm of an 0-8 start to his tenure, while dreaming of capturing just a taste of what has made the Steelers the NFL’s gold standard.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for Mike Tomlin, I really do,” Campbell said. “They’re competitive every year, year in and year out. You know when you go to play them, you know what kind of game it’s going to be, it doesn’t matter. Man, I do. For me, it is. It’s like you would love to be sitting here down the road saying, ‘All right man, this is the type of program we have.’”
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What does Campbell want his team to eventually look like? Well, not surprisingly, not all that different from the Steelers.
“We would be built on defense and an explosive run and pass game,” Campbell said. “That’s what it would be, but the first thing you would think of is defense and then from there we would be an explosive run and pass team. That’s probably it in a nutshell.”
The Lions remain far away from that goal. Only the New York Jets are allowing more points per game and Detroit’s offense has been anything but explosive, averaging 16.8 points per contest.
But the Steelers are who they are because they don’t rest on their laurels and they won’t take their winless foe lightly this Sunday.
“Their record is irrelevant to me. We’re in the National Football League,” Tomlin said. “This isn’t college football. We’re not playing an FCS team this week, we’re not playing a Group of Five team this week, this is not homecoming. We better step in the stadium and respect them as the peers that they are. They are professionals, they are compensated that way, players and coaches, so we’re working with an edge. We realize there’s a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes in this league.”
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And although Tomlin has never been in Campbell’s shoes, having never lost more than eight games in a season as Steelers coach, he does see one area where his counterpart is on the right track toward leading the woeful franchise out of its darkness.
“I love the passion and his messaging, how authentic it is,” Tomlin said. “It is him. Thankfully, I’ve been in this league long enough to remember him as a player and he played the way he coaches. I have a lot of respect for that.
“You know, being authentic and being yourself is an anchor or a compass in unsteady waters of circumstance. The challenges are ever-changing and (that’s) consistent in our game and our business, but your gut you have to trust. You have to take the approach that is you and you can’t vary too far away from that, because if you do, you’re simply blowing in the wind.”
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jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers