Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin apologized Tuesday for a poor choice of words to describe the New England Patriots. The words he used to describe how his Patriots commentary received mass distribution, though, was spot on.
Tomlin used an unsavory term to describe the Patriots, who the Steelers will visit Sunday in the AFC championship game, as receiver Antonio Brown broadcast the coach's postgame speech live on Brown's Facebook feed.
So, here's the problem with that.
First, that broadcast was against NFL rules.
Second, Tomlin had no idea Brown was doing it.
Apparently, neither did his teammates, who cautioned each other to lay low on social media in the days leading up to the conference title game.
Whoops.
On Tuesday, Tomlin said the situation, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't a big deal. And it really isn't - coach says something he thinks was private, finds out it wasn't. There were better ways to go about his postgame speech, and he admitted that.
And he was right to knock Brown for flouting team and NFL rules in broadcasting the speech over his phone, calling it "foolish," "selfish" and "inconsiderate."
He also was right to punish Brown, but make sure he's available for Sunday's game. It's a situation where Brown's behavior needs to be corrected, but doesn't rise to the level of compromising the team's entire game plan in the process.
It will be interesting, however, to see how some of Brown's teammates approach him after this. Some, like long snapper Greg Warren and offensive lineman Ramon Foster, downplayed the incident. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger expressed some disappointment in Brown's actions during a radio interview, calling the locker room "sacred."
There's a reason why there are cooling-off periods after games. Athletes who have just finished a high-energy, high-stress performance still are running on adrenaline in the minutes after a game. They need a little time to decompress so that adrenaline doesn't put words in their mouths that they'll regret.
Now, if after that cooling-off period the athlete still wants to shoot off his mouth, what he says is fair game. But in the moments following an important win, Tomlin should have been able to talk to his team without his words being heard by hundreds of thousands. And it's definitely not fair to anyone in the locker room that their words and actions were broadcast without their knowledge or permission. Besides being against team and league rules, it also flies against being a decent coworker.
This could be a lesson for not just the rest of the NFL, but sports teams across the spectrum. Technology can be a great thing, granting anyone the ability to communicate to dozens, hundreds or even thousands with one press of a button. There must be some discretion, though, because the Steelers now must answer questions about Brown's Facebook rather than focus solely on the Patriots.
And, to paraphrase Tomlin (after all, this is a family publication), the Steelers spotted the Patriots a day and a half in preparation. Do they really need any other distractions before they visit New England?
Tomlin has done a pretty good job of reducing the impact of Brown's Sunday Facebook follies. The rest of the sporting world should use it as a teaching moment, and make sure phones stay in pockets and out of sight as the heat of competition subsides.
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.