LATROBE, Pa. – Mike Tomlin has been ready for some football ever since the lockout ended on July 25. On Sunday, he's finally going to see some.
The Steelers have completed what could be referred to as the OTA phase of this training camp. According to the rules laid out once the lockout was ended, teams were permitted only to put players through conditioning on the first day of training camp and then that was to be followed by two mandatory days of workouts without pads. Those requirements were completed on Saturday afternoon at Saint Vincent College.
And as a guy who never has been shy about talking about how much he loves training camp, Tomlin was excited about getting the hitting started.
"It's football," said Tomlin. "We're going to come out with the pads on, and we're going to play football."
The session, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 2:55 p.m., and if the day turns out to be hotter than the forecast calling for a high temperature of 87-degrees, well that would be fine with Tomlin, too.
"A good afternoon's work and a nice hot day for us," said Tomlin after the Saturday afternoon session. "We need that as we continue to develop as a team and, of course, particularly from a conditioning standpoint. I like the energy and enthusiasm and some great coaching points, giving and receiving of information. Really, that's kind of where we are."
Tomlin then explained where the Steelers are from an in jury standpoint.
"Emmanuel Sanders has some discomfort in his foot, and we're going to give him a few days and just continue to evaluate him. Marcus Gilbert has a hamstring, Limas Sweed has a hamstring,
and Curtis Brown had an illness. Some minor training camp-like things, and we'll continue to work through those."
But even nagging injuries were not enough to darken Tomlin's mood.
"Absolutely not," he said. "We're going to play football tomorrow."
