The Steelers get their man, a bit of a risky move

Well it looks like the Steelers did the unconventional thing in hiring their next coach.  Instead of going with the safe pick, their current assistant head coach, Russ Grimm, they reached for a 34 year old, defensive coordinator, Mike Tomlin.  Tomlin was only a defensive coordinator for one year and prior to that was an assistant coach, defensive secondary for Tampa Bay for 5 years. Prior to that he was an assistant coach for several colleges.  More disturbing to me is that Tomlin is a big proponent of a 4-3 defense and the Steelers are built for a 3-4 defense.  This spells big changes ahead.  Additionally, it means that Grimm will leave after being passed over. Dick LeBeau, current defensive coordinator and father of the zone blitz, will also probably leave, as has Ken Wisenhut the offensive coordinator.  This all from a team only one year removed from winning the Super Bowl.

I just can't help but think the Rooney family (they own the Steelers) has taken a big risk here, at a time they really didn't have too.  I feel like they just wanted to follow the formula they have followed the last two times, which was to hire a young, relatively unknown defensive coach.  But I don't think they have hired a coach while the team was still so competitive before.  It is going to take 3 years for Tomlin to change things to his liking and it will be a long three years.  By the way, I don't buy into the whole thing of mentioning that Tomlin is an African-American and give that as a reason he was hired.  With both coaches of this years Super Bowl teams African-Americans, I think it is time we stop classifying football coaches by the color of their skin. They are coaches and should be judged by their won-loss record and thats it.