In the aftermath of the putrid Ravens-Steelers regular-season finale earlier this month, we wrote here of how wretchedly both teams had played.
Now, slightly more than a week later, Ravens coach John Harbaugh has been fired and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has bowed to public pressure and resigned.
Tomlin and the Steelers put a good face on it all when the news broke Tuesday, but one has to wonder if the Steelers edged Tomlin to the door by demanding, perhaps, that he change his coaching staff wholesale. Legendary Steelers coach Chuck Noll was thought to have considered seriously resigning after a 1988 season, when Dan Rooney demanded he fire assistant coaches.
There was speculation of more of that behind-the-scenes intrigue when Noll did officially “retire” after the 1991 season.
Perhaps details of the Tomlin reasoning will leak out over time. For now, he has resigned. What we do know is there currently is an abundance of coaching openings in the NFL and I’d like to go on record proposing a wacky solution for two of them.
What if the Steelers and Ravens trade coaches?
Tomlin for Harbaugh, even up. Both coaches had existing contracts with their former employers. Both coaches had won Super Bowls previously in their careers, but had been experiencing slim playoff pickings more recently.
It has been argued that what both men needed was a fresh start, a change of scenery.
Many are speculating Tomlin won’t coach again until at least 2028, but Harbaugh already is making the rounds of NFL teams with coaching vacancies looking for a new place to hang his whistle.
It would be so ironic were Steelers fans to be expected to embrace the hated Harabugh. Same for Ravens fans and Tomlin.
The two coaches would need to face each other in games twice each season, producing soap opera story lines until either, or both, again were fired or quit.
Trades for coaches have happened before in the NFL. Back in 1970, Miami poached Don Shula from Baltimore, in what became a trade when the Dolphins were adjudged to have tampered with another league franchise and had to send Baltimore a first-round draft pick.
The New England Patriots sent first-, fourth- and fifth-round picks to the New York Jets to get Bill Belichick in 2000.
There have been others, including in 2023, when the Denver Broncos shipped first- and second-round picks to New Orleans in exchange for Sean Payton and a fourth-round pick.
Hell, the Pirates grabbed Chuck Tanner in a November 1976 trade, sending catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000 to Oakland to get Tanner as manager.
Admittedly, this Harbaugh-Tomlin proposal would be the first heads-up trade of head coaches we can find in the NFL. But, judging by the success of previous coaching trades, it seems to be better than a mere novelty suggestion.
It would not, however, be the largest trade in NFL history. That came in 1972, when Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, swapped franchises with Baltimore Colts owner Jim Irsay.
The coaches, the players, the uniforms, the whole ball of wax, got exchanged.
In intervening years, both host cities lost their franchises. There are Cleveland aspects to both stories
The Rams, who had begun life in Cleveland (1937-1945), moved to Los Angeles (1946-94), then to St. Louis (1995-2015) and back to Los Angeles (2016-present).
The Colts have moved to Indianapolis in 1984, being replaced when the Cleveland Browns moved to town as the Baltimore Ravens for the 1996 season.
Just one question: If we’re going to trade Tomlin for Harbaugh, what’s the Cleveland angle?
Sam Ross Jr's site 