Pittsburgh is a blue city and has been since 1934. That’s when the last Republican occupied the town’s mayor’s office. Today, in addition to the city having a Democrat mayor, the Allegheny County Executive, who governs over the larger Pittsburgh metropolitan area, is Sara Innamorato. She entered politics as a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). She only left that party for the actual Democrats to set herself up for the office she now holds.
While Pittsburgh is like many old blue cities across America, it traces its flavor of Democrat politics to the strong unionist culture that took hold of the region over 100 years ago when the likes of Andrew Carnegie and other titans of industry made steel here. That sort of left-of-center political culture still exists today in the region, which is why you don’t see the same sort of anarchy here that you do see in places like Portland, Ore., Seattle, and Chicago. As today's leftism goes, the brand here is a "conservative" one.
Western Pennsylvanians, for the most part, outside of the most extreme leftist pockets in the city, still have an appreciation for things like common sense, strength, and hard work. That’s why the brand and the style of play for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers is and always has been a sort of brass knuckles approach to football. The Rooney family, who know their market, have made sure of this. And that has played into their selection of and their loyalty to their head coaches.
The team has only had three head coaches since 1969. Current head coach Mike Tomlin, though only 53 years old, has been on the job for the past 19 years. He is the longest tenured head coach in the NFL. Needless to say, the Steelers and their hometown aren’t big fans of change.
All of this is important to consider when you hear what Tomlin had to say after Sunday night’s thrilling and decisive game against the Baltimore Ravens, where the Steelers came out on top after the Ravens’ rookie kicker missed a field goal. In his post-game presser, a reporter asked Tomlin a what-if question. What if that kicker made that field goal, then what?
Not only did Tomlin answer the question in true Tomlin style, but he inadvertently destroyed transgenderism in the process, and Pittsburghers loved it.
#Steelers HC Mike Tomlin on if Baltimore made the game-winning kick.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) January 5, 2026
"You know how it is. If my aunt had male parts, she'd be my uncle." 😭😭 https://t.co/CaNkT4LiBI pic.twitter.com/TlSQdijH0U
In the team's own posting of the press conference video, the Steelers apparently edited the money quote out, but that hasn’t stopped it from going viral and likely forcing the Steelers’ PR department into some level of damage control mode.
Keep in mind, the late Dan Rooney, the architect of the Steelers’ success as a franchise, was Barack Obama’s ambassador to Ireland. As for Tomlin, he hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton when she ran for president in 2016. The franchise is all-in on the NFL's wokeness, and Tomlin is no conservative.
But he does have some of those traits Pittsburghers embrace. He likes to project strength and masculinity. There is no nuance with him. He really doesn’t make excuses. And he gets involved with the community, like really involved.
People from outside of Pittsburgh have no idea how much this matters to Steeler fans. This is why people love him here and why he’s been able to hold onto his job in spite of some pretty average seasons of late.
He knows this town won’t tolerate anything else. Comedian Dennis Miller, who is a Pittsburgh native, once said of his hometown, and since I’m going by memory here, I’m paraphrasing: “You get about 30 seconds to prove you’re the real deal. If you don’t you’re toast.”
Needless to say, I don’t agree with Tomlin’s politics or his coaching. I still would like to see the Steelers take their time and start fresh with a new head coach. In a football sense, he lost me years ago, and now I just think it’s time. Even though the Steelers won their division and now face the Houston Texans in a playoff game, no objective Steeler fan expects them to bring home another Lombardi trophy this year. As Tomlin himself would say, that is “the standard” for this team and its fans.
Still, you can’t argue with Tomlin on the simplicity and the truth of what he said on Sunday night. Men can’t be women, and everyone knows it. It’s obvious. All of transgenderism is a lie built on semantics, coupled with Frankenstein-like medical mutilation. Now we wait for the left to mount their fake outrage over Tomlin's words, which require no defense. As for his team, it does, particularly in the secondary.
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