NFL Coach Takes Dig At ESPN Reporter

Last Saturday, ESPN’s Bob Holtzman reported that the Pittsburgh Steelers were planning on using a trick play during the team’s AFC divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. Mike Tomlin was not pleased and let Holtzman know it during a press conference this week.

“Two Steelers have told me, if they catch the Ravens in the right defense, they have a trick play ready to go today that they’ve never run before,” Holtzman said in a live report before the game. He went on to suggest that the play was to involve wide receiver Antwaan Randle El(notes) throwing the ball.

[Rewind: Team busted, fined thousands for videotaping signals]

It was an egregious breach of reporting etiquette. Beat writers and television reporters often see teams running gadget plays in practice and hear tidbits about game plans from players and it’s understood that such information is off the record. Holtzman didn’t follow protocol and it earned him a rebuke from Tomlin in the coach’s Wednesday press conference.

Holtzman, whom ESPN should have sent elsewhere this week, set up the coach by asking, “what extra time and preparation does it take to prepare for a Rex Ryan defense?”

“It depends on whether or not you gave him my plays,” Tomlin curtly responded before moving on to another question. The exchange begins at the 1:34 mark of the clip below.