If Mike Tomlin Goes to TV, His Impact Will Be Limited

1. From the moment the sports world found out that Mike Tomlin was stepping down as coach of the Steelers, people in sports media have speculated about his future on television. With the thinking that Tomlin needs a year off from coaching, there has been full-blown analysis of “Mike Tomlin’s TV destinations.”

Here’s the truth: The “destinations” aren’t great. In addition, there isn’t a “destination” where Tomlin could have significant impact.

Let’s start with lead game analyst. All of those jobs are taken. Tony Romo is under contract with CBS until 2030. Tom Brady is locked in at Fox. Cris Collinsworth just re-signed with NBC. ESPN isn’t parting ways with Troy Aikman. And Kirk Herbstreit has another year left on his deal with Amazon.

O.K., how about Tomlin landing a job as a No. 2 analyst? CBS hit a home run this season with J.J. Watt, so he’s not going anywhere. And Fox has the guy a lot of fans think is the best analyst on TV as its No. 2 guy in Greg Olsen.

So, when it comes to calling games, Tomlin would need something crazy to happen, such as Aikman leaving ESPN for a front office job or Herbstreit deciding he has too many jobs and travels too much and wants to move on from Thursday Night Football.

In addition, networks would be hesitant to give Tomlin a No. 1 or No. 2 job because they know he’ll probably be back to coaching after a year or two.

That leaves the studio shows. CBS has an opening with Matt Ryan leaving for the Falcons front office job. Fox has a major fetish for big names. Amazon has unlimited money.

If there is a bidding war for Tomlin’s services, it will be for the studio. The problem with studio, though, is that it’s hard to have any impact there. Studio shows just don’t move the needle. Look at Jason Kelce. It was this huge thing when ESPN hired him for its Monday Night Football pregame show. Outside of when he wears some ridiculous costume (so wacky!), have you heard one word about anything he’s said on the show? Fox’s studio show only gets attention when Terry Bradshaw makes an embarrassing blunder. Amazon might get some mileage out of Ryan Fitzpatrick taking off his shirt (so wacky!), but that’s about it.

The bottom line is for an analyst to make an impact, they need to be calling games. Look at Watt. He did CBS’s studio show for two seasons. He didn’t get much attention at all. This year, he was moved into the booth and every Sunday, social media was filled with “J.J. Watt is awesome” missives.

So, while “Which TV job is best for Mike Tomlin” is easy content, the truth is that there isn’t a great job out there for the future Hall of Famer.

2. Here are the viewership numbers for the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs. (Texans-Steelers isn’t available yet).

Rams-Panthers, Fox: 28 million
Packers-Bears, Prime: 31.6 million
Bills-Jaguars, CBS: 32.7 million
Niners-Eagles, Fox: 41 million
Chargers-Patriots, NBC: 28.9 million

Quick takes: NBC got killed with Chargers-Patriots being an awful game. That Packers-Bears number would’ve gotten into the mid-30 million if it was on network television instead of a streaming service. Niners-Eagles was in the money timeslot, but 41 million viewers is still a massive win for Fox.

3. Speaking of ratings, I don’t understand this one at all.

Thursday’s Miami-Ole Miss semifinal game drew 15.8 million viewers. The game was competitive from start to finish, with the Hurricanes pulling out a 31–27 win after scoring a touchdown with just 18 seconds remaining.

The Oregon-Indiana game on Friday, which was a non-competitive 56–22 blowout that saw the Hoosiers up 35-7 at halftime, drew 18 million viewers.

4. Adam Schein, who works for CBS, was able to land CBS’s Tony Romo for an interview Wednesday on his daily SiriusXM radio show. In a roundabout way, Schein asked Romo about the significant blowback regarding his performance during Sunday’s Bills-Jags game.

In an interview this morning with SiriusXM’s Adam Schein, Tony Romo sort of responds to the negative response to his call of Bills-Jaguars. It was also revealed that Romo was sick on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/Guw2UzFpDe
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) January 14, 2026

5. It doesn’t happen often. It’s truly become a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. But every now and then you get a reminder that the app formerly known as Twitter used to be fun.

Marvin Gaye did not have a single clue what was going on in the world lmaooooo pic.twitter.com/8ynvFZ5qHA
— The Nomad (@KiranTheNomad) January 12, 2026

6. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with ESPN workhorse Laura Rutledge.

Rutledge talks about her various jobs, which include NFL Live, SEC Nation, Monday Night Football and sideline reporting during the college football playoffs.

In addition, Rutledge shares her side of recent “controversies” regarding her postgame interviews with Justin Herbert and Sam Darnold and discusses getting the Chris Berman treatment for her viral sprint from doing a halftime interview to the set to host halftime of the Sugar Bowl.

Rutledge also talks about her worst halftime interview, the job she likes the most and what she watches in the little downtime she gets and much more.

Following Rutledge, SNY’s Sal Licata joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discussed our Christmas and New Year’s holidays, talked NFL playoffs and gave out some television recommendations.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 57th birthday to Jason Bateman. I’ve highly recommended the Smartless series that aired on HBO a couple of years ago. If you’ve never watched it, do so immediately.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.