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By Andrew Gould
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Mike Tomlin had plenty of fun at the Cleveland Browns' expense while coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's not taking it easy on his former AFC North foe in a new role.
After 19 seasons on the sideline, Tomlin began working for NBC as an NFL analyst this week. The 54-year-old quickly proved he won't pull punches when mocking the Browns.
During the opening week's Football Night in America, NBC aired a clip of Deshaun Watson throwing an interception early in Cleveland's 34-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tomlin quoted a former Steelers wide receiver to mock the downtrodden franchise.
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"In the words of my friend JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Browns is the Browns," Tomlin said.
The Browns did nothing to challenge that negative reputation on Sunday, mustering 272 total yards on the road. Watson took five sacks in his first game since 2024, and Trevor Lawrence threw four touchdown passes to five incompletions.
Sunday's game wasn't an auspicious start to Todd Monken's head coaching tenure. He was asked about Tomlin's comments during Monday's virtual press conference.
"Everybody's afforded their opinions," Monken said, per Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot. "That's what you do when you go from coaching to television, and we have to own that. We have to own that. We didn't play very well."
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Monken doesn't agree with the sentiment behind Tomlin's jab, but he acknowledged that it's up to the Browns to improve the public's perception of the organization. They can start by defeating Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday.
"I don't see it that way. Every week is different, every team is different. We just didn't play well," Monken said. "That's just one week. That's not Browns being Browns, that's Browns playing poorly in one week. So again, everybody is afforded their opinion, and the only way to change people's opinions is to play better. That's a fact. We don't want to be considered an also-ran, then we have to play better. We got to coach better. We got to play better."
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