Mike Tomlin evaluates impact of weather conditions ahead of Week 16

If you’ve stepped outside basically anywhere in America on Saturday, you’re facing what NFL teams playing outdoors on Christmas Eve are as well — freezing temperatures.

Mike Tomlin and the Steelers are one of those teams, as they’ll be welcoming the Las Vegas Raiders to Pittsburgh on Saturday night. However, Tomlin isn’t making excuses, choosing to focus on his team’s attitude instead.

“I remind our staff and our players continually we’re not the only ones who have to make the adjustments relative to the weather. The weather is a factor for both teams. It affects both of us logistically in terms of how we get from point A to point B. It affects us in terms of the schematics and how the game might unfold from a planning standpoint, relative to those things,” stated Tomlin. “My point is that weather is a factor that’s not within any of our controls, and so as long as we do a relatively good job of dealing with it, meaning better than the Las Vegas Raiders, then that’s what I’m searching for. And I choose to talk to our guys in that way, so we have a can-do attitude regarding it because we understand there’s somebody else on the other end of this as well, and they have challenges as it pertains to it as well.

“Our attitude is usually going to dictate our outcome. We’ve got to have a can-do attitude. We recognize it’s a factor, but we also recognize we got a job to do so and so do the people that we play. And then we move through it with that spirit.”

While some of the most memorable games in NFL history have been affected by freezing temperatures, Tomlin also explained how different things are now with certain advancements in technology. While it may look unbearably cold for players on the field, the difference between what the Steelers will deal with on Saturday versus what NFL players of yesteryear had to face couldn’t be larger.

“It’s not even close to what it used to be on so many levels. There’s piping under NFL fields now where they don’t get frozen. Years ago when you’d watch legendary games on video, like the Ice Bowl between Green Bay and Dallas, you saw Bob Lilly literally digging his cleats into the ground trying to get footing before the offensive line came to the line of scrimmage. That’s never an issue in today’s game. There’s heating under all fields. The field is not going to be frozen,” explained Tomlin. “The bench area has heated benches and technology, there’s other technology in terms of hand warmers, foot warmers, and in the number of materials and things that you can wear now, it’s not nearly what it used to be.

“The most challenging component of the weather, man, are the poor fans sitting in the stands. We’re better off than they are, I promise you.”

It’s going to be cold on Saturday, but Mike Tomlin isn’t expecting his team to end up like Jack Torrance at the end of The Shining. The Steelers are hoping to keep their playoff chances alive, and they’ll have to brave the Raiders and the weather to do so.