Mike Tomlin

8:30, Invesco Field. TV: ESPN. Steelers by 3. The skinny: Pittsburgh (5-2) had a bye after its big win over Minnesota in Week 7. Denver (6-1) is coming off a 30-7 stomping by Baltimore. It's the first adversity Josh McDaniels has faced since the Brandon Marshall saga in the off-season. That worked out well; Marshall has had a decent season. Mike Tomlin's team has won four in a row after a two-game losing streak.

New Minnesota coach Brad Childress made his first official hire yesterday, choosing Tampa Bay defensive-backs coach Mike Tomlin to be the Vikings' defensive coordinator. The 33-year-old Tomlin spent the last five years with the Buccaneers. They led the NFL this season in fewest yards allowed, the second time that happened during Tomlin's tenure. He replaces Ted Cottrell, who was fired over the weekend by Childress along with most of the remaining assistants who served under coach Mike Tice.

Rod Stewart is a strange dude. That might have something to do with his unequaled collection of leather pants and his willingness to wear them in public. Even so, he's pretty perceptive, at least when it comes to Pennsylvania and its professional football franchises. Stewart sang about that, actually. Goes like this: Some guys have all the luck. Some guys have all the pain. Some guys get all the breaks. Some guys do nothing but complain.

IT APPEARS THAT a youth football camp in Pittsburgh has dropped Ben Roethlisberger like a pass across the middle to Ricky Watters. For who? Well, the Steelers quarterback is being replaced by his head coach, Mike Tomlin, as the headliner of the summer camp at Mars Area High School. For what? Camp officials didn't come right out and say so, but it may have something to do with Roethlisberger being accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old college student in Milledgeville, Ga., in March.

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin accepted the Pittsburgh Steelers' coaching job last night and was working out a four-year contract he hoped to complete today, people close to the search told the Associated Press. They requested anonymity because the Steelers have asked all parties involved in the search to not speak to reporters until they can make the announcement, which could come today or tomorrow. Tomlin is expected to make around $2.5 million per year, the going rate of late for first-time NFL coaching hires.

Straight answers, tweaked queries For a coach of a 2-0 team, Mike Tomlin sure was testy Tuesday. Angry that a TV talking head had described QB Ben Roethlisberger's sprained shoulder as separated - oh, the incompetence! - the Steelers coach went on a mini-tirade. What if, a Niffle staffer wondered, we turned Tomlin's meltdown into something like those beer commercials in which "funny" fake questions are inserted before a coach's actual answers? It might go something like this: Fake question: Coach Tomlin, did you drop this report as you walked by?

Former coach Bill Parcells, former star players Cris Carter and Jerome Bettis and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue are among 26 modern-era semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. After starring at Ohio State, Carter was drafted in the fourth round of the 1987 NFL supplemental draft by the Eagles. He was let go due to off-field issues after the 1989 season and became a star at Minnesota. Former Chiefs guard Will Shields was the only first-year eligible player to make the list.

Ben Roethlisberger spent the weekend in a clinic being evaluated as part of the sanctions handed down by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, according to a report. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette cited an unidentified team source as saying the evaluation will take days rather than weeks. Goodell suspended the Steelers quarterback six games without pay last month. A Steelers spokesman said the team is prohibited by league rule from discussing Roethlisberger's treatment. The two-time Super Bowl winner was ordered to undergo a "comprehensive behavioral evaluation by professionals" after violating the NFL's personal-conduct policy.

The Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday denied a report that they have settled on Minnesota Vikings assistant Mike Tomlin as the replacement for head coach Bill Cowher. Tomlin also denied the report, first posted on SI.com, Sports Illustrated's Web site, and later on ESPN.com. The Associated Press later said that not only has the job not been offered but there have been no contract negotiations. Both Steelers owner Dan Rooney and president Art Rooney III refused to comment last night.

Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was limping toward the end of practice yesterday after a teammate stepped on his left foot, but coach Mike Tomlin didn't seem worried. "I'm sure he's fine," Tomlin said. The Steelers didn't offer any more information, and they didn't appear concerned that Roethlisberger would be limited during practice today or might not play in Saturday's home exhibition game against Green Bay. Roethlisberger usually ends practice by signing autographs and chatting with fans, but he left the field immediately in a cart - apparently to have the foot checked.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called Ryan Clark into his office on Wednesday and told the safety he won't play in Denver's mile-high altitude. Clark carries a sickle-cell trait that becomes aggravated - and is potentially deadly - at higher elevations. He nearly died the last time he played in Denver, when the then-undiagnosed condition flared up and he ended up having his gall bladder and spleen removed in addition to losing 30 pounds.   Playoff preparations Pittsburgh (12-4)

Using Jeffrey Lurie's own remarkable logic, Eagles coach Andy Reid has no choice but to bring back Juan Castillo as his defensive coordinator for his make-or-break 2012 season. Seriously. If Reid wasn't fired for giving Castillo a job he was singularly unqualified for - and blowing an entire season as a result - how can he fire Castillo? If there are no consequences for Reid's failure of leadership in 2011, how can there be consequences for Castillo? How many scapegoats does this coach get, anyway?

Former coach Bill Parcells, former star players Cris Carter and Jerome Bettis and former commissioner Paul Tagliabue are among 26 modern-era semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. After starring at Ohio State, Carter was drafted in the fourth round of the 1987 NFL supplemental draft by the Eagles. He was let go due to off-field issues after the 1989 season and became a star at Minnesota. Former Chiefs guard Will Shields was the only first-year eligible player to make the list.

Here's a tip for those postseason "Meet 'n' Greets:" Don't slap Jim Schwartz on the back. Already smarting from taking his first loss of the season to the underdog 49ers, the Detroit coach walked slowly onto the field at the conclusion of Sunday's 25-19 defeat. San Francisco's Jim Harbaugh, a first-year NFL coach who still thinks he's playing for Michigan, came leaping across the field toward Schwartz, exuberantly pumping his right fist. Harbaugh then emphatically slapped Schwartz's hand and patted him on the back.

For a guy who's a billionaire oilman, with a glamorous weekend job, and who is married to a former Miss Arkansas, Jerry Jones sure can be a crybaby. The Dallas owner/general manager is still whining about losing Nnamdi Asomugha to the Eagles and recently claimed the cornerback really wanted to be a Cowboy. "We had known that he really wanted to be a Dallas Cowboy," Jones told the Dallas Morning News on Friday. "And that's a fact. There, for about an hour, I thought he was going to be a Dallas Cowboy.

DALLAS - The Eagles are not the only NFL team that makes the occasional head-scratching, what-are-they-thinking decision. Both of the teams in this year's Super Bowl are here largely because they were bold enough to make what seemed like logic-defying moves. The lesson: Get to the Super Bowl and those decisions appear visionary. Fail often enough and those decisions get people fired. When Bill Cowher stepped down after the 2006 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers had to hire a head coach for only the second time in nearly four decades.

DALLAS - Bruce Arians is so, uh, popular in Pittsburgh that Steelers fans have a website dedicated to him. It's called FireBruceArians.com. Eagles fans have pretty much become numb to the pass-happy ways of Andrew Walter Reid. Oh, there will be the occasional talk-show rant after Eagles running backs get just 13 carries in a five-point playoff loss, which was the case last month against the Packers. But for the most part, you have learned to grin and bear it. In 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust Pittsburgh, though, where they still genuflect at the mention of Franco Harris, they are not nearly as tolerant of coaches who like to utilize this strange weapon called the forward pass.

FORT WORTH, Texas - Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin did not rule out Maurkice Pouncey for the Super Bowl, although all signs point to the Steelers center sitting out Sunday's game. Pouncey has a high ankle sprain and was on crutches when the Steelers landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Monday. There have also been various reports that the rookie has a fracture in his ankle. "I'm sure it could be categorized as that," Tomlin said. "I'm sure I got something floating around in my ankle.

Rod Stewart is a strange dude. That might have something to do with his unequaled collection of leather pants and his willingness to wear them in public. Even so, he's pretty perceptive, at least when it comes to Pennsylvania and its professional football franchises. Stewart sang about that, actually. Goes like this: Some guys have all the luck. Some guys have all the pain. Some guys get all the breaks. Some guys do nothing but complain.