Mike Tomlin, Bob Holtzman and the Art of Spilling Secrets

Mike Tomlin was, shall we say, slightly irritated.

Iron Mike was mad—someone had been talking, someone spilling a secret here or there and one of those just happened to fall on the waiting and willing ears of Bob Holtzman of that all-encompassing Evil Sports Programming Network up in Bristol, known to most of us as ESPN.

Seems old Bob just couldn't help himself, couldn't resist his shot at a "scoop" of sorts that Tomlin's Steelers might actually run a trick play against the Baltimore Ravens.

Can you imagine that, a trick play?

What sort of breaking news will they come up with next?

Somewhere in that playbook of his, Tomlin has been hiding football's equivalent of the Triple Lindy, and wouldn't it be great to break it out in the playoffs?

So perhaps Holtzman "buddy-buddyed" one of the players who may have innocently chirped "watch out for a trick play if the opportunity presents itself."

Next thing you know, it's all over the sports wires of the free world.

SCOOP!

ESPN had it first! See how great they are!

Which left Tomlin, a seemingly reserved fellow, stewing, simmering, his blood pressure slowly rising.

So fast-forward to this week, when Holtzman chirped up at a Steeler presser and asked Tomlin about handling the Jets defense.

Talk about the perfect set-up!

Tomlin pounced like a leopard in a tree. He leaped like a lion taking down its prey.

"It depends on whether or not you gave him my plays," gruffed Tomlin.

Yes, there used to be protocol back when a lot of practices weren't closed.

We slobs who used to cover sports full-time for a simple living sometimes actually knew players and coaches quite well. And we ended up "knowing" things, things that would have made for GREAT scoops—not good scoops, GREAT scoops.

Back in those days, "knowing things" and not putting them out there for the entire world brought you more on the inside and the ability to "know more things," which often helped when it came time to actually write something, knowing what really happened, what went down inside a locker room.

Not anymore.

It's one reason teams now have to close practices and keep everyone out.

After all, how else could you work on a "trick" play.

There's simply too many out there who would do just about anything for that "scoop."

As it turned out, Holtzman's scoop wasn't really a scoop at all. There was no trick play against the Ravens, just solid Steeler football.

Alas, no scoop, just a betrayal of someone who confided something, perhaps.

We'll leave you with this story:

Once upon a time, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were interviewing candidates to be the very first coach of the new franchise. All sorts of names were being bantered.

One afternoon, a young writer, sitting at his desk at the Tampa Tribune, had a call come in.

The voice on the line was a familiar one, an old friend:

"Tommy, can you pick me up at the airport tomorrow morning at 11?" he asked.

"Sure will," the young writer responded.

The next day I picked Hank Stram up at Tampa International and drove him over to One Buccaneer Place.

Hank asked me if I could wait for him, probably two hours. Sure, I told him, anything for a friend.

It was nearly two hours later and there he was and there we were on our way back to the airport. I dropped him off curbside and headed to the office.

Hank was there as one of the two finalists for the job. No one knew he had come in and they didn't know afterwards.

It was never written, never told.

But now you know.

It was friendship vs. scoop and Hank would become a great source for many years to come.

It was one story that I'm glad I didn't write.

It was simply the art of keeping one secret in order to learn many in the future.

And it is now a very lost art.

Just ask Bob Holtzman.