Steelers coach pays dearly for fancy footwork

Six-figure fine and possible lost draft picks a high price for wandering

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stands on the sideline during a game against the Baltimore Ravens earlier this year. Tomlin has been fined $100,000 for interfering with a play against the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving. The NFL also said it would consider docking Pittsburgh a draft pick "because the conduct affected a play on the field." Gail Burton / AP Photo
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As the biggest, baddest league of all, the NFL could not impose some small fine against Pittsburgh’s wandering coach, Mike Tomlin. Not after the NBA docked Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd US$50,000 (Dh183,264) for his intentional faux pas a week earlier.

So, when the Steelers’ wheeler-dealer was found guilty of stepping on to the field while standing in a no-trespassing zone on the sideline and disrupting a kick-off return by Jacoby Jones of Baltimore, the league hit him with a $100,000 sanction.

Worse, there could be a hangover, since the league left open the painful possibility of taking away some of the team’s draft picks.

The penalty seems harsh if Tomlin’s near-tripping of Jones was inadvertent, which he claims.

Kidd, on the other hand, purposely dropped a drink on the court so that he could convey a last-second play to the Nets during the clean-up.

Tomlin’s apology was not delivered until several days after the incident, which might have served to inflate the punitive tab. In league commissioner Roger Goodell’s justice system, it is preferable to fess up promptly.

Jones knows all about missteps, as well. On the ultra-popular US television series Dancing With the Stars this year, he and his dance partner, Karina Smirnoff, stumbled their way into last place on the first night of competition before his footwork became impeccable.

They rallied with a perfect score in the final round to wind up in third place.

sports@thenational.ae