Mike Tomlin is barely a week into his new job talking football on television, and already the old rivalry leaked out.
The former Steelers coach, now working as an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America,” made no secret that he remains a Pittsburgh guy at heart. When the show turned to the Cleveland Browns’ 34-10 loss at Jacksonville on Sunday, he reached for a line Steelers fans have been quoting for years.
“In the words of my good friend JuJu Smith-Schuster would say, the Browns is the Browns,” Tomlin said.
He dropped the remark after host Maria Taylor recapped the blowout and the group discussed Deshaun Watson’s interception. Watson, making his first start since 2024 after a torn Achilles, completed 16 of 22 passes for 205 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked five times.
The Jaguars led 24-0 at halftime and never looked back. Trevor Lawrence threw four touchdown passes. Cleveland managed only a field goal in the third quarter and a late garbage-time score.
Tomlin’s one-liner was not new. Smith-Schuster first used it in January 2021, days before the Steelers hosted the Browns in an AFC wild-card game.
Asked whether that Cleveland team was different from the ones Pittsburgh had beaten for years, the then-Steelers receiver said: “I think they’re still the same Cleveland Browns from every year. I think they’re good, but at the end of the day, I don’t know. The Browns is the Browns.”
He also called them “nameless gray faces.”
Cleveland took the comments personally. Players chanted the phrase. Baker Mayfield posted about it. The Browns jumped out to a 28-0 first-quarter lead and won 48-37, ending Pittsburgh’s season.
Smith-Schuster did not back down afterward.
“I don’t regret saying what I said,” he told reporters. “I said the Browns is the Browns. They came out and played a hell of a game.”
The line followed him. He later joked he should have trademarked it after Cleveland put it on billboards.
Tomlin coached through that painful night and many others against the Browns. As Steelers head coach he went 28-9-1 against them in the regular season. The only postseason meeting was that 2021 wild-card loss.
Home games in Pittsburgh were even more one-sided. Tomlin was 19-0 against Cleveland in the regular season at Heinz Field and Acrisure Stadium.
Smith-Schuster left Pittsburgh after the 2021 season. He played for the Chiefs, then the Patriots, then returned to Kansas City. He is now 29 and a free agent.
Tomlin stepped away from coaching after 19 seasons and no losing records. He has said he likes the “performance anxiety” of being the new guy on TV. He also has made clear the Steelers still come first.
The timing of the comment was not lost on anyone who follows the AFC North. Pittsburgh and Cleveland meet again on Thursday night, Oct. 1, in Cleveland.
For one afternoon, at least, the former coach could not resist reminding viewers of the old punch line. The Browns, once again, looked like the Browns.
