ESPN Author Targets OutKick Fans While Claiming Mike Tomlin Had It Rough Coaching In White-Dominant Pittsburgh

On occasion, OutKick fans will get directly mentioned by the media. That happened on Friday, when ESPN-owned, race-baiting blog "Andscape" wrote a piece about former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

Jesse Washington wrote an article titled, "In a Place Like Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin Could Never Escape the Shadow of Race." In the fourth paragraph, he said:

"Calm down, Outkick fans – nobody is saying Tomlin lost his job because he’s Black."

Actually, Jesse, it seems like practically everything you're writing has to do with race.

To be clear, Washington, who misspelled our website's name (it's OutKick, with a capital K), never explicitly stated in his article that Tomlin stepped down because people hated his skin color. Bravo, well done, props on that one, Jesse.

But, here's where Jesse goes off the rails. As expected from a title like, "In a Place Like Pittsburgh, Mike Tomlin Could Never Escape the Shadow of Race," there were race-baiting overtones to the whole thing. Evidently, he thinks that OutKick readers (and authors) will be disarmed by his one hedging statement.

But people associated with OutKick, be it the writers or fans, are far too intelligent for that, and they can easily see that the rest of Washington's article is chock-full of racist insinuations.

Washington Never Sufficiently Supports His Arguments

Washington details Tomlin’s rise to head coach in Pittsburgh, which he calls the "whitest major metropolitan area in the country." He irresponsibly uses that fact to assert that a city with a lot of white citizens will automatically look down on blacks because, well, they’re white.

"People don’t necessarily realize how white Pittsburgh is until you come here," Damon Young, a writer whom Washington quoted, said. "It’s a solidly blue city, but it’s a conservative blue, an older population – not that older populations are necessarily more likely to have biases, but this is a white city with people who have their attitudes about race and about racism."

What are those attitudes? Where’s the evidence that supports those claims? Can we safely say that being an older white person makes you a racist?

Neither Young nor Washington take those extra steps, which is insidious to begin with. 

Washington went on to claim that Tomlin being called "Mike" in press conferences early in his career by an "almost entirely white press corps" was problematic. Apparently, Washington believes being a white reporter in Pittsburgh means not being able to "properly" respect a black coach.

But thanks to OutKick’s seasoned NFL reporter, Armando Salguero, I learned that this isn’t all that surprising. He said that depending on the rapport reporters have with a coach, they might refer to him by his first name and that doing so is generally not disrespectful. 

(To counter Washington’s point, maybe the reporters had a good, friendly relationship with the coach?).

Washington’s observation again does two things: 1) it asserts that his perception of that dynamic is fueled by a racist group of white reporters and 2) avoids any responsibility to support it with anything but his opinion.

Washington's final crazy point takes the cake.

Through an impressive display of mental gymnastics, Washington concludes that the league’s "Rooney Rule" which is being targeted by the Trump administration's crackdown on DEI hiring methods, indirectly influenced Tomlin’s decision to step down. (The "Rooney Rule" is an initiative that incentivizes teams to consider and hire black coaches for positions of higher authority).

Once again, everything is Trump’s fault. Washington uses a quote from Young to make his point:

"I don’t think Tomlin left because of what’s happening in Washington," Young said, "but you can’t not pay attention to the power of the bully pulpit. It gives people more power to be their worst selves instead of striving to be something better…I think that we, as fans, fail to see the bigger picture."

Pittsburgh Fans Aren't Racist, But Washington Sure Wants To Portray Them As Such

Well, that was a load of nonsense. 

Insulting the intelligence of our audience is both ridiculous and frustrating for starters; that's not going to fly with me or anyone on the site. Following it up with a bunch of assertions that have no credence is even more absurd.

If Washington is going to make the damning claim that a white-majority city made life for a black head coach hard, he had better come with a lot of receipts. But he didn’t, instead opting to tarnish the reputation of a city, fanbase, and group of people based on his opinion.

Head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers during a game against the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium on January 4, 2026 in Pittsburgh. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)

Are there white fans who might actually hate Tomlin because he is black? Maybe. But Washington fails to support his claim that those people are the majority and that Tomlin had an added layer of difficulty in coaching the Steelers because of it.

Seems like Washington is race-baiting and fabricating something that didn't exist.