Lotsa Tomlin Love

TAMPA - Just back from a quick lunch at Champions in the Marriott next to the convention center. Solid quesadilla (also pronounced CASE -uh-Dill-uh).

I dined with ESPN's Michael Smith, a friend I competed with on the Patriots beat when he was at the Boston Globe and I was at the Providence Journal.

We spent much of the time discussing whether or not Tom Brady will be full-go for the start of the 2009 regular season.

After a while of batting that hypothetical back and forth, Smith's ESPN colleague Tom Jackson sat down with us. Explaining that he was in Pittsburgh last week working on interviews that will run on the station, Jackson couldn't get over how commanding and impressive Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was.

I had the same take on Tomlin in the days leading into the AFC Championship game. When he speaks, there's never an "uh" or an "ummm" or a search for the right word. It's all right there, stream-of-consciousness, run through a wall stuff that Tomlin delivers in such a brutally honest but matter-of-fact way.

Said Jackson, "We finished talking and I said, 'How old are you again?' I'm 57. And he was just so impressive."

-- Tom E. Curran