We are in the thick of the NFL playoffs, which also means teams that need a new head coach are busy shopping. And this year, there are a lot of shoppers, after more than 25% of teams said “thank you and goodbye” to the guy they started the season with.
Most of the coaches were fired. Most of them didn’t make the playoffs this year. Most of them didn’t even finish .500. None of that describes Mike Tomlin.
After leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to the team’s 25th division title — eight because of him — he decided to step down after 19 years on the job. Upon hearing the news, the Athletic reported, players became very emotional, including future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was said to be in tears. The players’ response is consistent with Tomlin’s decades-long reputation in the league as a great mentor and friend.
Unfortunately, because we’re all trapped in this what-have-you-done-for-me-lately meets rage-bait world, there is this narrative out there that Tomlin is not an all-time great coach. In fact, some Steelers fans online and former NFL players on podcasts are suggesting he was mediocre because the team hasn’t won a Super Bowl since President Obama’s first month in office. About a third of the league’s teams have won a championship since Tomlin. For the fanbase for teams like the Cleveland Browns or the Arizona Cardinals, a Super Bowl in any year would be enough. However, the Steelers faithful have a different history and higher expectations.
I get it.
That is still no reason to disrespect one of the greatest coaches in league history as he walks out the door. Recency bias typically comes with a dash of amnesia. Sprinkle in the pace of the modern news cycle and the algorithms’ insatiable hunger for outrage, and you can see why people are tempted to say negative things about someone who has never had a losing season. That achievement is not perfection, which is commonly the bar set on social media by naysayers in search of clicks, but it is unequivocal excellence. No other NFL coach with his number of years in charge can make such a claim. That is also true in the NBA, the MLB and the NHL.
The only quarterback the Steelers drafted in the first round during his era, Kenny Pickett in 2022, is currently on his fourth team. For perspective, Brock Purdy, the current San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback, was available. That’s not meant to be a dig at the Steelers front office. Every team has its hits and misses during the NFL draft. That’s just to remind you of Pittsburgh’s decadelong carousel under center. As coach, Tomlin has more seasons using three different starting quarterbacks than he does finishing the year 8-8.
There’s no medal or ring for never having a losing season. However, that accomplishment should always come with respect. Because winning an NFL game has never been easy.
For perspective, in 2022, while the Steelers were busy not drafting a franchise quarterback, former Rams coach Dick Vermeil was inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 15 years, Vermeil had seven losing seasons. Like Tomlin, he has one Super Bowl ring. Vermeil, who was famous for turning teams around in three seasons, left the game with a .525 win percentage. After two decades, Tomlin won 63% of his games, which ranks in the top 10 all time and is the best in Steelers history.
To question if he’s an all-time great isn’t just counterintuitive.
It’s disrespectful. And for what? To generate some content between playoff games? An irrational need to be a contrarian?
There’s more to Tomlin’s story that is being underdiscussed. Less than 2% of all K-12 teachers are Black men. The percentage of Black head football coaches in the top division has never been more than 15. Chances are Tomlin is the first Black man many of his players have ever witnessed be in charge. There have been stretches in which he was the only Black NFL head coach and thus the first person journalists reached out to when it’s time to talk about the Rooney Rule. He’s carried that unspoken responsibility, that invisible weight, quietly for 19 years.
And he did so without ever ending the season having lost more than he won.
Instead of asking if Tomlin is an all-time great, the conversation in the sports world should be focused on how great Tomlin is.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Morez Johnson Jr. scored a career-high 29 points, including 17 in the first half, and No. 2 Michigan beat No. 24 USC 96-66 on Friday night.
Roddy Gayle Jr. added 12 points for the Wolverines (13-0, 3-0 Big Ten), and Will Tschetter, Trey McKenney and L.J. Cason each scored 10.
Michigan is off to its best start since it won 17 straight games to start the 2018-19 season.
Jaden Brownell scored 16 points and Ezra Ausar added 15 for the Trojans (12-2, 1-2), whose only previous loss was by eight points against Washington on Dec. 6. Chad Baker-Mazara, who came into the game averaging 21 points, was hampered by early foul trouble and finished with 12 points on three-of-11 shooting.
Michigan starting guard Nimari Burnett was helped from the court with 16:25 left after falling during a battle under the basket. He went down to the floor and appeared to be bleeding above his eyebrow and holding his ankle. He sat on the bench the rest of the night.
The Wolverines bolted out to an 11-0 lead thanks to a defense that forced six early turnovers. USC got within five points twice in the first half and Michigan responded with a 32-19 run to build a 49-31 halftime advantage.
As we head into 2026 and Democrats try to figure out how to regain power, their New Year’s resolution should be simple: Manage egos better.
In recent years, they seem to have forgotten the time-tested necessity of placating people. In other words, doing the same basic drudgery the rest of us rely on to get through this chaotic world.
This effort cannot merely be directed toward voters, as important as they are. It must also include elite stakeholders, some of whom might (rightly) be considered kooks, weirdos and otherwise high-maintenance eccentrics.
Lest you think Dems should simply shrug off these folks and say “good riddance,” consider this: Both Trump terms might have been avoided if Democrats had been more willing to nurture the nuts in years gone by.
Let’s start with their treatment of America’s top crank: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
As journalist Michael Scherer, who profiled RFK Jr. for The Atlantic, told Alex Wagner of “Pod Save America”: Once Kennedy’s own 2024 presidential campaign started to flounder, he and his campaign manager began “to make sort of outreach to Democrats … to see if they can open a conversation with Biden to sort of trade something.”
Unfortunately, “the Democratic response [was] silence.” They wouldn’t meet with him, they wouldn’t talk to him.
Later, as Scherer recounts: “A friend of [Kennedy’s] connects him with Tucker Carlson who connects him with Donald Trump. And that night, just hours later, they’re talking, and Trump at that point wants to make a deal.”
The rest is history.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Kennedy is a nut! Why should Democrats have humored him?”
How about this: Because Trump narrowly won the presidency in 2024 by forming a disparate coalition held together by duct tape, resentment and (possibly) a cursed amulet.
This motley crew included more prominent Dems than just RFK Jr. Remember when Biden basically ghosted Elon Musk for that big 2021 White House electric vehicle summit? Even Kamala Harris — who happily agreed with Biden on just about everything except her own polling numbers — called that a huge mistake.
Then again, Harris committed her own costly slight when she decided against going on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
For an entire decade now, Democrats have consistently alienated allies — with devastating results. I’m talking about the snubs that might have prevented Trump’s first presidential run entirely.
Not just the famous humiliation of Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Here’s the more tragic prequel: Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd told the Bulwark’s Tim Miller that before Trump went full birther, he actually called the Obama White House offering “ideas on how to improve the state dinner.”
That’s right. Donald J. Trump — future leader of the free world — just wanted to talk about better parties. Shrimp trays. Tablecloths. Maybe a chocolate fountain.
Just as the world would have been better had the Washington Senators signed Fidel Castro to a huge baseball contract before he got too interested in politics, America might have been better if Obama had made Trump the White House state dinner czar.
But as Todd put it, “The last thing the Obama White House was going to do was placate a guy like Donald Trump.”
Understandable — until you consider that the alternative to humoring him was, you know … President Trump. Twice.
Look, I totally understand why a U.S. president might think he or she shouldn’t have to stoop to kissing some crank’s ring or placating some gilded, phony billionaire. But let’s be honest: It’s part of the job.
Instead of performing this sort of ego cultivation, Democrats — whether because of snobbery, elite gatekeeping, geriatric aloofness or a disciplined disdain for “time burglars” — have repeatedly alienated potential allies (or at least neutral parties). Then they act shocked when these same people drift into the MAGA solar system like space debris.
If Trump is truly an existential threat — and Democrats say this approximately 87 times a week — then maybe, just maybe, they should Return. A. Phone. Call.
Otherwise, Donald Trump will. Probably at 3 a.m., while eating a Big Mac.
So grovel if you must. Fake interest. Smile like you’re not dying inside. Do the basic humiliations the rest of us perform daily to get hired, get promoted or get a date.
It’s the least you can do. So make it your New Year’s resolution and honor it.
But if you think you’re too good to perform the basic glad-handing and ego-stroking, even for the nuttiest eccentrics, bad things will happen.
Trust me — I’ve seen this movie. And we’re only a year into his second term.
Misrata, Libya – After days of mourning, Libya is laying to rest its army chief, General Mohammed al-Haddad, and four other prominent military figures.
Al-Haddad, his senior adviser, Mohamed al-Essawi, and his military cameraman, Mohamed al-Mahjoub, were transported to their hometown in Misrata on Saturday evening for burial.
Also killed in the aircraft crash in central Turkiye on Tuesday were the commander of army land forces, General Fetouri Ghrebil, and the head of military manufacturing, Mahmoud al-Gedewi, whose remains were moved to their respective hometowns for burial.
The five were returning to the North African country from Ankara after meetings with Turkish defence officials, just a day after the Turkish parliament voted to extend the presence of its troops in Libya, as part of efforts to bolster military cooperation between Turkiye and the internationally recognised government in Tripoli.
Turkish authorities say preliminary investigations suggest a technical failure.
A Libyan military committee went to Ankara on Wednesday to help the investigation. A committee member told Al Jazeera that both countries agreed to transfer the aircraft’s flight recorder to a neutral country for a full investigation.
‘A dreadful scene’
After visiting the site of the crash, sources from the Libyan military committee told Al Jazeera it was a “dreadful scene”, with body parts scattered everywhere.
Identification was so difficult that authorities had to perform DNA testing on the body parts to identify which of the aircraft passengers they belonged to.
It was only after the long, painstaking process was completed that the bodies were finally repatriated to Libya.
A Turkish military ceremony was held in their honour early on Saturday morning, then the bodies were put on an aeroplane for the journey to Libya, but matters became complicated at that point.
The seemingly straightforward matter of holding ceremonies for the deceased became an issue as details like where they would be held were debated hotly in the fractured country.
Is General al-Haddad replaceable?
The Tripoli government is overseen by the Presidential Council, a three-member body that serves as the supreme commander of the military, according to the Libyan Political Agreement.
However, Libya’s rival authorities in the east, controlled by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, do not recognise them, despite the eastern-based parliament signing the agreement.
Libyan military delegation members arrive at the wreckage site on December 24, 2025 [Adem Altan/AFP]
Al-Haddad was seen by some as a man of peace, well-respected by people across the country, even those he fought against.
He played a crucial role in the fight against Haftar during the latter’s military campaign on Tripoli in 2019, an assault that saw Haftar’s forces on the outskirts of Tripoli.
Under al-Haddad, government forces retook western Libya and forced Haftar back to the east, and al-Haddad helped pave the way for the national ceasefire agreement signed in 2020.
Haftar released a statement saying he was “deeply saddened” by al-Haddad’s death and expressed his condolences to his family.
In May, clashes broke out around Mitiga international airport between government forces and the Special Deterrent Force, a powerful armed group that reports to the Presidential Council and opposes the interim prime minister in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
Dbeibah gave the Special Deterrent Force (SDF) an ultimatum to hand over the airport, their prisons, and assimilate into the state security apparatus, or be targeted by the government.
With help and intervention by the Turkish government, a ceasefire was reached, and a truce committee, chaired by al-Haddad, was established by the Presidential Council and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
There is no doubt that finding a replacement for al-Haddad will not be an easy task. The Presidential Council appointed his deputy, General Salah al-Namroush, temporarily.
During his eulogy, al-Namroush “bid farewell to the men of the nation who carried the nation’s burdens and made discipline a way of life and leadership a responsibility”.
He said he would follow in the footsteps of al-Haddad, and pledged “to continue unifying the army”.
Although it will be difficult, political analyst Mohamed Mahfoudh told Al Jazeera: “Discussions are already under way; given the importance of the position, I expect a decision to be made within the next 10 days.”
Libya has seen widespread frustration and recent protests against the government over the economic situation, prompting officials to announce a plan to reshuffle the cabinet earlier this month.
The shuffle was scheduled to be announced on December 24, but al-Haddad’s death postponed that.
Libya’s army Chief of Staff General Mohammed al-Haddad was killed in a plane crash in Turkiye. Shown here in Tripoli, Libya, on October 3, 2022 [Yousef Murad/AP]
“Now, the chief of staff position will be entered into the cabinet reshuffle discussions. That means Haddad’s replacement could be a political decision to appease certain stakeholders, rather than someone who is qualified for the position.
“That’s a fear many of us have,” Mahfoudh said.
A tale of two airports
In an illustration of Libya’s split, the government in Tripoli had to receive the bodies of al-Haddad and other military officials at the city’s international airport, which was destroyed in fighting in 2014.
It is currently under renovation and now serves only government and emergency medical evacuation planes.
However, normally the bodies would have been received at Mitiga international airport, which is now Tripoli’s main commercial airport, but since it is under SDF control, PM Dbeibah could not be there.
He is not welcome.
So, Dbeibah, members of the Presidential Council, and senior government and military officials waited for the bodies at Tripoli international airport.
They were taken to an army base in southern Tripoli for a military ceremony in their honour, where Presidential Council head, Mohamed al-Menfi, declared “the promotion of each martyr to the next rank”, making al-Haddad a field marshal posthumously.
“Field Marshal Mohamed al-Haddad was a cornerstone to protecting the state and maintaining stability,” said Dbeibah at the ceremony.
He assured people that investigations into the crash “are continuing with full accuracy and credibility in coordination with Turkiye”.
Al-Haddad, al-Essawi, and al-Mahjoub’s bodies were flown to their hometowns in Misrata on Saturday evening.
On Sunday morning, people came from all over the country to lay them to rest.
Thousands of people gathered in the Misrata football stadium for a farewell prayer for the departed. Misrata city officials announced the day as an official holiday to give people time off to attend the funeral.
Abdullah Allafi, a tribal leader from al-Rajban in the Nafusa Mountains of western Libya, left home at 3am to drive hundreds of kilometres to pay his respects.
When asked about al-Haddad’s death, he said: “It’s a huge loss. Mohamed al-Haddad’s death is a loss for all of us and for Libya. He was a true patriot. May Allah rest his soul.
“Our presence here is a symbol of unity. Enough divisions, it’s time to come together and build a nation and a united military.”
![Libyan military delegation members arrive at the wreckage site following the crash of a Libya-bound business jet carrying Libyan Chief of Staff General Muhammad Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, in Ankara on December 24, 2025. [Adem Altan/AFP]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/000_88YD8WG-1766685211.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
