TAMPA -- We've interviewed and talked to a ton of people down here this week. Coaches. Players. Former players. Our fellow members of the media. Almost all of them have been most impressive.

But one individual stands out above the crowd. Each time I have been in the presence of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin this week, he has blown me away. It's easy to see how he emerged from little-known longshot candidate for the Steelers' gig to actually being hired by the Rooney family.

But there was a time in the not-too-distant past that Tomlin gave some thought to a profession other than coaching. A story that's been told more than a few times in Tampa this week is how Tomlin almost became a lawyer.

"It's true," Tomlin said at the press conference I attended this morning. "Like a lot of other young people, I considered things that other people thought were appropriate for me as opposed to what I thought was appropriate for me. I knew right away that coaching was something that I was meant to do -- something that I wanted to do. But I did give some consideration to law school. It didn't require much bribing from (University of Memphis) coach (Rip) Scherer to pull me in that direction. As a consolation prize, I could tell my parents that I was going to graduate school."

Tomlin elaborated on the topic. 

"Coaching was 'Plan B' for me," Tomlin said. "Truth be known, I thought I'd still be playing. I thought I'd be playing on Sunday. That's something that all players, I think, go through. When I was younger, I was just focused on my playing the game. Coaching was something that came to mind as it became evident that maybe I wasn't going to play anymore. That's why we coach; we coach because we can't play. Either ability dictates that we can't play, or age dictates that we can't play. But that's a common bond that all coaches share. We love the game. We can't play it. We do the next thing, which is we instruct, help and get a chance to be close to those that do. In regard to the law school thing, it was just on the radar. It was something, again, that I thought I was supposed to do. Maybe the people that were around me and the people that were influential in my life wanted to see me do great things, my mother being central in that. But I think, in hindsight, she likes what I'm doing right now."

Every word that comes out of Tomlin's mouth is eloquent and confident. With that ability, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have been every bit as effective in the courtroom as he is today on the gridiron.