PITTSBURGH — ESPN's Adam Schefter has reported that the Chicago Bears were among the teams who recently called the Steelers about trading for Mike Tomlin. Schefter also reported that Tomlin has a no-trade clause and that the Steelers immediately "rebuffed" the Bears.

What a shame, I'd say, because that phone call presented the Steelers, Tomlin and the Bears with a win-win-win opportunity. Instead of dismissing the Chicago call like it came from a telemarketer, Steelers president Art Rooney II should have thanked them for their interest and told them he'd consider it.

Rooney then should have approached Tomlin for a possible breakup.

"It's not you; it's us," Rooney should have said. "We just need a break. We also need a franchise quarterback. Will you consider it?"

A trade would have given both parties a chance for new life, with three years and $50 million left on Tomlin's contract. You can't convince me both haven't thought about it. This isn't working anymore. The past eight years of their 18-year relationship have been fruitless. The Steelers haven't been competitive in a single playoff game.

Who knows what Tomlin might have said? It would have made things awfully uncomfortable, but doesn't Tomlin always say he "resists comfort"? Besides, things have been uncomfortable before, like when Rooney pushed Tomlin to fire offensive coordinators Bruce Arians and Matt Canada.

Tomlin might have perked up at the thought of a fresh start with a franchise that has what the Steelers might not for a long time — a potential star quarterback (Caleb Williams). He also might have taken heart in the fact that several prominent NFL coaches have been traded, including Bill Belichick, Sean Payton and the guy Tomlin won a Super Bowl with in Tampa Bay — Jon Gruden.

The Steelers are mired in a horrible combination of delusion and stagnation. THEY ARE GOING ON A DECADE WITHOUT COMING CLOSE TO WINNING A PLAYOFF GAME! Something dramatic needs to happen. Not that moving on from a successful coach would be especially dramatic. Teams have moved on from Andy Reid, Belichick, Mike McCarthy and Pete Carroll in recent years, after all.

The Steelers, in turn, might have used the return from Chicago to find their next quarterback, or at least to infuse their C+ roster. There's no telling what the Bears might have given them. This is the same franchise that surrendered the equivalent of a first-round pick for Chase Claypool. Surely, at least one first-round pick would have been included.

The Bears, for their part, could have moved forward with a real NFL coach for once. Tomlin would have brought immense status and a .630 career winning percentage.

Instead, the Steelers reportedly slammed the door on the Bears and at least one other team without even inviting them in for a cup of coffee. Somebody also told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Gerry Dulac, hours after the humiliating defeat in Baltimore, that Tomlin would be returning.

It's almost like a defiant Rooney is telling the world, "How dare anyone think for one second that we, the Pittsburgh Steelers, would push out a coach."

Yes, well, you have been outscored 73-0 in the first quarters of your past six playoff games and have missed the playoffs nearly 40% of the time during this eight-year run.

After last year's blowout playoff loss in Buffalo, Rooney didn't just support Tomlin, he lavished him with an unusually long extension (three years) and a raise, making him one of the highest-paid coaches in American sports. That's quite the investment for a coach who never wins big games anymore and whose defense appeared to quit on him in Baltimore.

By the way, I keep hearing that tons of teams would love to be in the Steelers' position, that something like 25 of them would love to sneak into the playoffs, get embarrassed in the first round and do the same thing the next year. And the year after that.

Here's my list of teams that might be OK with that: Jets, Colts, Jaguars, Titans, Raiders, Giants, Bears, Panthers, Cardinals, Saints and Falcons. And even for some of them, it would get old in a hurry — because when you barely qualify, enter as a double-digit underdog and get rolled like a drunk at Mario's Saloon, are you really better off than teams that didn't qualify?

I also keep hearing that Tomlin "would be hired in five minutes" if the Steelers fired him. It's true. But so is this: All of the following would be hired in five minutes, too, several ahead of Tomlin: Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Dan Campbell, John Harbaugh, Matt LaFleur, Jim Harbaugh, Dan Quinn, Kevin O'Connell and perhaps others, including offensive coordinators such as Detroit's Ben Johnson and Washington's Kliff Kingsbury. Teams want offense. Tomlin's offenses are stuck in the Stone Age.

People act like Tomlin is a victim of his team's roster and not an architect of it. Like the repeated quarterback failures are somehow outside of his purview.

Schefter injected some reality there, saying on ESPN, "You can't tell me [Tomlin)]doesn't have the loudest, most prominent voice in that organization. So the fact that they've been unable to get the quarterback for that organization is as much on him as the [playoff losing streak]."

But forget all that. Forget this whole thing. There will be no divorce here. The stable Steelers will stay married for the kids. No trade. And it wasn't Rooney who issued the public warning for other teams to stay away. It was the all-powerful, unimpeachable Tomlin, who often sounds like Rooney's co-CEO:

"Save your time," he said.

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