MIKE TOMLIN, COMMENCEMENT SUPERSTAR

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There's a lingering rumor that the city of Pittsburgh has a football fixation. And when looking at some of the recent commencement addresses, those rumors should be confirmed. There was Dan Marino at his alma mater of Pitt and Jerome Bettis at Duquesne. And this past weekend, Steeler coach Mike Tomlin joined the ranks as he addressed 276 graduates of nearby St. Vincent College.

St. Vincent has had a recent run of notable commencement speakers. In 2007, they scored President George W. Bush, who's almost as big a name as Tomlin in Western Pennsylvania.

St. Vincent President Jim Towey, obviously a stand-up when he's not presiding over a college, talked about other prospective speakers:

"I said last year we would try to get Pope Benedict The 16th as this year's speaker, but he was in the United States a few weeks ago. We got our dates crossed," Towey said. "But I saw him in Washington and shook his hand and told him I was Jim Towey from Saint Vincent College. He says to me, 'How did you manage to get coach Tomlin?' "

Clearly on a roll, Towey continued with one-liners, such as:

"Coach Tomlin doesn't need the Air Force to protect him. He has Troy Polamalu and that defense."

"As you probably noticed, there are no protesters or picketers outside today like there was last year ... The Cleveland Browns fans couldn't find the Turnpike."

Thanks, he'll be here all night. But the real star of the show was Tomlin, who managed to deliver quite the powerful message to the partisan Steeler crowd, who, as you're not surprised to learn, waved Terrible Towels at their graduation ceremony.

Tomlin was given a #4 jersey, which was the number he wore at William and Mary College, where he delivered the commencement address yesterday. That's right...two days, two commencement addresses. And W&M isn't even in Pittsburgh.

If this coaching thing doesn't work out for some strange reason, he clearly has a backup career lined up in motivational speaking...as long as he's involved with football in some capacity in the Pittsburgh area.

Tomlin scores as a commencement speaker [PG]