The 2026 NFL season opened with a Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots on NBC Wednesday night. The broadcast also marked former Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach Mike Tomlin’s regular season broadcast debut.
Previewing the game on the “Football Night in America” pregame show, Tomlin made a rookie mistake as he mixed up the order of wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s initials and called him “JNS” multiple times. Host Maria Taylor had to step in and correct him.
“JSN. I’m not gonna let you do it again,” Taylor interjected. “I’m not gonna let you do it again. JSN.”
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Maria Taylor correcting Mike Tomlin after repeatedly calling JSN, JNS. 🤣 #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/LiqxvXlbF2
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) September 9, 2026
While many people would have been embarrassed, Tomlin was unaffected. And once he understood what she meant, they shared a laugh. You would think it had been a while since Tomlin was corrected by someone so definitively at work. Of course, he did coach Aaron Rodgers last season, so that’s probably not true.
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As for Tomlin’s prediction that “Sam man” and “JNS” would have a big effect on the game, that didn’t work out either. Darnold was injured and left the game in the first quarter. Smith-Njigba had five catches through three quarters, but the Seahawks punted on five of their first six drives, with the other one ending when time ran out in the first half.
So Tomlin obviously wasn’t the only one still figuring things out early in the season.
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