The “Fire Tomlin” crowd was silenced after the Pittsburgh Steelers have managed to claw their way back atop the AFC North, which apparently was enough to make Ben Roethlisberger reconsider his past stance as well.

Before being celebrated as part of the Steelers Hall of Honor class of 2025, Roethlisberger walked back the “clean house” comments he made regarding Mike Tomlin’s future in Pittsburgh, believing that the head coach has “earned” the right to leave the Steel City on his own terms.

“Just because I said there’s a time for some new things, that’s just saying that I think Coach Tomlin, if he wants to move on, he has every right to move on. It’s not that they should,” Roethlisberger said Monday via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “It’s up to him, and he’s earned that right. If he wants to do something else, he can and he should, and we should honor him whenever that time comes. Maybe he wants to coach here for another 10 years — that’s fine too.”

Following Pittsburgh’s blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 15, Roethlisberger claimed that it might be “clean house time,” even suggesting Tomlin should become Penn State’s new head coach — but that apparently isn’t his mindset any longer.

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This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers’ Mike Tomlin deserves to decide his own future, says Big Ben