"We fell short this year of getting ourselves in the tournament to chase the ultimate prize, which obviously every year is our intention," the coach said to the cameras. Someone makes a tick in his notebook. "... Obviously, I don't want to make emotional decisions, and obviously we've been on an emotional journey." Mr. Tomlin is widely regarded as one of the most well-spoken coaches in the National Football League. In contrast to his predecessor Bill Cowher, he remains remarkably even-keeled after both wins and losses. He is, however, obviously in something of a rhetorical rut. Over the past four seasons, his use of that four-syllable modal adverb has skyrocketed, from seven times in 2010 to more than 300 in 2013. He now says "obviously" an average of 20 times per press conference, more than he says "football." So does it mean anything? The Post-Gazette pulled transcripts from every regular-season and post-season Tuesday press conference Mr. Tomlin has given since 2010 -- the Steelers kindly type them up for reporters -- and ran a word-frequency analysis on his statements. "Obviously" is the coach's 25th-most frequent word, topped only by "the," "that" and other monosyllables we all need to put sentences together. (He's shown a vocabulary of about 7,000 words.) Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...013/stories/2014011201150000000#ixzz2qCtaN4b0
