About

We Do Not Care is a memorable phrase spoken by Mike Tomlin, coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, in response to the possibility that the team would have to play 13 games straight without a break due to rescheduling. A clip and GIF of Tomlin saying the phrase at a press conference went viral in late 2020, seeing use as a reaction image on Twitter and inspiring a viral sound on TikTok in 2021.

Origin

On October 1st, 2020, Mike Tomlin, coach of the NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers, was interviewed at a press conference^[1] regarding the rescheduling of a Steelers-Titans game due to COVID-19. The rescheduling could potentially have resulted in the Steelers playing 13 games in a row without a significant break. An interviewer asked, "Mike, what is your reaction to potentially playing 13 games and how tough will that be physically?" to which Tomlin responded, "We do not care," followed by a long pause (shown below).

The clip was reacted to widely on Twitter,^[2] some seeing it as dismissive of the health of the players, and others seeing it as a good example of the toughness of the Steelers and Tomlin as a coach.

"Mike, what is your reaction to potentially playing 13 straight weeks and how tough will that be physically?"

"We do not care."

Intense Tomlin stare

Gotta love Coach T. #Steelers pic.twitter.com/TsjVg4o33L

— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) October 1, 2020

Spread

The clip saw significant spread over the following months, with one isolated upload to YouTube^[3] on November 10th, 2020, gaining over 477,000 views in eight months. The clip is occasionally used as a reaction on Twitter to tell users they don't care about the post (example shown below).

pic.twitter.com/zBUqhGEvu4

— tyler (@nonrosterinvite) May 22, 2021

"We Do Not Care" TikTok Sound

On May 4th, 2021, TikToker^[4] @fashion.elitist posted a video that begins with a Bryce Hall TikTok in which he daps a friend up because they're both single for the summer. The video then cuts to the clip of Tomlin saying "we do not care" and then the beat drops, transitioning to the song "Heat" by Xell and photos of @fashion.elitist in a number of outfits (shown below). The video gained over 1.2 million views in two months.

The sound gained significant popularity over the next two months, seeing use in over 148,000 videos in that time, including a number of viral hits. For example, on June 6th, TikToker^[5] @iheartmemphis posted a lip-dub skit to the trend in which they mouth the words "we do not care" in regards to peoples opinions on their twerking videos, garnering over 29 million views in a month (shown below, left). On June 24th, Jerry Springer posted a skit to TikTok^[6] using the sound, garnering over 17.8 million views in just under two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Template / Reaction GIF

Search Interest

External References