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It's Dec. 30, the last Steelers press conference of the season. And as the elite of the city's sportswriters, photographers and talk radio jocks file into the briefing room on the South Side, they take their best shot at guessing something almost as anticipated as the season's final record:

Exactly how many times will head coach Mike Tomlin say "obviously" today?

"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."

Mike Tomlin seems to enjoy using the word "obviously," given its prominence in his many press conferences. A speech pathologist explains why people favor certain words. (Video by Andrew Rush; 1/12/2014)

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."

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It has become a cultural marker for the coach, who declined comment for this story, and no impression is complete without it. Talk radio gleefully announces the count each week, replete with replays. A new car dealership TV ad spoofing Mr. Tomlin's press conferences includes no fewer than two "obviouslys" from a faux coach.

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.)

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Obviously enough, Tomlin's favorite word is 'obviously'