When Mike McCarthy accepted the head coaching job with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was a dream come true. McCarthy is from Pittsburgh and grew up rooting for the Steelers. So naturally, he jumped at the chance to coach his childhood team.
McCarthy made it clear that he would love nothing more than winning the franchise’s seventh Super Bowl as head coach. The ironic thing is that he actually prevented the Steelers from their seventh title as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2010.
The memory of learning that his Packers were playing his Steelers stuck with McCarthy, even 16 years later.
“I could vividly remember being on a flight back from Chicago to Green Bay, quick flight,” McCarthy said Friday during a conversation with Bob Pompeani on KDKA. “We were talking about the Super Bowl, as far as just the administrative things. And someone said Pittsburgh won, just won the AFC Championship game. And I’m like, of course they did. Just my first time to get there, and now I gotta play the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was odd. Thank God they had to wear white that day, ’cause I would’ve struggled with the black [jerseys] across the other side of the field.”
McCarthy said he’s known great coaches who never got the opportunity to coach in the Super Bowl. He had his first crack at it with the Packers after beating their biggest rivals, the Chicago Bears. Then he and the rest of the Packers hopped on a short flight back to Wisconsin.
No doubt most people on the plane were celebrating the win. The moment every NFL coach and player dreams of, coaching or playing in the Super Bowl, was at hand. Kids dream of those moments while playing football in the backyard or in the streets.
Then someone broke the news of who the Packers would face in the biggest game of their lives. The Steelers defeated the New York Jets to clinch the AFC title and book their tickets to the Super Bowl.
For McCarthy, it was a surreal intersection of childhood dreams and childhood fandom. He had a chance to do something so few people get to experience in their lifetimes by winning a Super Bowl. To do it, he had to beat the team whose colors he wore and cheered on as a child.
It’s a reminder of just how human football is. People get caught up in the numbers. However, at its core, football is a game that some people play, some people coach, and the vast majority cheer. No doubt that McCarthy shook off the bittersweet feelings and got down to figuring out how to beat the Steelers and the man he replaced as head coach, Mike Tomlin.
Yet for a few moments, some in the air and some when he was on the sideline of that fateful Super Bowl matchup, Mike McCarthy felt a little twist of hesitation. As he said, it could have been so much worse for him if the Steelers were wearing their black jerseys.
McCarthy now has a chance to experience the joys of coaching at the highest level with his childhood team, not against it. That’s something very few people ever get to say. Plus, how much sweeter would a Super Bowl victory be?