{"id":675661,"date":"2026-01-14T04:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/675661\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T04:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:05:12","slug":"bill-cowher-shares-immediate-thoughts-on-mike-tomlins-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/675661\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Cowher Shares Immediate Thoughts On Mike Tomlin’s Departure"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are only two people in the world alive who can say they were the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers: Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin. With Tomlin offering only a written statement<\/a> so far, it makes Cowher\u2019s words all the more impactful. In the hours that followed the news that Tomlin would step down as the Steelers\u2019 long-time head coach, Cowher summed up his thoughts on his successor\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just found out about it just a very short while ago,\u201d Cowher said on Sirius\u2019 Movin\u2019 the Chains podcast with Pat Miller and Jim Kirwan. \u201cListen, it\u2019s a special place. Mike has done a fantastic job there. Integral part of that community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, before the news broke, Cowher acknowledged the need for Tomlin to soul-search and decide his future. Given how quickly the decision was announced, roughly 15 hours after the Steelers\u2019 season concluded, Cowher believes Tomlin knew in advance this would be his outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a decision today, but I think he also probably had, probably made a decision prior to today. Make that kind of a quick decision like that without giving a lot of forethought. And I\u2019m sure he has with [wife] Kiya and his family. I wish him nothing but the best. He\u2019s been a tremendous head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The way he represented that organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowher was in Tomlin\u2019s shoes two decades ago. Like Chuck Noll before him and now Tomlin after, Cowher left on his own terms. He stepped down as head coach on January 5th, 2007. Cowher has often cited burnout, along with the ailing health of his late wife, as reasons why he walked away. Still, he made it clear that he had layered reasons for walking away.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo single event triggered my decision,\u201d he wrote in his 2021 book, Heart and Steel.<\/a> \u201cEverything in my life had been structured around football. And I was afraid. My fear was, the longer I stayed as Coach Cowher, with a life completely tailored to football, the more difficult it would be to ever experience a different type of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his book, Cowher expressed his gratitude for the ability to leave on his own terms. This is generally a rarity, especially in sports. Weeks later, Tomlin became his surprising replacement. On Tuesday afternoon, he followed Cowher\u2019s path out of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are only two people in the world alive who can say they were the head coach of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19409,7,50549,1255,6,50550],"class_list":{"0":"post-675661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-bill-cowher","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jim-miller","11":"tag-mike-tomlin","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pat-kirwan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115891478503690005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}