{"id":676295,"date":"2026-01-14T10:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/676295\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:07:16","slug":"ex-steelers-star-willie-parker-shocked-mike-tomlin-stepped-away-says-hell-coach-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/676295\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Steelers Star Willie Parker Shocked Mike Tomlin Stepped Away, Says He’ll Coach Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Steelers Star Willie Parker
\n Can’t Believe Mike Tomlin Left …
\n But, He’ll Be Back Coaching!<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n January 14, 2026
\n 12:30 AM PST\n <\/p>\n

Play video content<\/p>\n

\"Willie-Parker-Mike-Tomlin-audio-art-desktop-1\"<\/p>\n

TMZSports.com<\/p>\n

Willie Parker admits he was shocked at Mike Tomlin<\/a>‘s decision to step away from the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> after 19 seasons … but tells TMZ Sports he has no doubt the Super Bowl-winning head coach will once again roam an NFL sideline!<\/p>\n

We spoke to the former Steelers running back star shortly after Tomlin made the tough decision to resign … bringing an end to his reign as the NFL’s longest-tenured coach after nearly two decades without a losing season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"willie<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

“Man, it was surprising,” Parker told us on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I never would have thought that, you know, he would be stepping down right now as a Steelers head coach.”<\/p>\n

Parker called Tomlin one of the National Football League’s greatest coaches and said, despite all the criticism and chatter from this past season, MT has earned his flowers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"mike<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

That said, Parker — who ran for 5,378 yards and 24 rushing touchdowns in a six-year NFL career (three under Tomlin) — believes Tomlin will coach again when he’s ready.<\/p>\n

“Who wouldn’t want a winner in the locker room?” Parker asked.<\/p>\n

“I can understand if he wanna just chill, but I can also understand if he wanna just keep going, keep coaching and taking it even further — taking his legacy even further.”<\/p>\n

As if this coaching cycle wasn’t already crazy enough …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-Steelers Star Willie Parker Can’t Believe Mike Tomlin Left … But, He’ll Be Back Coaching! Published January 14,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,88,6,9,266,4429],"class_list":{"0":"post-676295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-sports-news","13":"tag-tmz-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115892904376679501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676295","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=676295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}