{"id":718706,"date":"2026-01-31T09:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718706\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T09:02:22","slug":"since-being-hired-mike-mccarthy-says-hes-spoken-with-mike-tomlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718706\/","title":{"rendered":"Since Being Hired, Mike McCarthy Says He’s Spoken With Mike Tomlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

From one Mike to another, Mike McCarthy will succeed Mike Tomlin. Two veteran coaches with similar resumes, the two have already shared at least one conversation since McCarthy took the job. Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show Friday<\/a>, McCarthy referenced a recent phone call with Tomlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building hasn\u2019t changed in 19 years,\u201d McCarthy said while admitting he\u2019s still getting used to his new surroundings. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I was talking with Mike Tomlin the other day. He operated out of a different office. And I think the furniture, it\u2019s still there from Bill Cowher. So us three had a laugh about the furniture. So I\u2019m getting new furniture, so that\u2019s a good gig. Because it\u2019s been there for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the interior of the building, McCarthy didn\u2019t offer more detail about the conversation with Tomlin. It\u2019s also a little unclear if Cowher too was on the call. If so, it would be one heck of a moment between the trio, the only three people alive to say they\u2019ve coached the Steelers.<\/p>\n

That means McCarthy has spoken with the two Steelers head coaches who preceded him. He evidently has a strong relationship with Bill Cowher, both were mentored by Marty Schottenheimer, and is someone he spoke with shortly after McCarthy interviewed for the Steelers job. It was Cowher who revealed the third member of the interview room,<\/a> Daniel Martin Rooney, who is widely believed to become Art Rooney II\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

McCarthy also mentioned Tomlin didn\u2019t leave a beer for him the way Cowher did in 2007. After 19 years, a beverage no one would want to drink, anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure Mike and I will catch up down the road here and have a couple ourselves,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

Since stepping down, Tomlin has laid low and clearly isn\u2019t intending on coaching in 2026. He made public appearances<\/a> at his daughter\u2019s gymnastics meet in Georgia earlier this month but has otherwise stayed out of the spotlight. A time to decompress for a coach who led the Steelers for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

In Pittsburgh, there\u2019s a small fraternity of coaches. The lineage has consistently played out the same way. A longtime coach with plenty of success and at least one Super Bowl steps down, as opposed to being fired, with the next having big shoes to fill. McCarthy won\u2019t coach in Pittsburgh as long as the two before him, but he\u2019ll look to match, and even exceed, the success of his predecessors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From one Mike to another, Mike McCarthy will succeed Mike Tomlin. Two veteran coaches with similar resumes, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,7866,1255,6,57,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-718706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-mccarthy","10":"tag-mike-tomlin","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115988905591357473","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718706","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=718706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}