{"id":765171,"date":"2026-02-20T19:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/765171\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:34:22","slug":"mike-mccarthy-thought-he-was-too-old-to-land-steelers-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/765171\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy Thought He Was Too Old to Land Steelers Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SteelersPittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy during his introductory press conference on Jan. 27, 2026. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When the Pittsburgh Steelers hired new head coach Mike McCarthy<\/a>, it was a big change with the way the team had done business, with the franchise\u2019s previous three coaches all being young defensive coordinators.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons that the hiring of McCarthy was such a shock to many in the Steelers fanbase, and McCarthy said on Friday that it was a surprise to himself, as well.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, in an appearance on Wilde & Tausch of ESPN Radio in Wisconsin<\/a>, admitted that he thought that at 62 years old, his chance of ever becoming the head coach of his hometown Steelers had come and gone.<\/p>\n

McCarthy took the 2025 season off after his contract was not renewed by the Dallas Cowboys at the end of the 2024 campaign. He interviewed for two other positions this offseason, but when the Steelers job surprisingly opened \u2014 and he was in consideration \u2014 that became his whole focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to look at every opportunity and would have been very content staying right where I was,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cTo grow up here in Pittsburgh and think you\u2019re going to be the head coach of the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys \u2014 I didn\u2019t dream of that. But now, this opportunity, just seemed like it was something that I was had to do or was meant to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never, in my wildest dreams, thought that Mike Tomlin<\/a> would retire. This was an opportunity, based on history, that I thought was well past me. So when it did become available and the conversations that led up the interview, I just felt that this was something that was meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about his age in his introductory press conference, McCarthy joked that they\u2019re going to \u201cshift to dog years,\u201d but he dismissed concerns about his age when it comes to his ability to continue to win games at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just gonna go with the dog years mindset and maybe go with some kind of anti-aging supplementation,\u201d he said. I\u2019m loving it and trust me, I\u2019ve got more than enough energy to go as long as the good lord wants me to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Mike McCarthy<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy during his introductory press conference on Jan. 27, 2026. —…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,7866,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-765171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-mccarthy","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116104638738626621","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765171","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=765171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}