My wife and I, both crazy rabid Steeler fans, have somewhat of a disconnect on the subject of Bill Cowher and future coaching.
She maintains that he will be dead to her if he ever coaches in the NFL again for a team not named the Steelers. She’d be OK if he coached college, but not in the NFL. Her view is, if you leave the best job in all of football, you stay until you’re done or fired.
Me? I’d be pissed if he took a job in the division. I don’t know how you could grow up outside Pittsburgh, coach there for 15 years, then coach the Bengals, Browns or Ravens. Dallas would also probably tick me off. Anywhere else? Meh. I like Tomlin quite a bit, and it’s been four years. I’m over it.
I bring this up since there is a report that he’d probably return to coaching if the Giants, Dolphins or Texans had an opening and tried to get him.
Yeah, depends on where, I guess. There are places he could go where I would end up rooting against him, but in general I always liked him and I will wish him well. You mentioned most of the teams that would turn me against him. No doubt I will remember more after I hit post.
I admit that I would have been furious had he quit the Steelers to go to another team after all that had been invested in him emotionally, but now that we have seen the Steelers are still performing without him and he’s far enough removed from the team that it’s not like he’s ditching them out I wish him well and I hope he gets stomped out by the Steelers wherever he coaches in the future.
I don’t think it would bother me now, even if he coached within the division. That’s not likely to happen anywhere but Cleveland, since he played there. But Cleveland has Holmgren at the GM slot, and I suspect Cowher would want more control in his next role. So scratch the Browns.
He’ll have his pick of jobs, so he won’t go to Dallas. He’d never survive with J.J.
I just don’t see why he’d want to leave the cushy network for the stress of the NFL again. He has his ring. But he might have that itch again.
Cowher is now well removed from the Steelers. When he quit, there were the usual statements about wanting to spend more time with his family and such. I suspect now that his wife was in the early stages of the cancer that would kill her. His daughters were college/high school age and I think now that his priorities were to be available them through a very difficult time. That commitment to family in hindsight is to be admired.
It strikes me as narrow minded to begrudge Cowher, who is still relatively young and clearly vibrant another opportunity just because he gave the Steelers many of the best years of his life. I wouldn’t be thrilled if he took a job with the Ravens, Browns or Bengals, but he did well by the Steelers family and now it is time for us to do right by him and offer our encouragement rather than our denigration. I’m certain that if you were to ask any member of the Rooney family what Bill Cowher should do, they would tell you that he should take any job he wants because you support your family in their endeavors.
I have a coworker who lives and breathes Steelers football. All well and good, but she takes it to such a ridiculous level that she singlehandedly makes me dislike them. In her world, there is no bad Steeler performance, just unfair reffing, etc. I can’t talk to her rationally about the team at all. As an example, a recent conversation:
“…and with Ben’s reputation as a drama queen, he’ll have…” “Wait, what ‘reputation as a drama queen’?”
“Well, you know, he has a tendency to exaggerate the severity of his injuries. It’s led to that reputation.” “He doesn’t have that reputation! No one says that!”
<googles +Roethlisberger +“drama queen”, which returns 122,000 results> “That doesn’t prove anything! They’re just biased bloggers! He’s not a drama queen! He’s <blah blah blah blah blah>!”
Basically, there’s a major disconnect from reality in her fandom. So awhile ago I brought up the possibility of Cowher going to the Giants if Coughlin had a bad season. Her response?
“No, it’ll never happen. Cowher coached the Steelers – he’ll never coach another team. Steeler coaches have integrity and loyalty. Once you’ve coached the Steelers, you’d never dare coach another team ever again. Chuck Noll never did, Cowher never will, and Tomlin won’t either once he leaves the team in 10 or 20 years.”
There is no convincing her that the Chuck Noll era has some dissimilarities with the current era – it’s simple delusion. I can’t imagine how much of a traitor she’s going to feel Cowher turned into once he signs with a new team.
Speaking as a Giants fan who thinks Tom Coughlin has outlived his usefulness and wouldn’t mind seeing Cowher on the Giants’ sidelines (though I suspect he’s more likely to be in Carolina)…
Why would any Steeler fan begrudge Cowher an opportunity to come back? It’s not as if he jumped ship to take a higher-paying job, nor did he leave the Steelers in disarray. Quite the contrary- he left the team in excellent shape and well-positioned to make repeated runs at the Super Bowls in his absence.
If he had jumped to another team for more money, or after leaving the Steelers in a mess, I’d understand Pittsburgh fans resenting him. But he’s been out of football several years now- long enough to erase any doubt that he genuinely wanted a break from coaching.
I don’t think the Rooneys or Cowher’s old players bear him any ill will. If Cowher takes another job, I’m betting Dan Rooney will say “Good luck, except when you’re playing us.” That’s probably the attitude most Steeler fans will take.
I love how some Steeler fans conveniently ignore everything that happened before 1969, when the Steelers generally sucked. Let’s face it, the team only got good after Dan Rooney took day-to-day operations over from Art Sr.
And Bill Austin coached for the Redskins after his head coaching tenure with the Steelers, didn’t he?
It would not change my opinion of him no matter where he coaches. I was a huge fan for most of his tenure, but started to realize that he was ultimately a choker, so good luck to whoever takes him on. His obvious lack of investment in the team’s success after his super bowl win was disgusting.
As far as his being a Pittsburgh guy, he officially tore up his card when he so actively and vociferously supported the Hurricanes against the Penguins. I’ll never forget or forgive his monkey-like winding up of their little siren thing before those games.
All of those things that you’re talking about, they either happened BN (Before Noll) or they didn’t happen at all and you’re making them up. Besides, I was born in 1976 so my brain is not seared with futility. Don’t bring up failure now and try to tell me it’s OK BECAUSE IT’S NOT!
You should - but apparently don’t realize - that an TV sports analyst who comes from a specific team is supposed to appear objective, so as to not annoy and drive away the many viewers who follow and support other teams, don’t you? I understand that you don’t care if if a highly partisan pro-Steeler analyst ticks off fans of the Browns, Bengals, Ravens, etc, etc, etc, but the TV network does.
Hentor was referring, I believe, to Cowher appearing to phone in his coaching for the 2006 season. While many coaches would have had issues with that season, Cowher did look a bit disconnected at times.
True, but then Tomlin was fortunate enough to be HANDED the head coaching job by the defending Super Bowl champions! George Seifert won Super Bowls with the 49ers, but it wouldn’t be fair to suggest that he did as good a job as Bill Walsh.