Though Kevin Colbert was always willing to lend an ear to Omar Khan, when he stepped down as the Pittsburgh Steelers general manager in May 2022, he wanted a clean break. To remove himself from the football side of the team and allow Khan to be his own man. A difficult task after running the Steelers for more than 20 years and being part of football for roughly 40. Appearing on Bryant McFadden and Patrick Peterson’s All Things Covered podcast earlier this week, Colbert outlined his post-football plan.
“When I stepped away, I didn’t wanna be part of football,” Colbert told the show. “Because I don’t think that’s fair to Omar, who ended up being the GM, or Coach [Mike] Tomlin. I don’t wanna be looking over anybody’s shoulders. But if they have questions, of course we’ll talk and share thoughts and ideas and that’s fine.”
Colbert was in the rare situation to go out on his own terms. Most general manager are shown the door, fired after a tough season or two. Colbert built a consistently winning program for a stable and patient franchise that didn’t make knee-jerk reactions to the few bad seasons the team experienced.
After going year-to-year on several contracts, Colbert announced he would step down after the 2022 NFL Draft. That in itself was uncommon timing even for general managers who stepped down from their post. But it allowed Pittsburgh to go on an extensive search for his replacement even if it landed on a man who had been inside the Steelers’ building since Valentine’s Day of 2001 in Khan, working his way up from handling contracts to now running the team.
It’s another sign of Colbert’s humility, a trait he’s known and praised for. It would’ve been easy to try to hang onto his place in the organization and be part of the sport that was his livelihood. And others in Colbert’s position have held emeritus-type roles. In Baltimore, Ozzie Newsome still held a role as executive vice president even after Eric DeCosta replaced him as general manager.
But Kevin Colbert wasn’t content with sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere. He found his outlet working with another aspect of the team.
“What I did want to be involved with was the program that we started, Lend A Hand. And it’s designed to help our Steelers alumni transition into life after football…BMac went through it,” Colbert said. “When the game’s over, it takes awhile to find that next phase of life.”
Colbert outlined that it’s a voluntary program to point ex-players “in the right direction” after their football careers end. An important and challenging part for those who played the game since they were kids now needing to figure out the next 40 years of their life. In some ways, it works the same for Colbert, giving him something valuable to do as he exited his side of the football world.
