It’s not often an NFL head coach can truly walk away on his own terms. Not only to avoid being fired from his current job but to have the fortitude to turn down jobs knowing full well he is up to the challenge physically. Bill Cowher carved such a path, coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1992 to 2006. Despite years of speculation, Cowher never returned to the sideline, taking a job as a CBS Sports analyst he still holds today.
Appearing on the NFL’s Second Acts podcast hosted by former NFL defensive backs Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Roman Harper, Cowher explained why he didn’t come back.
“I stepped down after 2006,” Cowher told the show. “My wife was not in a great place. Turns out she ended up passing away three years later. She had gotten cancer, and she had early Alzheimer’s. So there was some things where I felt like we had been together since college, we had three daughters. I had the gig at CBS. I just felt like it was just time. It was 15 years [coaching]. I wanted to be there for her. And I was so glad I did it for those three years because it was very, very meaningful.”
Cowher didn’t ride off into the sunset like Jerome Bettis but came close. After falling short time and time again, Cowher won an elusive Super Bowl in 2005. Pittsburgh became the first No. 6 seed to run the table and hoist the Lombardi, knocking off the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos on the road before defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. That group ranked as the No. 6 team in Steelers’ history.
He left Pittsburgh with 149 regular-season victories, a .623 winning percentage, eight division titles, and that Super Bowl ring. It led the NFL to call for years and years, checking to see if Cowher had a desire to return to coaching. Pittsburgh proved tough to leave.
“I got asked by a lot of people to come back,” he said. “I was still 53 years old, just out of the game for 4-5 years. I got asked even when I was out to come back. But the more I was out and the more I started doing the TV gig, it was challenging. I wanted to get better at it. I gotta be able to do a better job with my words. I got a Pittsburgh accent, I’m not finishing sentences. I’m sounding like a Yinzer, that doesn’t resonate with people around the world. Like, what’s he saying?”
Cowher, a Pittsburgh native born in nearby Crafton, was perfect for the Steelers. His mentality and mannerisms, his protruding Chin and fiery intensity, matched the Steelers’ culture. A style that meshed well with Blitzburgh on defense, a power running game on offense. Cowher’s personality might not have been embraced the same elsewhere. Would a Los Angeles market *get* what made Cowher tick?
And so Cowher stayed away. Not far from the game, he still covers it weekly for CBS. The best of both worlds being near football while not subjecting himself to the non-stop grind of a head coach. Cowher ended his career a Super Bowl champion, an eventual Hall of Famer, and one of the best coaches of his era. There was nothing else he needed to chase. And he made the wise move of not trying to.
