Former Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor is one of the franchise greats — winning two Super Bowls in Pittsburgh, one under Bill Cowher and another under Mike Tomlin as head coach.
But if he had to hire a coach and the choices were between Cowher and Tomlin, Taylor is going with Cowher.
“Don’t get me wrong, Coach [Tomlin]’s IQ when it comes down to football is off the charts. Coach Cowher, he’s just old school,” Taylor said on the “Behind The Mask Podcast” hosted by Takeo Spikes and Tutan Reyes. “He likes the Oklahoma drills. He love the two-a-days. He’s from Pittsburgh…he’s a yinzer. … In Pittsburgh they call each other yinzers and he’s a real, live yinzer.”
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Cowher had a 149-90-1 record across 15 seasons as a head coach in the NFL, winning his lone Super Bowl in the 2005 season and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020.
Tomlin actually surpassed Cowher’s win total last year, bringing his career record to 145-78-1 over 14 seasons as an NFL head coach with one Super Bowl title as well.
Taylor played more seasons under Tomlin (8) than Cowher (4), but there was something about Cowher’s old-school mentality that Taylor respected.
“You had to earn it,” Taylor said. “He didn’t care if you were a free agent or a first-round draft pick. Coach Cowher didn’t care if he was wrong or right about drafting about whether he was wrong or right about drafting a guy in a particular round. Dude had to earn it. He made our team kinda shy away from the coaching staff and really bond together as teammates. Coach Cowher’s mindset was ‘I’d rather you hate me and love each other.’ So, now I got a team.”
Taylor also discussed how the first Super Bowl he won with the Steelers in 2005 was more gratifying — but not because of Cowher, but Jerome Bettis.
“The reason why it was most gratifying for me because it was the first year I was starting and I ended up getting an interception in the Super Bowl,” he said. “But for us, we did it more for Jerome Bettis. We knew Jerome Bettis, if we was to go to the Super Bowl, we was going back home to Detroit, where Jerome was from.
“The whole year was ‘do it for Bussy.’ That was our motto. Us saying it, it winds up becoming true. It was like, damn, this was a real unselfish team. I remember going to Detroit and going to Bussy mama’s house and you had 50 guys sleeping on the floor, sleeping on the bed, sleeping on the couch but we all end up just chopping it up, and she just cooking for everybody. We’re grown men who could be doing anything else, but we all appreciate each other this much we’re in mom’s house chopping it up eating home-cooked food. That’s when I knew it was real.”
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