PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There are many jobs that are hard to follow. Being the next broadcasters after Bill Hillgrove, Mike Lange or Bob Prince. The next USA hockey coach after Herb Brooks. How about being the Steelers coach after Chuck Noll?
How about being the guy to replace Chuck Noll and you didn't even apply for the job? Such is the start to Bill Cowher's now Hall of Fame head coaching career.
"You follow a guy like Chuck Noll, I don't think there is any pressure because you are not going to come close to doing what he did in terms of his run in the 70s," Cowher said. "What he did for the City of Pittsburgh and rejuvenating that city."
A Crafton native growing up in the city, he would know. If there was a picture of a Pittsburgh football player or coach, it likely would resemble Bill Cowher.
The high school star would go on to North Carolina State after graduation and become a two-year starter. He would work that into a tryout with the Eagles in 1979, released before the season started. The next year, a tryout for the Browns were he would play in all 16 games as a special teams ace. Traded to the Eagles in 1982, Cowher played every game and then suffered an injury in 1983.
Then it was advice from a McDonald native, who turned out to be his mentor in coaching. Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer.
"He actually talked me out of playing," Cowher said. "I went from playing in 1984. I was the special teams captain of the Philadelphia Eagles. I came back to the Cleveland Browns and became the special teams coach."
"I was coaching guys I played with the two years before that. It was a very natural progression. I played the game with a certain passion, certain attitude and I loved it. I loved to compete. I don't think I really even changed as a person. I wore my emotions on my sleeve, that's how I played the game. I love strategizing. I loved the angles and little idiosyncrasies that really can make a good player great. I tried to share those things because I wasn't a great player."
"I just was very average skill set, but I knew how to do the little things to get by. I always like teaching. "
His skill set as a coach was more than average. Cowher recommended by Schottenheimer and then recruited by the Steelers, became only the second coach ever to start his career with six straight playoff appearances including the AFC Championship in 1995. At 38-years-old, Cowher was the youngest head coach in Super Bowl history. He would get a championship in Super Bowl XL and finish his career 149-90-1.
"I left there a better coach than when I got there," Cowher said. "I was a better father and a better husband because of the Rooney family and the culture they created."
Now over a decade as a CBS analyst, Cowher said he wanted to put a consistent product on the field that every year represented the city in the way they played. Always finding a way to get the job done. He's come to understand he didn't do that alone.
"You realize when you go through this all of the people that were a part of the process," Cowher said. "It was the work of a lot of people and a lot of support staff, players and coaches, family and friends that were there along the way."
"I embraced it all. I wore my emotions on my sleeve. I was who I was. I tried to hold people accountable. I had a great passion for the game and I think that showed above it all."
