‘I am Sounding Like A Yinzer:’ Invoice Cowher Explains Why He By no means Returned To Teaching

It’s not usually an NFL head coach can actually stroll away on his personal phrases. Not solely to keep away from being fired from his present job however to have the fortitude to show down jobs realizing full effectively he’s as much as the problem bodily. Invoice Cowher carved such a path, teaching the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1992 to 2006. Regardless of years of hypothesis, Cowher by no means returned to the sideline, taking a job as a CBS Sports activities analyst he nonetheless holds in the present day.

Showing on the NFL’s Second Acts podcast hosted by former NFL defensive backs Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Roman Harper, Cowher defined why he didn’t come again.

“I stepped down after 2006,” Cowher advised the present. “My spouse was not in an excellent place. Seems she ended up passing away three years later. She had gotten most cancers, and he or she had early Alzheimer’s. So there was some issues the place I felt like we had been collectively since school, we had three daughters. I had the gig at CBS. I simply felt prefer it was simply time. It was 15 years [coaching]. I wished to be there for her. And I used to be so glad I did it for these three years as a result of it was very, very significant.”

Cowher didn’t experience off into the sundown like Jerome Bettis however got here shut. After falling quick time and time once more, Cowher received an elusive Tremendous Bowl in 2005. Pittsburgh grew to become the primary No. 6 seed to run the desk and hoist the Lombardi, knocking off the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos on the street earlier than defeating the Seattle Seahawks in Tremendous Bowl XL. That group ranked because the No. 6 staff in Steelers’ historical past.

He left Pittsburgh with 149 regular-season victories, a .623 profitable proportion, eight division titles, and that Tremendous Bowl ring. It led the NFL to name for years and years, checking to see if Cowher had a want to return to teaching. Pittsburgh proved powerful to depart.

“I bought requested by lots of people to return again,” he stated. “I used to be nonetheless 53 years outdated, simply out of the sport for 4-5 years. I bought requested even after I was out to return again. However the extra I used to be out and the extra I began doing the TV gig, it was difficult. I wished to get higher at it. I gotta have the ability to do a greater job with my phrases. I bought a Pittsburgh accent, I’m not ending sentences. I’m sounding like a Yinzer, that doesn’t resonate with folks world wide. Like, what’s he saying?”

Cowher, a Pittsburgh native born in close by Crafton, was good for the Steelers. His mentality and mannerisms, his protruding Chin and fiery depth, matched the Steelers’ tradition. A method that meshed effectively with Blitzburgh on protection, an influence working recreation on offense. Cowher’s character may not have been embraced the identical elsewhere. Would a Los Angeles market *get* what made Cowher tick?

And so Cowher stayed away. Not removed from the sport, he nonetheless covers it weekly for CBS. The most effective of each worlds being close to soccer whereas not subjecting himself to the continuous grind of a head coach. Cowher ended his profession a Tremendous Bowl champion, an eventual Corridor of Famer, and top-of-the-line coaches of his period. There was nothing else he wanted to chase. And he made the smart transfer of not making an attempt to.