Steelers owner Art Rooney II clarifies the controversial decision, revealing the reasoning behind choosing veteran Mike McCarthy over younger candidates.
The reaction to the Pittsburgh Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy as their head coach has been mixed, and that might be kind.
Social media critics say the Steelers should have hired a coach in his 30s, such as Los Angeles pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase or Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shuta, instead of 62-year-old McCarthy.
Instead, Pittsburgh hired McCarthy, who has 174 regular-season wins in the NFL over 18 seasons. McCarthy coached the Green Bay Packers for 13 seasons from 2006-18 and the Dallas Cowboys for five seasons from 2020-24. McCarthy also led the Packers to a victory over the Steelers and Tomlin in Super Bowl XLV following the 2010 season.
McCarthy was one of three candidates to have two interviews with Pittsburgh: Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver were the others. Owner Art Rooney II explained that the Steelers chose McCarthy over the other finalists, which led them to conclude the process on Saturday and to forgo in-person interviews with Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Scheelhaase, and Shula.
Rooney addressed public reaction in an interview with the team’s website on Sunday, saying, "We're really not worried about winning the initial press conference. It's about picking the coach we believe will help us win games, and social media really doesn't enter into it. And none of that will matter once we're starting to play games."
"The message for our fans is we're very excited. We think we have a coach who is well-equipped to lead us into the next winning phase of Steelers football, and that's what it's all about. I think they're going to love Coach Mike."
McCarthy does have a few things working in his favor as he tries to win over the fans. One, he is a Pittsburgh native who grew up in the Greenfield section of the city and was a huge Steelers’ fan when they won four Super Bowl titles in a six-year span from 1974-79. McCarthy was also an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh for four seasons from 1989-92 before moving on to the NFL as the Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive quality control coach.
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