Mike Tomlin coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 19 seasons, never posted a losing one, and became the longest-tenured head coach in NFL history. This whole time, when nobody was watching, he was building a city in Minecraft. Not playing it. Building one. Block by block. For 12 years.
It started the way most dad stories start. His kids were in middle school, locked in their rooms all weekend obsessed with a game he knew nothing about. Tomlin told the Today show he got mesmerized watching them, and the game’s creative mode pulled him in. He admitted he does not have the stick control for real gameplay, but he likes to build. He has always had an interest in architecture. The kids eventually moved on from the game. He never did. They carried his world from the PS3 to the PS4 to the PS5 for him because he does not have the technical knowledge.
On September 30 he finally gave the world a tour. Episode one of a new YouTube series, a nearly 20-minute walkthrough called Rooftops, Penthouses and Urban Living. The city has hotels, luxury high-rises, a boutique hotel with a spa and a ballroom, baseball and soccer stadiums, a Walmart, an aquarium, pools, even a speakeasy. He built it around a river and said he blew up mountains to make the land fit his vision. One of the towers is modeled after Trump Tower in New York.
The internet ate it up. Le’Veon Bell joked the Steelers would have won eight Super Bowls if Minecraft did not exist. And the Browns could not resist. After beating Pittsburgh 27-24 on Thursday night, their social team posted a Minecraft-themed game over graphic aimed squarely at their old rival’s former coach.
Tomlin, 54, stepped down in January and works as an NBC analyst now. Episode two is on the way. He said on X he could not give it all away in one video.