MIKE BURKE

Allegany Communications Sports

The Pittsburgh Steelers, team president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan went George Costanza-opposite on themselves in hiring Mike McCarthy last week to be the team’s new head coach.

For those who are not familiar with George Costanza (is that even possible?), his famous “opposite” realization from the Seinfeld episode “The Opposite” is that “every instinct I have, in every aspect of life, is it something to wear, something to eat, it’s all been wrong,” leading him to declare, “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

After deciding to do the opposite of his usual self to turn his life around, Costanza lands a job with the New York Yankees as the assistant to the traveling secretary.

In this real-life instance of “opposite,” McCarthy has landed a job with the Steelers as the head coach.

In hiring McCarthy, Steelers management has done the opposite of what it has done since 1969. They did not hire an assistant coach in his mid-30s who comes from the defensive side of the ball or who is known for his dynamic leadership traits. Those were the common traits of the last three head coaches, Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin, with Noll going 4-for-4 in Super Bowls and Cowher and Tomlin both winning one and losing one.

McCarthy is 62 and a former head coach who has spent most of his career on the offensive side of the ball and who has twice been fired. He has an exceptional offensive mind but it has long been suspected that his birthstone is lint, even though he grew up in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

The Steelers, of course, last played in the Super Bowl in 2011.

McCarthy last coached in the Super Bowl in 2011.

McCarthy’s team won.

Oh, and his quarterback was a guy by the name of Aaron Rodgers.

Steelers fans seem to hate the hire, which is not a surprise, because they, along with most pundits, believed the Steelers would stick to the formula and hire 39-year-old Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, the grandson of Don Shula.

Then again, at the press conference to announce Tomlin’s resignation, Rooney said he had no taste for “wasting a season,” meaning we shouldn’t look for any kind of Steelers reboot as long as the Rooney family is in charge.

Rooney said in announcing the hire of McCarthy that the new Steelers coach has a history of winning and a history of developing quarterbacks. And while McCarthy is 185–123–2 (playoffs included) across 18 seasons, 13 with Green Bay and five with Dallas, it’s not plausible to believe he developed Rodgers in Green Bay or Dak Prescott in Dallas because by the time he arrived in both places, both quarterbacks were well established.

Still, he did win a Super Bowl with Rodgers (albeit a 27-year-old Rodgers), and for that and other reasons, Cowher said Sunday on CBS, “I really like this hire for this reason. Number one, he’s an offensive-minded guy, Mike McCarthy, everywhere he’s been. He grew up under Marty Schottenheimer, so he understands the value of running the football. He coached Joe Montana (who is seven years older than McCarthy), he coached Brett Favre, he coached Aaron Rodgers, he coached Dak Prescott. Everywhere he’s been, he’s uplifted the offense. And if you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers right now, if there’s been inconsistencies in the last recent years, it’s been the instability of a reliable offense. They got defensive guys that can sack the quarterback, they can create turnovers. So I like where they’re at.

“He also walks into that room with credibility. So I like what they did. They’ll put together a good staff right here. Oh yeah, he’s from Pittsburgh too …He knows the tradition. He knows what the expectation is. He knows what that fanbase is all about. He’s a Yinzer. I think he’s a very good hire for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

Steelers fans say they don’t like it because the team has lost seven straight playoff games and that McCarthy is just 6-9 in the playoffs since winning the Super Bowl, including 1-2 with Dallas, where his teams had three straight 12-win seasons before he was fired after going 7-10 in 2024 after injuries limited Prescott to just eight games.

It would seem Mike McCarthy was brought to Pittsburgh to win and win now, because defensively, Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt and Jalen Ramsey aren’t getting any shorter in tooth.

The fans still don’t like it, though, because it just isn’t how the Steelers have done things.

And maybe Art Rooney II figured that was the point.

It worked for Costanza.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT