'You Don't Leave My Heart Very Far'; Former Steelers Coach Bill Cowher Opens Up About Leaving Coaching, Ben Roethlisberger, The Future Of The Team
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It was 15 years ago that Bill Cowher led the Steelers back to the mountaintop of greatness, winning Super Bowl 40 in Detroit.
While he left coaching for good one year later, he certainly hasn't left football behind.
KDKA's Rich Walsh sat down with Coach Cowher to chat one-on-one about a variety of topics, including the future of the Steelers.
When asked if he thought he would love broadcasting so much that he would stay with television and not go back to coaching, Cowher said when he stepped down from coaching, he did it for family reasons, but things didn't unfold the way he thought they would.
Cowher's wife would pass away three years later. He would end up moving to New York, where he would meet his current wife.
He says that the biggest thing he has taken away from getting out of coaching is that he "had more balance in his life than he ever had before" and spoke about having an offseason in his life for the first time.
"But here I am now 14 years later, and one thing I'll say is I haven't lost a game in 14 years," Cowher joked.
When asked about how far away he thought the Steelers were from getting back to playing in the Super Bowl, Cowher said "I don't think they're that far" and mentioned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers getting to the Super Bowl after where they were at the end of the season last year.
"I think you have to re-tool, there are some decisions that are going to have to be made," Cowher said.
Cowher went on to talk about how something the Rooney's have always done is not make rash decisions. "Dan did it, Art's gonna do it, I'm sure Mike (Tomlin) will do it too, is you don't make rash decisions right after the season," Cowher said. He mentioned how you "let the emotions kind of clear."
Cowher addressed the fact that tough decisions are going to have to made from the standpoint of the salary cap going down and not going up. "All of a sudden you have this COVID year, and instead of the cap going up, it's coming down dramatically, so consequentially there are going to be some tough decisions you have to make in regards to personnel," Cowher said.
KDKA's Rich Walsh then asked Cowher if he thinks Ben Roethlisberger will be back and if he should be back.
"He's done so much for the organization. I think he wants to come back. I think you can see that in his play this year," Cowher said.
Lastly, Cowher wasn't shy about his love for Pittsburgh still, at one point tapping on his heart when KDKA's Rich Walsh said that everyone in Pittsburgh still loves to hear from him and appreciates him.
"That's what this is for," Cowher said while pointing at a Steelers helmet with a Super Bowl XL logo on it behind him, saying "you don't leave my heart very far."
"You can take the people out of Pittsburgh, but not the Pittsburgh out of people," Cowher said while wrapping up the interview.
