Mike Tomlin has joined NBC’s Football Night in America studio crew after 19 seasons as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach and has thrived in his new role. Not only has the former Super Bowl champion seamlessly joined his new team, but he’s also been able to open up about some of the things he enjoys outside of football.
One of those things is his passion for architecture, which has manifested itself in a Minecraft city that Tomlin has been working on with his children for the last 12 years.
Tomlin debuted his intricate city to the public for the first time on Wednesday in episode 1 of a YouTube series, Rooftops, Penthouses, and Urban Living. On Thursday, he appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he discussed his hobby again.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Tomlin said after being asked if he thought it was important for NFL coaches to have an outlet outside of football. “That wasn’t my intention when I got into it. I just, you know, my boys were in middle school, and you’ll do anything as a parent to stay close to them as they drift away. Right. You know, and so that became our thing.
“And then big offseason weekends, we’d be in the basement all weekend and things like that. And so I kind of stumbled into the therapeutic component of it. But I think in these jobs that we have, I think you guys would be really surprised. There’s probably a lot of interesting hobbies.”
.@CoachTomlin talks about his @minecraft city 💎🔨 pic.twitter.com/qbqFzFZaSM
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) October 2, 2026
Many, including The Pat McAfee Show’s Mark Kaboly, have wondered if perhaps Tomlin spent too much time on his Minecraft city when he should’ve been focused on Pittsburgh, which didn’t win a playoff game in the second half of his tenure with the organization.
Tomlin told Meyers he is incredibly surprised by how strong the public response to his city has been.
“I turn my phone on about 10:30, and my phone is going crazy. And as opposed to responding to some of those things, I called my 2 sons, who really did all the work, okay?
“One son’s music is in the background that plays in the video. The other one did the editing. And so I called them, and they’re screaming into the phone. They was like, ‘Dad, this is even bigger than we thought. You broke the internet.'”
For now, fans will have to wait for Episode 2 to see where Tomlin’s Minecraft story goes from here.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.