The rarest of rare personnel moves in sports happened on Tuesday afternoon with Mike Tomlin deciding to step down from his role coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers after 19 seasons. Pittsburgh will now be looking for just its fourth coach since the NFL-AFL merger in 1969. Tomlin, who never finished below .500 during his time with the Steelers, will author a second act somewhere.
And according to a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter, that may not be on the sidelines.
"My sense is that [Mike Tomlin] is going to go into television," Schefter said during a SportsCenter hit after the ESPN reporter broke the story. "That there will be any number of opportunities that await him. Now, he could decide to do TV, which is what Sean Payton did during the year he was out. It keeps people involved in the game without having to work coach's hours. Or he simply could just take the year off."
Adam Schefter: "My sense is that [Mike Tomlin] is going to go into television." 🏈📺🎙️ #NFL pic.twitter.com/92t5zM0gHr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 13, 2026
Tomlin jumping into television has been speculated ever since his seat started getting hot. Pittsburgh's late-season run into the playoffs moved that talk to the back-burner but The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reports that Tomlin will be extremely in-demand if he goes that route. And that, right now, Fox would be the leading candidate for his services.
It's been less than an hour since this big news dropped, so it may be a while until there's clarity about Tomlin's next move. It is an excellent time for high-profile names to get into broadcasting so that's a silver lining for someone who is leaving a job he's had for nearly two decades.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Adam Schefter Predicts Mike Tomlin's Next Career Move After Leaving Steelers.
