Steelers Avoided Catastrophe When Bill Cowher Turned Down Offer To Join Forces With Bill Belichick

The Pittsburgh Steelers hired Bill Cowher to be their head coach after Chuck Noll’s contract expired at the end of the 1991 season. Cowher was tasked with rebuilding the Steelers’ reputation that had suffered over the last seven seasons under Noll and was expected to return the black and gold to glory. Cowher delivered immediately and the Steelers won their first division title since 1984 in his first season in 1992.

Ben Roethlisberger and his co-host Spencer T’eo released the latest episode of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger and welcomed the former Steelers head coach to talk about his great career and sample some adult beverages. Roethlisberger asked his first coach about his professional journey that landed him in Pittsburgh.

“I went from a player who got cut,” Cowher begins. “Marty Schottenheimer called me up, I was the special teams captain with the [Philadelphia] Eagles in my fifth year. I knew I was always one injury away from being out. He says, ‘What are you going to make next year?’ I am going to make 150. He says, ‘You are going to work three times as much and make three times less. I am going to pay you $50,000 dollars to be the special teams coach and let me know by Friday.’ He hung up and I said so much for negotiation.”

Cowher finished 1984 with the Philadelphia Eagles, but astutely points out that after five seasons, it was unlikely he would ever ascend past the special teams and even though it was a pay cut, he saw a future in coaching. He joined the Cleveland Browns coaching staff in 1985 and stayed with the team until 1988 under Coach Marty Schottenheimer until he was let go by the Browns. Cowher told Roethlisberger that he considered all options during the offseason and came very close to changing his coaching path permanently.

“Marty got fired in '89 and ironically Bill Belichick offered me a job to go with Bill Parcells and be the defensive back coach up to the Giants,” Cowher continued. “Marty got the job in Kansas City, so I ended up going to Kansas City and I ended up coaching the linebackers and being a coordinator. 

Bill Belichick moved to defensive backs and hired Al Groh to come and be the linebackers coach so him and I actually got together for an afternoon, and I said you talk to me about linebacker play and I will talk to you about defensive back play. I flew to New York, and we spent an afternoon together sharing ideas.”

If Kansas City had not hired Schottenheimer, Cowher would have been part of the legendary New York Giants staff under Parcells that included six future head coaches in Belichick, Tom Coughlin, Romeo Crennel, Ron Erhardt, Ray Handley, and Al Groh. The next season, the Giants won the Super Bowl against the Buffalo Bills and if Cowher had joined that staff, it is unlikely, he would have found his way to the Steelers in 1992 to replace Noll. The ripples in the coaching ranks would have gone both ways as it turns out, Cowher explained the serendipity of the situation for both coaches.

“In 1991, I was working for coach, Bill was just coming off the Super Bowl,” Cowher shared. “Art Modell loved it while I was coaching there. He wanted to bring me back in. So, I went in there and I was 33 years old, 32 actually at the time and it was between me and Bill Belichick. He got the job and not me in '91. The next year I go to Pittsburgh, I’m 34 and Bill, now we went from coaches and friendships, to adversaries. We didn’t talk the entire time.”

Belichick is not known for his warmth and the idea that in two short years, he went from trying to hire Cowher and maintaining a professional friendship, to ice-cold isolation is not surprising. Cowher’s intensity and Belichick’s stoicism would influence the other’s coaching career for nearly two decades. 

Steelers' Bill Cowher Knew Exactly What He Was Leaving Behind After 2007 Exit

The early domination by the Steelers Hall of Famer in Pittsburgh contributed heavily to the future New England Patriots coach being run out of Cleveland. Perhaps Cowher’s dominance over Cleveland led Belichick to the decision to resort to allegedly cheating in the AFC Championship game to get by the Steelers a decade later.

Who knows what the history of the NFL would be in the 1990's if Cowher had accepted the offer to be a defensive back coach under Parcells? He would have found his way to a head coaching position, but it might not have been with Pittsburgh and a generation of Steelers football would have been very different.

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Did you know how close to being part of the Parcells' coaching tree Cowher was in 1989? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.