Why this business trip for Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy is more special than others
When the Dallas Cowboys’ charter party touches down in Western Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, it will be the official start of an important business trip for a team looking to get above .500 despite an up-and-down start to the season.
For head coach and Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy, the feelings are always a little bit different when he heads back to his hometown, but the business approach is remaining consistent this time around with a tough challenge in front of his team.
“Going home is the personal part of this business,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to play there a couple of times. It’s not always what it’s cut out to be because it isn’t like I can go home and hang out for a day and a half before the game. It’s just not realistic. It’s a business trip and always will be.”
With it being a Sunday night game, McCarthy will still use some of that extra time over the weekend to see his parents, Joe and Ellen, and visit with family in the northern suburb of Greenfield. That quick trip up Interstate 79 will be short and sweet before he gets to Acrisure Stadium to take on the team he grew up rooting for on Sundays in the sports bar that his father owned and he worked at as a teenager.
His memories as a Steelers fan run deep. McCarthy had just turned nine-years-old when Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris miraculously connected on the Immaculate Reception in 1972. He recalls it as one of the sports memories where everyone remembers where they were.
“[I was] in my parents’ home in the living room,” McCarthy said, as he quickly recalled a moment from almost 52 years ago. “I recall, I think, it was a black-and-white TV still…I think just like everybody, you didn’t really believe it until you saw a replay. So yeah, that was a historical play in Steelers history.”
His coaching career saw him earn his first post-graduate job as the wide receivers coach at the University of Pittsburgh before making the NFL jump after three seasons with the Panthers. Thirteen years would go by before he would return to coach a game in his hometown, this time as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 2009. While it wasn’t in the Three Rivers Stadium that he grew up in as a Steelers fan, the Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) experience at the fork of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers still brought back the emotions.
“The first time you go back is always a memory or a moment,” McCarthy said. “But I’ve been blessed to do this a long time, I’m just really focused on getting to three wins.”
McCarthy’s two trips to Pittsburgh as an NFL head coach resulted in a pair of last-minute deciding factors that led to a one-point loss in 2009 and a three-point loss in 2017. Despite that, his hometown of Greenfield still holds a lot of pride in McCarthy winning his only Super Bowl over their beloved Steelers back in 2010 at AT&T Stadium.
“I think one of the best compliments I could receive is when I do run into strangers back there, they tell me, ‘If we were going to lose one, I’m glad it was to you,’” McCarthy said. “I think that speaks to being from them. We’re a fraternity.”
While McCarthy’s rhetoric throughout the week played down the sentiment of returning home, he did let out his excitement to be back in the Steel City. Whether it’s seeing his family on Saturday, going to his favorite local pizza spot, Aiello’s, on Sunday, or catching up with old friends before they take in the game in a suite provided by the Rooney family as a welcoming gesture, this business trip will not just be business.
“I’m looking forward to it No. 1,” he said. “Of course it’s always great to go home…A lot of pride being from there, and it’s always held true.”
