As the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday afternoon prepared to crown Mike McCarthy their new head coach, Greenfield — the predominantly working-class community in the city’s East End where the coach grew up — glowed with “local boy makes good” narratives.
“I’m an admitted fair-weather fan — but I know him as a really good man,” said lifelong Greenfield resident Nicole Reihl, a cybersecurity worker who has heard rumors that McCarthy quietly pays for upkeep of Magee Park on Greenfield Avenue.
The news about McCarthy’s hiring broke for Reihl when a friend texted her around 1 p.m., while she was nursing a pint of Southern Tier IPA beer in Zano’s Pub House.
McCarthy’s family once owned the modest bar, whose roots pre-date Prohibition in The Run, the micro-neighborhood outsiders consider part of Greenfield. The new coach’s parents still live in Greenfield and attend services at St. Rosalia’s, a Roman Catholic church.
“Greenfield’s going to celebrate!” the friend texted.
“McCarthy’s got a great legacy,” said Reihl, 43. “What a great way to gift-wrap a career!”
Inside Big Jim’s, a restaurant in The Run whose wood-slat walls and dimmed lighting call to mind 1970s-era Pittsburgh, Bob Wesner framed the new hire by talking about how the Steelers brought on coach Mike Tomlin, then 34, in 2007.
“I liked that hire — they had a quarterback back then, so hiring a young guy made sense,” said Wesner, 41, who lives in the South Side and works in HVAC sales, as he drank a Miller Lite. “But we don’t have a quarterback now. So, maybe McCarthy makes sense.”
“I liked Tomlin. He won a lot here,” added Wesner, who grew up in Johnstown before moving to the ’Burgh 20 years ago. “But there were a lot of people who hated him because they weren’t winning playoff games. I get it. It was time for a change.”
“I am thoroughly surprised — I just thought it was going to be a younger guy,” chimed in Edward Guy Jr., 83, who recently moved out of Greenfield after living there for decades.
Guy talked shop Saturday afternoon at Big Jim’s as he waited for takeout at a comfortably worn wooden bar. The retired real estate draftsman, who calls himself “a Steelers fan for life,” has paid for Steelers season tickets for 45 years. After Three Rivers Stadium came down, he snatched up two seats in Heinz Field’s end zone: Section 217, Row D, Seats 3 and 4.
But, while pleased to see a fellow Greenfield native at the helm, Guy said McCarthy might be less useful for Steel City nostalgia than as a kind of a transition man — one who could help rebuild the team from the ground up.
“He’s going to have to hire an offensive coordinator — and a defensive one,” Guy said. “And he needs a quarterback.”
McCarthy’s name also adorned St. Rosalia’s parishioners’ lips as they shivered under bulky coats while arriving for 4 p.m. Mass.
“This is so cool,” one woman quipped as she entered the Romanesque-style edifice.
Others politely declined to comment.
Up the hill at Mondays Brewing Taproom, bartender Jason Vey said “it’s interesting” that the Steelers hired the guy who coached current Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
“And I think a local guy’s always good,” added Vey, 51, of the city’s Brookline neighborhood.
Vey minced few words, though, when it comes to the latest coach to lead the six-time Super Bowl champs.
“Tomlin was the most overrated coach,” Vey said. “A coach’s job is to win playoff games and to win Super Bowls.”
