![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0727_NFL_MIKE-McCARTHY-HOMECOMING-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 The raindrops patter on Mike McCarthy\u2019s windshield as his SUV rolls through Calvary Catholic Cemetery. It\u2019s just an eight-minute drive from the Steelers\u2019 practice facility, over the Hot Metal Bridge, along the Monongahela River and to Greenfield, where he was raised. Sometimes, McCarthy finds himself taking a detour here to catch up on phone calls, or just to let himself remember moments that are impossible to forget.<\/p>\n
He stops at the corner of the cemetery and points to the gravel lot just beyond a chain-link fence. He can picture the basketball court that used to be right there. After school, he\u2019d drop his bags at the house and race a block and a half down Greenfield Avenue with a basketball under his arm and his brother, Joe McCarthy III, by his side.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother and I would come here every day,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cI mean, every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memory fades quickly. The 62-year-old coach, wearing a Steelers sweatshirt and Greenfield baseball cap, turns over his right shoulder and points past the trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my brother\u2019s burial in that mausoleum,\u201d McCarthy says.<\/p>\n
Nostalgia is complicated. It comes from two Greek words \u2014 nostos (meaning homecoming) and algos (pain). McCarthy has felt both parts of the word lately.<\/p>\n
As a kid growing up in Greenfield, he could only dream of coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers. From his office window at the team\u2019s Southside facility, he can see the lights of Bud Hammer Field, where he played Little League. After long days at the office, he finds his dad waiting for him on the front porch and his mom ready to catch him up on the parts of the Pirates game that he missed.<\/p>\n
How McCarthy brought Rodgers back to Pittsburgh \u2014 and vice versa<\/p>\n
Mike DeFabo<\/p>\n
When owner Art Rooney II introduced McCarthy as the Steelers\u2019 next head coach on Jan. 27 \u2014 which would have been his grandfather Art \u201cThe Chief\u201d Rooney\u2019s birthday \u2014 Rooney opened by saying that the founder of the franchise would have been thrilled to have a head coach from Pittsburgh. McCarthy is in a unique position to understand what he referred to as the privilege and the weight that comes with being the franchise\u2019s fourth head coach since 1969, when Chuck Noll was hired and the Super Bowl standard was set.<\/p>\n
During that news conference, the room was filled with McCarthy\u2019s relatives. Parents. Sisters. Everyone\u2019s kids. It felt like a family reunion. The only one not present was his brother, Joe \u2014 at least not physically. In his pocket, McCarthy carried the prayer card from his brother\u2019s funeral. His sisters and mother, clad in black and gold, gripped their own prayer cards.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the other side of coming home. It\u2019s impossible to drive to work, or get a coffee, or really go anywhere without thinking about the brother who would have been the most proud of all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep using the word \u2018surreal,\u2019 but I mean, it\u2019s past the surreal part of it,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cIt\u2019s really \u2026 heavy \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything reminds me of Joe. You can\u2019t go anywhere around here without thinking about something that you did with Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy pulls out of the cemetery and onto Greenfield Avenue. From this point, at the top of the avenue, to the end of it, where his dad owned a bar, is not even two miles. The story of McCarthy\u2019s life was written on this winding street that snakes through a small, working-class corner of Pittsburgh where the Monongahela River bends. Who he is and where he\u2019s from are intertwined.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been raised to have pride in your family, but also to have a lot of pride in where you come from,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cNot only have a lot of pride being from Western PA, but pride in your neighborhood. When people ask you where you\u2019re from, I\u2019d say Greenfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
A block and a half from the cemetery, the coach points to a three-story, red-brick home with a green awning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up right here,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201c1128.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n The McCarthy family: Mike (right) and Joe III sit on either side of their mother Ellen. Mike\u2019s sisters are Kellie, sitting on her mother\u2019s lap, Ellen, being held by dad Joe Jr., and Colleen, laughing up front. (Courtesy of the McCarthy family)<\/p>\n
The kitchen was the smallest room in the house \u2014 but usually the most full, with family and the smell of pork chops, stuffed shells, soup and (McCarthy\u2019s favorite) halu\u0161ky, a dish with noodles and saut\u00e9ed cabbage brought to the region by immigrants that\u2019s become a Pittsburgh staple.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m three-quarters Irish and 25 percent Czechoslovakian. My dad always used to tell me \u2018That\u2019s the best part of you,’\u201d McCarthy says, with a playful punch in the arm. \u201cHe\u2019d always punch you in the arm because of his love for his mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each night, Mike\u2019s sister Colleen, the oldest of the five kids, helped her mother in the kitchen while the two younger sisters, Ellen and Kellie, set the table. The family had a small but important rule: No one could eat until all five kids and both parents were home. It was one of the many ways they were taught to stick together and look out for one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael,\u201d as his sisters call him, in particular embraced the spirit of the lesson instilled at the dinner table. A leader of his own family before he was entrusted with NFL football teams, one of his first coaching jobs was leading his youngest sister Kellie\u2019s grade-school basketball team to the diocesan championship game, putting Gatorade in their water bottles to make them believe they were unstoppable.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s number two in the birth order, but you would think he was number one,\u201d Colleen said. \u201cHe was very protective of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy turns a corner onto a back alley behind 1128. It was here that Mike and Joe used to throw baseballs off the back of the house. One summer when they ran out, they snagged their mother\u2019s signed Roberto Clemente ball and one from the 1971 World Series team. The story sounds almost identical to \u201cThe Sandlot.\u201d The only thing missing is the dog.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were two dumb kids. So we took the ball out and said \u2018Hey, just make sure we don\u2019t scuff it up,\u201d McCarthy laughs. \u201cThat didn\u2019t last long.\u201d<\/p>\n
While baseball was McCarthy\u2019s most natural sport and football (which he didn\u2019t play until his junior year of high school) became his profession, basketball was the game he and Joe first loved. Decades ago, his dad procured a half-moon backboard and enlisted some uncles to help install it in the backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey measured, and it was 9-foot-11,\u201d McCarthy says with a hearty chuckle. \u201cSo they pulled it back out. It was a big ordeal. They put some rocks in. They put it back in and measured it again. It was 10 foot an inch and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembers his dad looking at the hoop, shaking his head.<\/p>\n
Ohh, it will make you a better shooter.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0727_NFL_MIKE-McCARTHY-HOMECOMING-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n How the backyard at 1128 Greenfield looks today. (Mike DeFabo \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n
The pole holding the hoop upright is now covered in rust. The tattered net hangs by a few remaining threads. But it stands as firmly as ever, like the McCarthy family, cemented into the rugged soil of Greenfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat thing\u2019s about 50 or 60 years old. We always say that thing ain\u2019t never falling dahn,\u201d McCarthy says, his Pittsburgh accent punctuating the last word.<\/p>\n
Joe McCarthy Jr., the father of five, grew up in Greenfield in the area locals call \u201cdahn the run.\u201d He was a Korean War veteran who worked at J&L Steel before becoming a police officer, firefighter and bar owner. A man of principle, stubborn in a good way, he often spoke to his children in sayings that McCarthy still uses with his players.<\/p>\n
If you tell the truth, you only need to tell your story once.
Don\u2019t leave until the job is finished.
Always finish what you started.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a problem solver,\u201d McCarthy\u2019s sister Ellen said. \u201cPeople in our family, friends and neighbors would always call him in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, his mother, Ellen, worked a variety of restaurant jobs and as an administrative assistant for a district judge. Somehow, she found time to volunteer as the vice president of the Greenfield Organization and the president of the Saint Rosalia Athletic Association. McCarthy can\u2019t ever remember playing a basketball or baseball game without his parents and siblings in the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor as tough as my dad was, she taught you how to compete,\u201d McCarthy says of his mom. \u201cAnytime you\u2019d talk sports, she\u2019d be quick to whip out her yearbook and remind us she averaged 20-something points.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Joe passed away, the rest of the kids moved their parents off the avenue to an adjacent part of the neighborhood not even a mile away called \u201cthe bluff,\u201d an area atop the hill with a picturesque view of Pittsburgh that they don\u2019t sell on postcards. It\u2019s quieter here and close to two sisters \u2014 Kellie and Ellen \u2014 who live just across the street.<\/p>\n
Joe Jr., 89, and Ellen, 84, don\u2019t live in the old house anymore, but McCarthy\u2019s mother still visits almost every week after Saturday\u2019s 4 p.m. mass. She picks up two extra church bulletins and takes them to their friends who still live in their old home.<\/p>\n
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0727_NFL_MIKE-McCARTHY-HOMECOMING-6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n McCarthy and his parents after the Steelers introduced him as their new head coach. (Karl Roser \/ Pittsburgh Steelers)<\/p>\n
While McCarthy and his wife, Jessica, look for a home in Pittsburgh, the coach has spent the offseason staying with his parents to soak in every minute of extra time. His dad does crossword puzzles at night while his mother watches reruns of McCarthy\u2019s old Green Bay games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve always just wanted time,\u201d says McCarthy, who hasn\u2019t spent this much time in Pittsburgh since he left for Kansas City in 1993. \u201cThis profession I\u2019m in, it\u2019s just such a sprint all the time. You\u2019re always on. You don\u2019t get to turn it off very often.\u201d<\/p>\n
On McCarthy\u2019s tour of Greenfield, there\u2019s a story for every step of the way. Often, McCarthy is in the middle of one when he\u2019s interrupted by another memory.<\/p>\n
Right there, between the two telephone poles, was where they used to play street football. Over there is where a crazy German shepherd lived. That\u2019s the corner you had to avoid if you didn\u2019t want to get picked on by the older kids. That\u2019s his dad\u2019s rental property where he cut the grass every week and, over there, the one where he dug the foundation by hand with his cousin.<\/p>\n
Finally, the coach arrives at Magee Field \u2014 a sprawling complex centered in the heart of Greenfield with two baseball fields, several basketball courts and a swimming pool. An \u201cinner-city country club,\u201d McCarthy calls it, thinking back on a time when his biggest worries were hiding his ice cream money under his towel so the older kids wouldn\u2019t steal it, and making sure he got home before the streetlights came on.<\/p>\n
When they got older, Mike and Joe would come back after dinner, pop the lock to the cage and flip the lights on to play basketball for hours. The police came by occasionally; they\u2019d look the other way.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom would say, \u2018Nothing good happens after the street lights go on in Greenfield,’\u201d McCarthy remembers. \u201cI said, \u2018You\u2019ve got it wrong. All the good stuff happens after the street lights go on.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitting in the parking lot, McCarthy pictures himself running up and down the court in his green Joe McCarthy Bar and Grill T-shirt, playing summer-league ball with Joe. Decades melt away, and for a moment, the coach can hear the ball bouncing and the kids splashing in the pool nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to say the word \u2018avoid,’\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t come back as much after he passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0727_NFL_MIKE-McCARTHY-HOMECOMING-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Brothers Mike and Joe McCarthy. (Courtesy of the McCarthy family)<\/p>\n
On the prayer card from Joe\u2019s funeral, the one McCarthy keeps in his wallet, the poem \u201cThe Dash\u201d by Linda Ellis is printed. It talks about the two dates on a tombstone \u2014 and the dash in between that represents how a life was lived. Joe filled that dash in ways that are still felt. His athletic ability and quick wit made him a friend to everyone he met. McCarthy always admired his brother\u2019s people skills and incredible recall. Years later, he could tell you exactly how many points everyone scored in a summer league championship game. Though Joe was four years younger than Mike, they were inseparable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you wanted to have a younger brother, he\u2019s what you wanted,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cI could take him everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe graduated from Penn State and Duquesne School of Law before starting his own law firm and serving as the state deputy attorney general. He married Karen, his best friend, and coached his three kids \u2014 Matthew, Michael and Victoria \u2014 in baseball, softball, basketball and flag football. For years, he ran the men\u2019s summer league at Magee Field that the two brothers dreamed of one day playing in when they shot hoops near the cemetery.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a young age, he was just such a good guy,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cJoe was always the voice of reason in his friend group. It\u2019s no surprise he was a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Jan. 21, 2015, days after the Packers lost to the Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game, Joe was playing racquetball at a local gym. He collapsed and was pronounced dead from a heart attack. He was 47.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did so much for someone who lived only to 47,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cHe did so much for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mike Tomlin resigned last winter, leaving the Steelers searching for a head coach for the first time in almost two decades, McCarthy emerged as a contender. They set an interview for Jan. 21 \u2014 the 11th anniversary of Joe\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
Everywhere he looked that day, McCarthy saw cardinals, which some consider to be a sign that a loved one is near. The family took it as a sign that this job was meant to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that interview date was set, it just felt like he\u2019s always been with us and a part of that process,\u201d his sister Kellie said. \u201cIn some ways, I don\u2019t even want to talk about it in terms of past tense, because I feel his presence that he\u2019s with us and he\u2019s always watching over us. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s absolutely delighted that Mike is the coach of the Steelers.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy reaches the end of Greenfield Avenue and makes a right into \u201cthe run.\u201d He points out the green house with aluminum siding where his dad was raised. There\u2019s the church where his mother made them stay for two masses \u2014 one in English and a second in Latin. There\u2019s the place where his cousins used to hop the train to go fishing at Panther Hollow. There, under the overpass, is \u201cthe best basketball court in the city,\u201d the only dry place to shoot hoops during a rainstorm.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s the weatherworn, red brick building with the aluminum awning and a sign advertising $3.50 IC Light drafts. It\u2019s called Zano\u2019s Pub House now, but for decades this was Joe McCarthy\u2019s Bar and Grill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe outside hasn\u2019t changed a bit,\u201d McCarthy says.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to go inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
The question hangs in the air for a minute. It\u2019s intended for the passenger in the front seat, but it\u2019s also one McCarthy has to wrestle with himself.<\/p>\n
![\"Zano's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0727_NFL_MIKE-McCARTHY-HOMECOMING-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Zano\u2019s Pub House now, formerly known as Joe McCarthy\u2019s Bar and Grill. (Mike DeFabo \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n
On a typical Sunday, the McCarthy family went to church and then to the bar to clean. To this day, when McCarthy smells beer or whiskey, he thinks about breaking down the liquor bottles and emptying the runoff from the beer tap into the sewer. The worst part was cleaning the bathroom in the basement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can imagine going down there on a Sunday morning after a Saturday night,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cI used to despise having to clean it Sunday morning. My dad was a stickler. He had this chemical that I was supposed to put in the corners. Sometimes I\u2019d throw it all over the wall. When he walked down, he\u2019d be angry with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
How much of this s\u2014 did you throw on the wall?<\/p>\n
When the bar was pristine, Joe and Mike played pool while their dad did the books. Often, they invited some friends over and sat at the bar, watching the Steelers during their dynastic Steel Curtain run. When Mike got older, he worked behind the bar on Saturday nights, learning the lessons they don\u2019t teach in college.<\/p>\n
The younger sisters often played with their Barbies on the bowling machine, while Colleen, the oldest, helped her mother in the kitchen. During the summer, their father hosted a picnic for regulars who became more than friends and often were known only by their nicknames, like \u201cCowboy.\u201d The adults played pickup softball games in the adjacent lot and then came inside for a beer and Ellen McCarthy\u2019s famous crab cakes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s more than just a bar. The McCarthy family considered this establishment an extension of their own home.<\/p>\n
Until very recently, the last time McCarthy was inside was the day of his brother\u2019s funeral. A massive snowstorm swept through Pittsburgh. As Mike was driving home, his father called to say a car accident shut down the parkway. Mike pulled off at the bar with his family, had a couple beers and toasted his brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a lot of ways, frankly, this is for Joe,\u201d McCarthy says. \u201cI feel like he had such a hand in this. No one would have been prouder.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, I wish he was here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you want to go inside?<\/p>\n
The coach thinks about it for a second. He decides he\u2019s not ready to re-open that door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The raindrops patter on Mike McCarthy\u2019s windshield as his SUV rolls through Calvary Catholic Cemetery. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6537,4917,1418,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-252781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}