{"id":86416,"date":"2026-01-14T10:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/86416\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:55:13","slug":"fox-emerges-as-mike-tomlin-favorite-if-coach-pivots-to-tv-after-steelers-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/86416\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox emerges as Mike Tomlin favorite if coach pivots to TV after Steelers exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Could Mike Tomlin soon be headed to the small screen?<\/p>\n

Hours before he stepped down Tuesday <\/a>as head coach of the Steelers, The Athletic\u2019s Andrew Marchand reported<\/a> that networks are lining up for Tomlin and that Fox is the favorite to land him should he pivot to a media role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFox, ESPN, NBC, CBS and Amazon Prime Video would all be better with Tomlin if he wants to take a break from coaching and impart his Tomlin-isms via the small screen,\u201d Marchand wrote. \u201cHe can likely receive multi-million dollar offers from all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox, specifically, has an interest in Tomlin, Marchand added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghHead coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers looks on before the game against the Houston Texans at Acrisure Stadium on January 12, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tomlin, whose big personality has long been seen as an ideal fit for a television studio, could be a welcome addition to Fox\u2019s NFL studio show, \u201cFox NFL Sunday,\u201d which stars Michael Strahan, Rob Gronkowski, Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw.<\/p>\n

The seat occupied by Jimmy Johnson has not been filled following his retirement, although Gronkowski\u2019s presence has been elevated<\/a> to a full-time capacity.<\/p>\n

NFL insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport also floated television as a likely destination for Tomlin, who coached the Pittsburgh franchise for 19 seasons.<\/p>\n

His departure comes one day after a first-round home playoff loss to the Texans on Monday night<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The loss extended the Steelers\u2019 drought to nine years without a postseason win.<\/p>\n

Tomlin, the longest-tenured coach in the league, never produced a losing season in his nearly two-decade run at the helm. He won a Super Bowl during the 2008 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our meeting today, coach Tomlin informed me that he has decided to step down as our head coach,\u201d Steelers president Art Rooney II said in a statement released by the team.<\/p>\n

\"FiveThe Fox studio show crew. @NFLonFox\/YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I am extremely grateful to Mike for all the hard work, dedication and success we have shared over the last 19 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the game on Monday, Tomlin had little comment on his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight,\u201d Tomlin said. \u201cI\u2019m more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium and certainly what we did and didn\u2019t do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could Mike Tomlin soon be headed to the small screen? Hours before he stepped down Tuesday as head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[43239,7405,1418,73,75,74,1833,726,13465,13466],"class_list":{"0":"post-86416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-fox-sports","9":"tag-mike-tomlin","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-sports-entertainment","17":"tag-sports-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86416","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=86416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}