Cowher is due to resign today, take 1-year off

Steelers will begin search for successor immediately

Friday, January 05, 2007
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bill Cowher, who led the Steelers to 10 playoff appearances, eight division titles and the fifth Super Bowl title in franchise history, will announce his resignation today after 15 seasons as head coach, sources have told the Post-Gazette.

Cowher and his wife, Kaye, are scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh this morning to attend a 1 p.m. news conference at the team's South Side facility and announce the decision that has been expected for several weeks, if not longer -- that he will resign, at age 49, to spend more time with his family.

"You'll be hearing from me soon enough," Cowher said last night from his home in Raleigh, N.C., where he has spent the past three days. He declined any further comment.

Cowher had planned to return to town and make the announcement Monday. But he called team chairman Dan Rooney -- the man who hired him to replace Chuck Noll in 1992 -- yesterday afternoon to tell him he wasn't going to change his mind and there was no point in delaying the announcement any longer.

Cowher has one year remaining on a contract that paid him between $4.5 million and $4.7 million this season. He said last week he still loves to coach and is not "burned out" from being the longest tenured head coach in the National Football League. He wants to take at least a one-year break from coaching and is not thinking about joining any other team in 2007, whether in the NFL or college football, sources said.

Those same sources also have said Cowher's decision to retire has nothing to do with money and that he is committed to spending the next year with his wife, Kaye, and youngest daughter, Lindsay, in Raleigh.

But those who know Cowher wonder how long he will stay in "retirement" because he is an intense competitor who loves to coach. When his contract with the Steelers expires after 2007, he will be free to sign with another team, without compensation to the Steelers, and likely will attract offers that make him the highest-paid coach in the NFL.

Seattle's Mike Holmgren is believed to be the league's highest-paid coach, making $7 million this season and $8 million in 2007.

The Steelers immediately will begin the search to find his successor. Offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, one of the leading candidates to replace Cowher, interviewed yesterday with the Atlanta Falcons and owner Arthur Blank. Offensive line coach Russ Grimm, who is also the team's assistant head coach, is scheduled to interview with the Falcons next week.

The job is attractive to Whisenhunt because he is from Augusta, Ga., played at Georgia Tech and spent four seasons as a tight end with the Falcons. Whisenhunt is also scheduled to interview with the Arizona Cardinals.

Cowher's decision does not come as a surprise because speculation about his future has existed since it was learned in March that he and his wife had purchased a $2.5 million home in Raleigh.
The speculation was fueled more when the Steelers announced during training camp they would discontinue negotiations and would not discuss a contract extension with Cowher until after the season -- a discussion that never had to take place.

Cowher's wife and youngest daughter, Lindsay, have been living in Raleigh since late summer because their daughter wanted to play basketball in North Carolina this year. Like he did with his other two daughters, Meagan and Lauren, who are enrolled at Princeton, Cowher has a desire to spend as much time as possible with Lindsay, 15, while she is in high school.

Sometime after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL, Cowher revealed to some in the organization he was entertaining thoughts of retiring. But those sentiments were heightened when he turned down a contract extension he was offered by team president Art Rooney II, a deal that apparently would have paid Cowher between $6 million and $6.5 million annually in the final years of the contract, according to several people with knowledge of the situation.

Nearly three years ago, Cowher talked about coaching nearly forever. He said he didn't even want to think about stepping down at least until Lindsay graduated from high school. But, he changed his mind quickly in the past year or two.

Cowher, perhaps let on more of his growing feeling about resigning at the NFL meetings in Orlando, Fla., in March.

Asked how long he might coach, Cowher said he wasn't sure. "We tried to just take it one year at a time, and I think at the end of each year you have to sit back and reassess where you are and just make sure you still have the passion for doing it. That's the most important thing.

"You want to be fair to the football team to make sure I can make the fullest commitment to giving everything I have."

(Post-Gazette sports writer Ed Bouchette contributed to this report. )