Mike Tomlin’s Minecraft hobby has become an unexpected talking point in the NFL. The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach has spent around 12 years building a virtual city. Some people have questioned whether he should have spent that time on football instead. Draymond Green, however, does not agree with that criticism.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
On The Draymond Green Show, the Golden State Warriors star defended Mike Tomlin. Green rejected the idea that an NFL coach must spend every free moment watching football film. He said having a hobby outside football does not mean Tomlin failed his team. He believes coaches should also have a life away from their jobs.
Green made his point by asking why Mike Tomlin would even need a coaching staff if he had to do everything himself.
“If we think that this man should have spent every dying second and minute of his life watching football film and doing absolutely nothing else with his time, then let’s get rid of his whole coaching staff and let’s let him do everything and make every decision,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show.
Green said Tomlin had a full coaching staff to help him. Offensive and defensive coordinators, position coaches, and other staff members handled different jobs. So, Tomlin did not have to manage every part of the Steelers’ work on his own.
The discussion began after Tomlin spoke about his Minecraft project. He recently moved to television after 19 seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach. He joined NBC’s Football Night in America studio team.
Tomlin has built it with his children for around 12 years. He first showed it publicly on Wednesday in his YouTube series, Rooftops, Penthouses, and Urban Living. He also discussed the hobby on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Tomlin said. “That wasn’t my intention when I got into it. I just, you know, my boys were in middle school, and you’ll do anything as a parent to stay close to them as they drift away. Right. You know, and so that became our thing.”
Mike Tomlin said the project became bigger over time. He and his children also spent long weekends working on the city.
“And then big offseason weekends, we’d be in the basement all weekend and things like that. And so I kind of stumbled into the therapeutic component of it. But I think in these jobs that we have, I think you guys would be really surprised. There’s probably a lot of interesting hobbies.”
Green believes Tomlin’s explanation supports his argument. He does not see the Minecraft city as proof that Tomlin ignored football. He compared Tomlin’s situation to the criticism he received when he started his own podcast.
“This—what this reminds me of and how everybody reacted to this is that when I first started this podcast and everybody like, ‘Yo, you’re a f****** idiot. You should be in a gym shooting,” Green said.
Green then asked whether doing something outside basketball meant he was ignoring his main job.
“So this 1 hour out of the day that I’m doing this, the other 23 hours in the day, should I be shooting all up?” Green said.
Green said even a small amount of time spent on Minecraft would not mean Tomlin ignored his football duties.
“What if he took 15 minutes—12 years. What if he took 15 minutes per day out of 12 years and said, ‘I’m doing this for 15 minutes a day’? Did he still f*** over the football team?” Green asked. “I think not.”
Tomlin also admitted that he did not expect his Minecraft project to get so much attention. Instead of responding to the reaction, Mike Tomlin called his two sons. They played a big role in creating the project.
“I turn my phone on about 10:30, and my phone is going crazy. And as opposed to responding to some of those things, I called my 2 sons, who really did all the work, okay?”, Tomlin said.
Tomlin said one of his sons created the music for the video, while the other worked on the editing. Their reaction made the moment even more special for him.
“One son’s music is in the background that plays in the video. The other one did the editing. And so I called them, and they’re screaming into the phone. They was like, ‘Dad, this is even bigger than we thought. You broke the internet,” Tomlin said.
Green also backed Tomlin as an analyst. He said Tomlin can criticize teams because he is no longer coaching the Steelers.
“Well, number 1, he ain’t in the coaching fraternity right now. He’s an analyst. Number 2, as an analyst, you need to do your f****** job,” Green said.
Green said an analyst must talk honestly about what happens during games. That includes pointing out mistakes when teams make them.
He ended his comments by praising Tomlin and even joked about his Minecraft skills.
“I tip my cap to Coach Mike T. Great job on your city. I saw some remnants of it. I don’t play Minecraft, so I don’t know. But it looked good. It looked like you were a hell of an interior designer, Coach,” Green concluded.
Green feels the criticism is unfair. Tomlin spent nearly 20 years in a tough NFL job, and Minecraft helped him spend time with his children. Now, as an analyst, he can share his football knowledge while enjoying life outside the sport. Tomlin will also show more of his Minecraft world.
Green’s message was “Build a bridge and get over it.” Do you think the hobby deserved the backlash? Let us know in the comments.