Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin reveals massive Minecraft city he's spent over 12 years building

Tomlin built a truly colossal virtual city, but at least one former Steelers player had some thoughts on the project

Oct 1, 2026 at 12:40 pm ET • 2 min read

Mike Tomlin is one of the most accomplished coaches in recent NFL history. Tomlin famously never posted a losing season during his 19 years as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, racking up a record 193-114-2 (.628 winning percentage), a Super Bowl title in 2008, and another Super Bowl appearance two years later.

These days, Tomlin is a studio analyst for NBC, and during an episode of the "Today" show, he revealed that for the last 12 years of his tenure in Pittsburgh, he was also a prolific "Minecraft" builder. Tomlin spent years building out his city on PlayStation, and on Wednesday night, he showed it off to the world in a YouTube stream.

"Twelve or thirteen years ago, when my kids were in middle school, they'd be in their room all weekend, they'd have friends over, and they were obsessed with playing this game, 'Minecraft,' that I knew nothing about," Tomlin said on the stream. "I got interested because I just was mesmerized by what could occupy their attention for such large periods of time.

"So I started watching them play. They played different types of games, adventure or whatever. I'm certainly not skilled enough in video game play or have the stick control to do some of those things, so I got interested in this creative mode. I like to build. I've always had an interest in architecture. So I started doing this creative city."

The world Tomlin revealed was incredibly rich and detailed. He walked viewers through the first building he ever created — a hotel that came complete with a boutique spa, a conference room, glass ceilings (because Tomlin said he was very conscious of lighting and it was hard to build good lighting when he first started 12 years ago). And showed viewers a basement speakeasy that even had an employees-only area.

There was a baseball stadium, a soccer stadium and high-rise apartment buildings that overlooked each of them. 

Tomlin's residential areas mostly focused on urban architecture, he said, and the stream showed that he even built out things like a PNC Bank and a CVS nearby. He gave viewers tours of the apartment buildings, one of which featured aquariums on each floor and fully furnished bedrooms with art on the walls and a fireplace. For those unfamiliar with Minecraft, Tomlin had to build all of this from scratch.

Tomlin said he became obsessed with rooftop penthouses and went back to add them to some of his early buildings during that time. Tomlin walked through his thoughts on balconies, rec rooms, open floor plans, elevator wells, rooftop spaces, Jack and Jill bedroom concepts with multiple sinks, paintings, landscaping, a desire to line bodies of water with high-end apartment buildings and more.

According to The Athletic, some 20,000 concurrent viewers were watching the 19-minute stream when it debuted. As of Thursday afternoon, the published video had roughly 770,000 views.

One person who did not appear to appreciate the level of dedication and detail in the city was former Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell, who responded to a video of the stream with the following post:

Tomlin appeared to try to head off that criticism early in the video.

"At different times over the course of a 12-month calendar, I would have different levels of fixation on this," he said. "But it's been a project now that's been ongoing for 12-plus years. More than anything, it was therapeutic for me. Some mindless entertainment."