Ex-NFL Coach Mike Tomlin Reveals Massive ‘Minecraft’ City He Spent 12 Years Secretly Building

Natasha DyeThu, October 1, 2026 at 9:16 PM UTC

0

Mike Tomlin; Mike Tomlin’s Minecraft cityCredit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty; Mike Tomlin/YouTube -

Former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin proudly showed off his Minecraft city in a YouTube Video

Tomlin spent 12 years working on the detailed city, which features luxury high-rises, a baseball stadium and a soccer stadium

Tomlin learned about the game from his kids, but eventually discovered his own love of the “therapeutic” game

Mike Tomlin proudly showed off a project he spent 12 years working on — an impressively detailed Minecraft city.

Tomlin, 54, shared his accomplishment in a YouTube video on Wednesday, Sept. 30 titled, “Ep 1: Rooftops, Penthouses and Urban Living.” The legendary former NFL coach wrote in the description, “In this episode, I discuss why I decided to start the ‘Minecraft City,’ followed by an examination of the first building downtown and other key rooftop properties.”

Now an analyst at NBC, Tomlin revealed that he spent 12 years building the complex digital design on his PlayStation.

Speaking to viewers on his stream, Tomlin said, “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.”

Mike Tomlin on Sept. 27, 2026Credit: Justin Edmonds/Getty

The former Steelers coach said he became “mesmerized by what could occupy their attention for such large periods of time,” and eventually “started watching them play.”

Follow your favorite athletes on and off the field with PEOPLE’s free sports newsletter — sign up now!

Tomlin — who coached the Steelers for 19 seasons, making him the longest tenured head coach in NFL history — admitted he’s “certainly not skilled enough in video game play or have the stick control to do some of those things,” but he became “interested in this creative mode” that Minecraft offers.

Advertisement

“I like to build. I’ve always had an interest in architecture. So I started doing this creative city,” he said.

Tomlin’s city design includes hotels, luxury apartment high-rises, a baseball stadium, a soccer stadium and more. His first building was a boutique hotel — complete with a spa and a ballroom —that he gave viewers a detailed tour of in the video.

“I was really lighting conscious when I started this,” Tomlin explained, admitting figuring out the perfect lighting for his design “was a challenge for me.”

In one of Tomlin’s luxury residences, he included a wall-sized fish tank that spans multiple rooms. “You can see how the aquarium is central throughout the residence,” he proudly said.

Tomlin described the game as “therapeutic” and said he’s not “a big TV watcher.”

The former coach promised to keep fans on his city and share “something you’ll find really interesting” in an upcoming episode on his channel.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Sports”