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This is shocking to me. My brother is a retired college football head coach. Two of his sons are acclaimed college football players. I've spent time with the head coaches of two teams currently ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA. I've been around the sport for decades and know how coaches' lives can be monopolized by the job. To see an NFL head coach doing something requiring this level of time commitment blows my mind. I guess it's a reminder that to reach the very top level of a sought after profession, you have to be a remarkable individual.
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This is... kind of insane. I'm not someone who is easily surprised by things but this one is so random, weird, and happily surprising.
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I have to admit the merging of worlds here is wild. I never expected to read Mike Tomlin, long time coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers on HackerNews yet here we are. It was not on my Bingo card. Refreshing, indeed.
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I (stereotypical nerd) was briefly friends with a large Samoan man that was built like a tank and did amateur MMA fighting. One night we were going out drinking with a group of us and he let slip that he was super into Starcraft. Me and all of my geeky friends lost it, couldn't believe it etc etc. I learned later he muttered to the one other athletic guy in the group, "I guess these guys don't really hang out around athletes very often." He wasn't being a jerk, he was right, we totally let our prejudices get the better of us. It's not at all uncommon for athletic people to be into nerd stuff.
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There's a video of San Antonio Spurs players, including Tim Duncan and David Robinson, playing Starcraft 2v2 on the road during the 1999 NBA Finals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WEJQfwniQ

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In my experience, many people who are athletic, or have practiced enough of a sport to be considered athletic, just crave competition.
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I think it's just that people miss there's a major intellectual side to all sports, but it often gets masked by the fact that those who excel in sports often forsake or ignore their education education early on, so they sound ineloquent, and people, especially those outside of sports, assume that means they're stupid.

Mike Tyson is an extreme example. He dropped out of high school and probably never paid much of any attention for the schooling he did have. But listen to an interview with him, like on Rogan, and the man has a mind when you actually listen to what he's thinking/saying [1], as opposed to how he says it. And that's after decades of drugs and plenty of blows to the head.

Gymnasium was historically a place where you go not only for your physical but also your intellectual education, and I think the Greeks had it right. A strong mind needs a strong body, and vice versa.

[1] - https://youtu.be/hcPUoxTvw5g?t=1849

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You might love this if you haven't seen it. Youtuber wanders into what he thought was an abandoned game and ends up having an amazing time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMDb1CWD6Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XjRNNkAKRM

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I laughed when I saw the naming thinking, “hey this is the same as the Steelers coach”. Crazy that it actually is him, but hey he’s human too.

Interesting choice for his favorite rooftop 12m in!

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I find funny how I had the same reaction as you and many people here. My other thought was, wait didn’t he retire only last year? lol
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Thanks for the link... I didn't watch the whole thing as I resonated when he said 'entertainment is for detaching from life'. After hearing that I got it. That really is the problem with a lot of the "AAA" "Art" being produced today.
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I just showed it to my kids and it’s wild to think that he has been working on this since before they were born.
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He didn't even want to share it, his kid kind of forced him to.
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He's one of the longest consecutively tenured by a single team. There are some coaches who have coached longer, but not consecutively, or not for the same team, but Tomlin was the head coach for the Steelers for 19 years. And in those 19 years, he never had a losing season.

He had one more year on his current contract when he decided to retire.

He was mostly known for being able to wrangle the more "unique" personalities of the NFL and for his answers during press conferences. Giving us such gems as "The standard is the standard", "and things of that nature", "We're still squirreling those nuts", "We do not live in our fears", etc.

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I used to religiously, watch his press, conferences and other media appearances. His unique and widely recognized leadership skills are an inspiration to me.

“The strength of the team is the team” discussions about meaningful expectations and divisions of labor are all particularly useful at various times. “Remaining singularly focused” is often the only way you can accomplish some specific task, and “wanting volunteers, not hostages” is important for many relationships, professional and personal.

My favorite quotes have to be about uncertainty and fear. If you blink, cut your eyelids off.” and “taking the calculated risks associated with secure victory” are great. “Living in our hopes not in our fears” go through my head a lot.

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I love how it's a city with almost solarpunk theming—present day, but with buildings nestled in greenery in an almost idyllic setting. Then he moves into one of the apartment blocks and WHAM—there's disturbing imagery on the television screens. This is the kind of creativity that comes from sitting with a piece as you make it and thinking it through bit by bit.
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