October was pretty much the best month on the sporting calendar on Tuesday night.
Major League Baseball offers sports fans four playoff games, while the WNBA serves up a pair of playoff contests, with the showdown between Dallas and Golden State ending in overtime.
But the real magic was playing on YouTube.
It was there, just after 8:00 PM Eastern, that former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin introduced the world to Minecraft City. A few weeks ago, Tomlin let slip on a podcast that he’s been playing the game for years, something he started to bond with his kids when they were young playing the game, but continued as the kids grew out of Minecraft and into other games.
Instead of laying down his rods, Tomlin continued to build and refine the massive city.
On that episode The Glass Half Full Podcast Along with Craig Melvin, Tomlin teased that he might share the city with the world later.
Wednesday night was that day.
In Part 1, titled “Rooftops, Penthouses, and Urban Living,” Tomlin zips us through the Gray Quarter, which gives us a taste of what he’s built over a decade of playing Minecraft. He started with the first building he built, which he described as a “boutique hotel”, complete with multipurpose conference rooms and a “decent” number of public toilets. That boutique hotel even had a basement.
The fun was just beginning.
While blowing off the roof of the CVS and MLS stadiums he built — both of which he promised to unveil later — he then showed off another high-end residence, offices, two-bedroom apartments and a fancy rooftop entertainment space. It was in this room that Tomlin slipped a phrase that will stick in my mind forever: “I got into Jack and Jill bedroom concepts…with lots of sinks.”
Other great quotes include Tomlin saying “How to fix on bodies of water” and “If you look at the bookshelves, I was describing the offices, he’s talking about the high-rises along this river.”
But perhaps the funniest moment from episode 1? During his time on The View, he modeled another high-end housing structure on the University of Maryland campus where his son Dino began his collegiate career. Tomlin shared that he takes inspiration from buildings he’s seen in real life, including where his kids go to college, and brings them into the city.
While the show is playing on YouTube, the following on social media – and at Live thread on the brand new SB Nation App – They were very happy.
However, the real beauty of Tomlin’s Minecraft City was not what he built, but why and how it was created over time. Yes, we have no choice but to praise our king of urban planning, and his passion for multiple sinks and proper public toilets. But this was born out of an NFL coach looking for a way to bond with his kids, which is healthy in itself, but it grew into the same coach using him as a way of coping for years, even after the kids outgrew the game.
With John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens, for example, it’s easy to imagine Tomlin coming home after another tough AFC North battle and creating something in Minecraft to cheer him up. At the beginning of the episode, he talks a lot about how it’s “therapy” for him. In a sport full of images of coaches burning the midnight oil, we can picture Tomlin working away in the city and planning to take it down.
He may be the most relevant NFL head coach ever.
You can watch Part 1 here:
Can’t wait for part 2.
