The Pomp And Joe Show
Diving into Bob Pompeani's sit-down interview with Steelers Mike McCarthy
02 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What was the initial reaction to Mike McCarthy's comments about Aaron Rodgers?
The phone lines remain lit up like Malsy in a craft beer house. So we're going to toggle, Bob. You like toggling? We're going to toggle between calls on what we revealed in our opening segment is that Bob and Mike McCarthy sat down. And why don't we just play that line again? Bob asked about Aaron Rodgers coming here if these two wanted to recreate their magic. Let's hear the question and answer.
Can you recreate the magic that you guys had Green Bay?
That's the plan. I mean, that's the plan. I think it'd be awesome. I think it'd be a great chapter in our career.
Bob, did you realize as soon as he said that that you just broke, I think, kind of major news? Even though we had an inkling, a lot of people didn't think it was as clear as he just made it.
That's the plan. Well, it doesn't get any clearer than that, I guess. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to ask that question, only because I was not convinced at his press conference that what he said—
was really how they felt i thought it was more well we're not gonna you know aaron had can speak for himself i'm not gonna say anything sure we'd like to have him here you know but that's you know you hear it i don't know if i totally agreed with it and i thought maybe it was you know just being deferential whatever and then when he said that that was like oh my okay that's i guess that's the plan
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Chapter 2: How does Mike McCarthy plan to recreate the success he had with Aaron Rodgers?
You know it in an interview when they say something that's not working.
But we were talking about some other stuff about Rogers first. That little light bulb goes on. Yeah, and then he went with that.
So, hey, it's going to happen. So it's going to happen. In the hands of an expert interviewer, anything can happen, Bob. And it was a great interview, and we're going to listen to it. Thank you.
You may be overdoing that, but it was just a conversation.
Here's the key with your interviewing, in my humble opinion, is that you make people very relaxed. So it becomes. And that's why something like that emerges. Because Mike didn't feel guarded. He felt very relaxed with you. And when that happens, I think the subject forgets that, oh, I'm on the record and this will be seen by this many people. He's just BSing with you at some point.
That's your ability to do that.
I thank you for that. But you're like that the same way. You got to make people feel that way.
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Chapter 3: What insights did Bob Pompeiani gain during his interview with Mike McCarthy?
We had a nice conversation before we even did it. So it was more like just two guys sitting down. And I think that's how at least that's my approach to these kinds of things.
Well, just have a conversation. And that's the thing that I tried to impart to young journalists like our friend City Limits in there. Look at him, Bob. Look how tiny he truly is.
Is he shrinking? No. No? He's thawing out because he was in the cold.
This chair is just so low to the ground. I know. You can barely see. They took away my chair that I loved a couple months ago. I need a higher chair. It hurts my back when I sit in this chair. It's very sad.
It doesn't have a thing on the bottom where you can put it up? No.
How about a phone book? Do phone books still exist? No. Or if they do, I don't have one. It was probably about 10 years ago the last time somebody threw a phone book on my lawn, right?
That's how they used to do it. In a little plastic thing. In a plastic thing. Oh, there's our phone book. Whoever... Do they still print them limits? No. I don't know. Remember the last time we got a phone book? Actually, you know, it's funny that all this electronic stuff makes so many things... disappear. We saw the blockbuster industry of videos gone. Even cameras on your phone.
What did they do to Konica Minolta? They used to make cameras. You have this camera. Everyone has a camera. Do you really need another camera? Probably not. It's crazy. It's amazing.
What was I just going to say, Limits? Now I completely forgot. Oh, the lesson there is... When you're interviewing people, when you're around a team a lot, you have to show interest in the person and create at least small talk. You can't just show up and stick a tape recorder in their face or a phone, which is one and the same. That doesn't work.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of being a local head coach in Pittsburgh?
You're not going to get the answer. You're not going to get them to relax and get answers that are heartfelt and, in this case, reveal news. Right. That's the plan. So why don't we get to a couple of calls and then let's start the interview at the very beginning. All right. Here is George in North Carolina to chime in. Hello, George. Hi, George. Hey, guys. Thank you for letting me talk.
I promised limits. I wouldn't fumble this. So I'm going to say this. I'm going to try to split the baby. I don't want Aaron Rodgers coming back. I can really appreciate the hopeful, optimistic Bob thinking, what if he has a better season? That's not the expectation. And if he does have a better season, where does it land this franchise on a long-term basis? Aaron Rodgers just doesn't help.
But I don't want to... in any direction, tank or try to lose games. If we're trying to develop a quarterback or bring a quarterback in and maybe help us win, I'm totally good with that. I just don't feel like we have to go, you know, 5-12 or something to get a quarterback because I may go down this list, and I've done this with Joe probably a year ago. He may or may not remember it.
I typically do this to him. Patrick Mahomes was drafted after they were 12-4. Aaron Rods after 10-6. Jordan Love at 13-3. Lamar Jackson after winning season. Jalen Hurst after winning season. Russell Wilson, they were 7-9, but they made the playoffs. So it's about how well you draft. And develop. Not how much you lose.
And one of my last comments, and I really appreciate you guys letting me talk, is... The Steelers, as we know it, foundationally were built because they had the greatest draft in NFL history and then later on picked up a Terry Bradshaw and a Ben Roethlisberger. Earlier they picked up Terry Bradshaw, yeah.
the other quarterbacks may have been to take the Phillies to some of those Super Bowls with that great draft they had in 1974. So I think Rudy can't dismiss how important the draft is as he continues to try to have this tradition where this team was built on a great draft, not necessarily consistency from year to year to year to year.
So if he's trying to hold on to 9-8, that's not what this team was built on, in my opinion. I believe it was built on... oddly a great draft, which you can't continue to get every year. So now you have to be willing, to Joe's point, to lose every now and then in order to get better. But I would split the baby and say, I don't think you have to go to the bottom in order to get a good draft pick.
That's true. Yeah, I hear that. What you just said was true. I mean, there are teams that have drafted, and sometimes you've got to get lucky. The fact that Kansas City waited and waited, and everybody ahead of them, including the Chicago Bears with Trubisky, passed on Patrick Mahomes.
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Chapter 5: How does Mike McCarthy view the current roster of the Steelers?
And they aggressively moved up as if they did have a 3-14. They drafted from the spot where you draft if you had a losing record.
But they also didn't expect him to fall that. At least I didn't think so back at that draft. I thought he was going to be one of the top three picks, and he wasn't.
And Terry Bradshaw was drafted after a 1-13 season. I'll just add that little nugget.
But it doesn't mean you can't be successful and still draft the right quarterback. You certainly can, but you've got to be, I think, a little bit lucky in that regard too.
Yeah, you do. But just again, as I look at the AFC, Patriots, Josh Allen for the Bills, Joe Burrow for the Bengals, Trevor Lawrence for the Jags, Bo Nix for the Broncos, Justin Herbert for the Chargers.
You can say Mahomes, but again, hey, listen, if the Steelers could get the first pick this year, if they're willing to trade all kinds of first-round picks and assets, you can make any move you want.
That would be interesting, wouldn't it be?
Be very interesting.
First pick.
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Chapter 6: What are the expectations for the Steelers in the upcoming season?
I have to go down there. I've been on Greenfield Avenue but never where this house is.
Right.
Well, he moved to – I know, but you described it very well how those houses are. They're really close together. Closer than you and I are sitting right now. Which means you have good relationships with your neighbors. You know them and they know you. Or bad ones. You hope they're good ones. You hope they're good, right.
Because you can hear everything that's going on in their house. I'll tell you that. Now, he moved his folks – I think it's still in Greenfield, but it's up on a hill where he got a piece of land up there and they can overlook the entire city from up there, as he just mentioned. Even better. Is that where he's staying right now is with his folks, I wonder?
I don't know because I don't, I mean, he's been out of town so long. I don't know if he has a house here or not.
Imagine waking up at your parents' house and driving to work as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bob.
You don't have a car yet. Your family's someplace else. Hey, Mom, drive me in. I've got to go to work.
Yeah, your dad drops you off at work. This is phenomenal limits. Next.
Also, you are one of the few people who have, on your resume now, three of the most iconic franchises to be able to coach for. We're talking Green Bay, Dallas, and now Pittsburgh. I mean, growing up, you possibly could not have imagined all that trifecta.
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Chapter 7: How does Mike McCarthy feel about the pressure of coaching in his hometown?
You're competing and so forth. My parents have a really cool picture of me with Terry Bradshaw, you know, holding the trophy. We might have to slide that to the closet for now because I don't want to be looking at that every day.
Well, you're here, and of course, there's a lot of good. You have people around here who know you. Obviously, they're going to want you to succeed, but the other part of that is when you're local, you have pressure because everyone now can get to you. You go to your bar, hey, coach, what did you do on third down? You go to Giant Eagle, right? You're going to hear that kind of stuff.
Yeah. How is that? We haven't experienced it yet. Hopefully, you don't have too much of it. Yeah, hopefully, I don't have to go to Giant Eagle. Thank God for what they call it, DoorDash, where it all works. Yeah. No, I think there's always pressure with this job. And I think having, you know, two experiences, you know, prior to coming here is, you know, is part of it.
Frankly, I'm more concerned about my family, half that deal, because this is new for them. And, but, you know, hey, it's a great gift. You know, these are good challenges to have.
That's interesting right there. And I think a lot of people do discover when you go home again, man, if you don't succeed, the pressure is ratcheted up a lot. And unfortunately, that can be a byproduct of failing is that people are not kind.
No, not at all. And what I said after that was no. Something that Coward told me about. That's the hardest part when they were going through those three seasons where they were under 500 and there was a lot of turmoil about who would remain and who would go. You know, I remember him telling me that that's the hardest thing. My daughters are in school here. They have to listen to this stuff.
So that's that's not an easy part. Maybe not so much for the coach, but for the family. City sweeper. I remember Conrad said that too. He said the hardest thing is your family here and stuff, but I guess that comes with it. Let's talk about your team now. You inherit a team that wins a division. Not many coaches come into that. So I guess pressure right off the bat, right?
Well, definitely. I mean, again, today, that's the first thing. You know, we talk about the roster every day, and it's an excellent roster. Excited, you know, the number of draft picks we have. So you're always trying to move the needle of your roster. So, yeah, definitely. I mean, it's a great situation to come into. But, yeah, it's nothing more for sure.
Joe, you've become the teacher's pet with you raising your hand as much. I love it. I feel like Arnold Horschak from the old Welcome Back, Goddard.
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Chapter 8: What are the potential implications of drafting a quarterback for the Steelers?
What's the point here, Bob? The point is, I don't know, you stopped talking about it. Oh, it's an excellent roster. Do you agree with that statement? I think it's a good roster.
Is it excellent? Excellent is, you know, it's a subjective answer to that question. I think it's a good roster.
I think it's very objective. It's not an excellent roster.
Well, I would say that on offense you do have some pieces there you could build around, and I would say the same on defense. When you've got two guys on your defensive line who I think could be legitimate playmakers like Harmon and Benton, when you have outside linebackers even after T.J. Watt, Who can get the job done? That's depth. I like Porter as a corner.
I think he's finally emerged as that guy you don't have to worry about. So there could be a Porter Island scenario maybe. So they have pieces, yes, but they need more pieces, which is why the excellent, I don't know if I would call it excellent,
Yeah, I think it's better maybe than some people think, but excellent is a stretch. And also, this idea that he's walking into this miraculous situation, Mike Tomlin did. Mike Tomlin walked into one of the greatest situations ever, and I always give him 100% credit for winning those Super Bowls or getting to the Super Bowl and then winning it and then getting to another.
I give him 100% credit for that. But he did walk into, as Bill Cowher later said, a Super Bowl team. That's just a fact. I mean, he had a Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime. He had a team still in its prime that had won a Super Bowl two years earlier. He had a legendary built-in defensive coordinator, a Hall of Fame GM. I mean, that's amazing.
Now look at the situation that's been left for McCarthy is not that. No quarterback, no assistant coaches, unproven GM, etc. And a roster that's done literally nothing when it comes to playoff football. Man, you talk about a different set of circumstances that you're walking into. So I think he has overblown that, quite frankly. And I think Art has, too.
This idea that Mike McCarthy is walking into, like, wow, what a place to walk into. Well, actually, it's a place that hasn't even come close to winning a playoff game in almost a decade and has aging, expensive players on defense. And did I mention no quarterbacks?
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