Former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spent 12 years building the same city in Minecraft, and the project broke into wider view after he published the first tour video on YouTube on Sept. 30.
In that first episode, Tomlin walks viewers through a boutique hotel, luxury apartment buildings and a CVS inside the city he has been working on for more than a decade. Online reactions described the result as something close to an extraordinarily ordinary masterpiece.
Tomlin also posted on X that day to promote the release, writing 「Tonight at 8, my Minecraft city」 and directing users to subscribe to channel @miket757. According to the figures cited in the report, that preview post recorded 25,172,115 views and 163,548 likes.
Kotaku described Tomlin as one of the most successful coaches in NFL history and noted that he now works as an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America. By the time Kotaku published its story, the first video had reached 1.5 million views.
Started as a way to spend time with his children
In the video, Tomlin said he did not have the kind of controller skill needed for competitive games. He said he discovered Minecraft’s creative mode while watching his children play, then began building on his own. What started as a way to spend time with his kids continued even after they grew up.
He said several of his children helped with the project over the years, and that his son was the one who eventually persuaded him to make the city public.
The first structure in the city was a boutique hotel. Tomlin said it had the right lighting, staff work areas and enough restrooms.
A city with apartments, a hotel and a CVS
From there, the build expanded into residential areas, luxury apartment towers with a separate aquarium in each unit, and what Tomlin called a convenient CVS. The report noted that CVS is a U.S. pharmacy retail chain.
Kotaku wrote that Tomlin explained the details in a flat, measured tone even when discussing the parts that fascinated him most. While talking about the glass ceiling in the hotel ballroom, he said, 「I really care about lighting.」 When introducing other buildings, he said, 「These are some of the other high-rises nearby,」 and later added, 「I’ve always liked this one because it’s close to the baseball stadium.」
At around the 13-minute mark, Tomlin was still explaining what he called the bedroom concept. His son then cut in and asked, 「Sorry to interrupt, what do you think about the paintings in the game?」 Tomlin replied that he did not especially like the paintings themselves and was mainly trying to present the interior design, though one silhouette painting was his favorite.
After spending roughly 15 minutes on bedroom planning, he said, 「I won’t bore you with too much detail,」 before immediately continuing with an explanation of how many bedrooms each apartment type had. His son then asked whether he wanted to talk about landscaping.
Official NFL and Minecraft accounts joined the comments
The comment section was far more animated than Tomlin’s delivery. One highly liked comment said, 「This might be a top-five video in YouTube history.」 Another viewer called it 「a modern dad’s train set.」
The official NFL account commented, 「This is awesome,」 while the official Minecraft account wrote, 「Honored to be here.」 Both referred to him as Coach.
Key figures cited in the report
- Time spent building the city: 12 years
- First YouTube video release date: Sept. 30
- Views on the first video at the time of Kotaku’s report: 1.5 million
- Views on Tomlin’s X preview post: 25,172,115
- Likes on Tomlin’s X preview post: 163,548