In January this year, the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers resigned, following 19 seasons at the helm. After much “thought and reflection”—presumably, about the team’s prolonged lack of postseason success (they had not won a playoff game since the 2016 season)—Mike Tomlin stepped down. At the time, I wondered less about his decision, and more about how someone could possibly do a job like that for 19 grueling years and maintain his sanity.
It turns out I didn’t have to speculate, because just in the past few days, Tomlin has revealed that for the last 12 of those seasons, he has had an elaborate secret hobby: building a complex city in the video game Minecraft. This game is something like digital Lego combined with an enormous explorable world, and is currently played by 155 million others. “It was therapeutic for me,” Tomlin explained. “It allowed me to detach from the pressures and the reality of life.”
I will confess to being gobsmacked by this. I am always shocked when I learn that a prominent high achiever has an odd hobby, like tying flies or building birdhouses—activities that require special skill and effort, but without outside compensation like money or professional advancement. I imagine these people doing nothing but their jobs, obsessed and single-mindedly.
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