Longtime Steelers assistant coach John Mitchell is retiring.
The team announced Mitchell’s retirement on Wednesday afternoon.
Mitchell has been on the Steelers coaching staff since 1994 and he spent the last five seasons as Mike Tomlin’s assistant head coach. Mitchell was hired as the team’s defensive line coach in 1994 by Tomlin’s predecessor Bill Cowher and he added the assistant head coach title in 2007. Mitchell relinquished his position coach role in 2017.
Before coming to the Steelers, Mitchell was the first Black player to play for the University of Alabama football team and he later became the first Black assistant coach on Bear Bryant’s staff.
“I’m not sure that I can offer sufficient praise and admiration for Mitch – as both a man and football coach,” Tomlin said in a statement. “Mitch has been a central figure in the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers for nearly three decades. He has coached some of the best players in this franchise’s illustrious history, and each one of them, to a man, would tell you their success was a direct result of not only Mitch’s coaching acumen, but also his mentorship, leadership and character. Those traits were most evident when he chose to attend the University of Alabama. Mitch’s path not only changed his life, but the lives of so many others. It’s impossible to truly measure his impact on the game, but I’m eternally grateful for the 16 years we worked together and wish him and [his wife] Joyce the absolute best in retirement.”
Mitchell also coached at Arkansas, LSU, and in the USFL before joining the Steelers.
