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The Internet Is Losing Its Mind Over Retired NFL Coach Mike Tomlin Spending 12 Years Making A Very Intricate Minecraft City
Mike Tomlin, former head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers and one of the most successful coaches in NFL history, loves _Minecraft_. He is completely obsessed with _Minecraft_. It turns out the NBC _Football Night in America_ analyst has spent the last 12 years building a single _Minecraft_ city, and he’s ready to show it to us all, and it might be the most spectacularly ordinary creation of all time. And the internet is _loving_ it.
I have two favorite things about Tomlin’s _Minecraft_ video: 1) It’s stupendously ordinary. 2) It’s really fantastically, astoundingly ordinary. And I mean both of those as compliments. I adore it.
> Tonight.
>
> 8 p.m.
>
> My Minecraft City.
>
> Subscribe now: https://t.co/qf5o6EALKv pic.twitter.com/ZiNJdyW6bX
>
> — Mike Tomlin (@CoachTomlin) September 30, 2026
Tomlin explains in his account’s first YouTube upload that he doesn’t have the “stick control” to play games competitively, but after watching his children play, he discovered _Minecraft_ ‘s Creative Mode, fell in love, and began to build. Various offspring have helped him with his project over the last 12 years, with Tomlin first seeing it as a lovely way to spend time with his kids, until eventually they grew out of it while he did not. It was his son Dino who finally convinced him to share this epic project with the world.
What makes this city and video so compelling is just how ordinary it is. It’s ordinary in a way that’s bordering on dangerous. The very first building Tomlin put up was a boutique hotel with appropriate lighting, employee work areas, and an adequate number of available bathrooms. He then moves on to residential housing, luxury apartment towers with individual aquariums, and a conveniently available CVS.
Making all this normality even more hypnotic is Tomlin’s monotone presentation of his city, obsessively describing the details on which he became “fixated” without a glimmer of excitement or vocalized enthusiasm. “I’m really lighting-conscious,” the former coach tells us at one point, as we see a glass ceiling above a hotel ballroom. “These are some other high-rises in the general area,” he later notes, adding, “I always liked this one here because of its proximity to the baseball stadium.” (He’ll “detail the baseball stadium in another episode.”)
“This might be a top 5 video of all time on YouTube,” reads one highly upvoted comment beneath the video, which has so far accrued 1.5 million views. “This is awesome, Coach!” comments the official NFL channel, sycophantically. “i’m honored to be here coach” notes the official _Minecraft_ account. Perhaps more insightfully, another viewer adds, “The modern dad’s Model Train Track.”
## Bedroom concepts
13 minutes in, after Tomlin has entered a sort of zen zone of seemingly endlessly describing “bedroom concepts” and how bathroom layouts “became something of an interest of mine,” there’s the most splendid abrupt cut as his son chips in, “Sorry to cut you off, but what do you think about the paintings in the game?”
“You know…I didn’t necessarily like the paintings,” his father explains, clearly not rising to the bait of what must surely have been a regular complaint in private. “But I just wanted to represent the interior design. There’s one painting that’s like a silhouette of a man, and that’s my favorite painting.” But thankfully Tomlin quickly brushes this disruption aside and gets back onto explaining the spacing of bedrooms in suites in another apartment complex, along with their open floor-plan living areas.
“I’m not going to bore you with too much detail,” says Tomlin in the straightest of tones after 15 minutes of bedroom planning descriptions. He then immediately follows this up by explaining why he chose the number of bedrooms in each apartment type. His son, who _has_ to be trolling him, asks, “Did you want to talk about landscaping?”
This is but episode one of what could become one of the most compelling series ever uploaded to YouTube. The video’s final words are the tantalizing, “In the next episode we’ll take a look at something that I think you’re gonna find interesting, something that’s really cool, so stay with us.”
## Honey, not now
Meanwhile another of Tomlin’s sons, Mayce, took to X to needle his father.
> Bro I used to come home sometimes and my PlayStation would just be gone. And I wasn’t in trouble😭😭😭 https://t.co/sVMg1SqxCs
>
> — Mayce Tomlin (@maycetomlin) October 1, 2026
> IM SEEING A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THEY WANNA LIVE IN MIKE TOMLIN'S MINECRAFT CITY. WHAT IM NOT SEEING IS ANYONE ASKING WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VILLAGERS THAT *USED* TO LIVE THERE.
>
> — Mayce Tomlin (@maycetomlin) October 1, 2026
Then last night Tomlin appeared on _Late Night With Seth Meyers_ to talk about the aftermath, where he described playing _Minecraft_ as “therapeutic.”
> Mike Tomlin Says He Initially Got Into Minecraft to Spend More Time With His Boys
>
> “My boys were in middle school and you'll do anything as a parent to stay close to them as they drift away.” 🥹 pic.twitter.com/vWvOZjYa7J
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> — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 2, 2026
This has all caused a lot of happiness as people delight in the joyful banality of it all, and we needed that.
> Mike Tomlin saw this shit and said Minecraft it is
>
> — BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL AKA PRESIDENT FOOTBALL (@edsbs.bsky.social) 2026-10-02T01:00:59.111Z
> Mike Tomlin is showing us the public bathrooms he built in Minecraft on Youtube
>
> — Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell.com) 2026-10-01T00:07:07.498Z
> Steelers fans: “MIKE, WE’RE ABOUT TO LOSE IN THE WILDCARD ROUND AGAIN, PLEASE GET US OVER THE HUMP”
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> Mike Tomlin: pic.twitter.com/08Uxv5pjGk
>
> — NFL Memes (@NFLMemes) October 1, 2026
> Give this man zoo tycoon
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> — Garden of EDonz (@edonz.bsky.social) 2026-10-01T17:22:01.890Z
> Mike Tomlin built college high rises based on where his children went I’m gonna cry dawg
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> — JP Acosta (@acosta32jp.bsky.social) 2026-10-01T00:20:52.261Z
> Honey not now, Mike Tomlin is explaining why he added high end residencies along his Minecraft riverfront.
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> — Griffin (@Griffin_BFTV) October 1, 2026
> Everyone on my flight is currently watching the Mike Tomlin Minecraft stream pic.twitter.com/IScg6GoE4E
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> — jimmy toots (@futtywap) October 1, 2026
> MIKE TOMLIN IS AN URBAN FUCKING PLANNER
>
> — alyssa mercante (@alyssamerc.bsky.social) 2026-10-01T03:21:59.742Z
