Mike Tomlin, the Super Bowl-winning former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach now working as an NFL broadcaster for NBC, has revealed a hobby he kept largely private for more than a decade: building an elaborate solo world in the video game “Minecraft.”
Tomlin showed off the project in a stream on his YouTube channel, describing a build that includes a lakeside community, high-rise apartment buildings, an aquarium stocked with various types of fish, and expansive areas of trees and greenery. He said he began the project 12 years ago.
“The crazy part is how much time it took me to get that water situated,” Tomlin said. “It was a nightmare. This apartment building right here next to the aquarium. For whatever reason, I would get fixated on bedrooms.”
Tomlin said he has long had an interest in architecture and building, and that working on the world has helped him discover new things about his own habits and fixations.
“Sometimes buildings have themes,” he said. “I was always view conscious of these high-rise buildings.”
An estimate generated by the AI tool Grok put the total time invested in the project at roughly 2,000 hours, which works out to about six hours a week across the full 12-year span.
Tomlin was unable to show the entirety of his world in the roughly 20-minute video he posted, and said a soccer stadium built in another part of the world will be featured in a future episode.
His son, Mayce Tomlin, posted on X that his father would take his gaming console without warning in order to keep working on the build.
“Bro, I used to come home sometimes, and my PlayStation would just be gone. And I wasn’t in trouble,” Mayce wrote, adding several laughing emojis.
Tomlin indicated he plans to share additional footage of the world in future videos.
