Longtime NFL assistant and current Steelers wide receivers coach Richard Mann announced his retirement Wednesday, just hours after Mike Tomlin said the contract of offensive coordinator Todd Haley would not be renewed.
The move by the 70-year-old Mann was expected. He spent 33 years coaching in the NFL, the past five with the Steelers after Tomlin asked the Aliquippa native to join his staff in 2013. The two had worked together with the Buccaneers.
“I was thinking about it last year. The way things ended, and talking to the players, I wanted to give it one more run,” Mann said Wednesday. “I was trying to get a Super Bowl ring in Pittsburgh. This is where it all started for me, and I had an opportunity to let it finish here. I really appreciate the Steelers organization, the entire Rooney family, and Coach Tomlin for getting me out of retirement the first time to finish up here. I felt like maybe if I stuck it out one more year I would have an opportunity to get a Super Bowl ring here. That didn’t happen, we came up a little bit short, but what a great run for me.
“I was able to finish my career right where I started. I started in Aliquippa and I was able to finish here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I said I probably wouldn’t coach past 70. I am 70 and I still have a lot left in my tank.”
Former Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward spent time working with the team’s receivers in training camp during the summer and also showed up several times during the regular season and playoffs. He has expressed an interest to Tomlin regarding the possibility of joining the coaching staff.
Mann also was assisted by Daniel Martin Rooney, the son of team president Art Rooney II, this past season. Rooney was a college quarterback at Dartmouth.
Mann helped develop Antonio Brown into arguably the best receiver in the NFL and also has worked with Martavis Bryant and JuJu Smith-Schuster during his five seasons with the Steelers. He has long been highly regarded by Tomlin.
“I had the pleasure of working with him 15 years ago at a different capacity,” Tomlin said earlier this week. “My appreciation for him really kind of started there. I was a younger assistant position coach, defensive backs. He was a more senior veteran wide receiver coach. Obviously, by the nature of the positions, we worked cooperatively together in training camp. I learned a lot from watching him coach his guys on the grass and off the grass. I was appreciative of him allowing me to do that. Often times in training camp-like settings, we would watch the same video of our guys together. I could hear him make coaching points to his guys about what was happening on the video. He could hear me make coaching points with my guys about what was happening on the same video. It was just a unique learning environment
“He’s always been a teacher and not resistant to sharing that expertise with others and that is why I’ve always gravitated towards him. Very accomplished coach. Maybe a lot of opportunities were not afforded to him because of the generation in which he rose through the ranks. I’m cognizant of that. I am appreciative of that. I realize some of the opportunities I have been afforded in my career is because of efforts and accomplishments of men like Richard Mann. I am appreciative on a lot of levels. Probably can’t eloquently describe that level of appreciation, but he is a special man and a special coach. One that has impacted me in a lot of ways.”
In addition to coaching in Tampa Bay, Mann spent time with the Browns, Jets, Redskins, Chiefs and in the city of Baltimore with both the Ravens and Colts.
