First off, what’s life like for Keith Butler now? Completely done with coaching?
Yes and no! I’m traveling quite a bit – seeing my grandkids, brothers and sisters. And playing a lot of golf and doing men’s Bible studies here and there.
My wife is eager to get me out the door! When you work 80-hour weeks then stop – well, she was used to having the house to herself. So it’s a tough adjustment for me, but for her too!
Coaching at all?
I help some guys out – my son is a head coach at a school in Memphis and his defensive coordinator will call sometimes with questions – so that satisfies the itch. It’s tough when you’re used to doing it for so long then quit. It’s been a big-time adjustment but so far so good.
How important was playing to your coaching career?
Dick LeBeau and I both played then coached. I played in Seattle for 10 years. My thing when I went into coaching was that I didn’t want to be too far away from my kids. But a couple of things moved me. I was coaching at my alma mater in Memphis as a defensive coordinator at the time and was waiting to be the head coach there. Well, Mike Tomlin was a graduate assistant then at Arkansas State and he convinced me to go coach there as their defensive coordinator. He said the head coaching job wasn’t going to happen for years in Memphis. So I went there, then when the Browns started their franchise back up I felt like that was a prime opportunity to go and coach there for a while while they rebuilt the franchise. I went there for four years until Cowher hired me in Pittsburgh.
I was fortunate to win two Super Bowls in Pittsburgh. The only problem is I have three sons so it’s tough deciding on who gets to wear the rings and who doesn’t!
I wasn’t aware you had that connection with Mike Tomlin?
Oh yeah. In fact Mike called me when Cowher retired. He told me he was interviewing for the job and asked me about it. I’m glad he came!
How did playing help you as a coach?
You get the understanding of how fast the game really is. You don’t understand watching it – you think you can understand but when you’re on the field you realize how tough it is to read and react. As a player you want to be sure your coach has a full understanding of what they want you to do.
The biggest thing is selflessness. That’s hard in the NFL – the more you produce the more money you make so it makes selflessness harder. Everyone wants to get sacks and get paid like T.J. Watt! As a coach you understand that too. I struck twice as a player to get paid more for all NFL players. I made more as a coach than I did as a player.
Players loved you both as a coach and mentor – how hard is it divining that line between friend/mentor and coach?
It’s tough a lot of the time. You’re a coach but at the same time you know what it’s like being a teammate. Things change as players come and go – you develop friendships that often don’t last very long. Usually for good reasons – players leave for more money or stay for less.
The most important thing I did for players was to give them an opportunity to win a Super Bowl. There’s nothing like that feeling. In Seattle I got to the AFC Championship game as a player but lost to the Raiders. We played them twice during the season and beat them. Before the championship game I called my parents and told them we were playing the Raiders again so get ready to go to the Super Bowl! But that didn’t happen….
I still miss coaching and playing. But you can’t play forever. I tell kids now to play golf – you can play golf forever!
You had a lot of colorful characters in Pittsburgh – how do you navigate those personalities to allow for the humor that was in that linebacker room and business-mindset that comes with the job?
I treated them at times like little brothers. Most were good guys – there was rarely a prick on the team and when there was they didn’t last long. Pittsburgh gets rid of those guys. Mike and Bill both did a great job with that. Most are selfless – you learn that early on by doing your research on those guys before you draft them.
I never had any guys though that I couldn’t relate to. Playing for 10 years made me easier to relate to I think. James Harrison – he could be an idiot sometimes! I say that jokingly – he could be crazy at times. Most of the guys like Clark Haggans, Farrior…they were drafted guys. James was a free agent – he made a player out of himself. I was fortunate to coach him. He was stubborn – but when he understand I knew what I was doing he had no problem with me. He had problems with coaches who hadn’t played – he felt they had no idea what they were talking about.
You coached there for 19 years which is incredibly rare for any coach. Was there ever an itch – or opportunity – to look at other teams?
Yes – I could have gone other places. I was offered a number of jobs when I was coaching the linebackers especially – but as a defensive coordinator too.
You coached so many young players that became terrific players – high draft picks, free agents and undrafted guys. What worked for you?
They knew I was a Christian – they always knew I was honest with them. I would tell them what they needed to know whether they wanted it or not. They trusted me – they knew I wouldn’t lie to them. It didn’t always feel good to hear but they knew I was trying to help them. My motivation was to keep them in the game – not to get rid of them. Like I say – coaching beats working for a living! I came from a family of six kids – there were seven years between the oldest and youngest of us! I understand being a family and what that meant and working hard.
What did you learn most under LeBeau – what made him so special that you picked up on?
He was humble and confident. And he communicated well. He was a good teacher – you have to be able to communicate well to teach your players what they need to know.
Dick was a great coach – he had seen everything the guys on the field were seeing and understood how fast they had to make decisions, like I was saying earlier. Dick could read the body language of an offense – he could see what the offense was doing by the motion of the receivers and where the quarterback and center looked when they came to the line of scrimmage. He could tell what a tackle was doing – if they were facing a good pass rusher he could tell that it was a pass when they weren’t white-knuckling it in a three-point stance!
You had a lot of success taking over as DC – what brought about the success – what did you change most and how did players receive the changes?
We blitzed more – Dick was famous for the fire-zone blitzes but we did it a little more. We tried to change it up more and be less predictable. I wasn’t Dick LeBeau – no one could be Dick LeBeau. The Lord made him special. I was concerned more about stopping the run at first so we run-blitzed more on early downs and forced teams into passing situations and play-action passes that made it harder to pass block.
You were there for the transition from Cowher to Tomlin – what changed the most team-wise from your perspective and for you as a coach?
Not a whole lot changed really. Mike was very involved in the development of the defense and offense both – Bill was too, but Bill was more involved in special teams. That was his background.
Mike was young – he was still feeling his way through things at first. Dick was there to help him. When I became the defensive coordinator Mike wanted to call his own plays more than Bill which was his right as the head coach.
I had a professor once who told me that many of his students were surprised that he remembered them – that he remembered every student who passed through his classroom. Was that you as a coach?
No! I’m not that guy! Hey man, I played in the NFL for 10 years as a linebacker! I headbutted big fat suckers every week, so my memory goes to crap after that!
Are there guys who surprised you the most – that you took extra pride in seeing succeed or, who conversely, didn’t take the steps you thought they may take?
James Harrison surprised me – I knew he could play when I saw him practice but he really produced. We don’t win the Super Bowl without him.
James Farrior was a great guy to coach – he was willing to do anything you asked of him.
Larry Foote was another guy. He was very smart – he’s coaching now in Tampa. He was a great player but had maybe less talent than some of those other guys – but he knew what everyone was supposed to do and played with selflessness. He was a great guy to coach.
We had good people in that room – and those kinds of people show the younger guys the ways to do things – and why to do them. Linebackers especially – they are the quarterbacks of the defense – they need to understand what everyone else is doing. If they do that then as a defense you can take away the one thing an offense does best and make them beat you left-handed.
What stands out most to you over your coaching career in Pittsburgh? What poignant/funny memories stand out?
There’s nothing better than winning a Super Bowl. Even Marriage! Don’t tell my wife that! Nah, not really. I’ve been married 44 years now and it’s been wonderful!
I had the good fortune of winning two Super Bowls with good owners. They tried to be fair with players and pay them what they deserved to be paid without getting too off kilter with the rest of the team. They hired and brought in good coaches and players that challenged you and were selfless – that really cared most about winning. Guys like Aaron Smith who was maybe the best example of selflessness I know. He was the best defensive lineman I was ever around. He didn’t need all of the glory. He understood that he just needed to do his job and everything else would work.
Karl Dunbar too – he is a good friend. He was the defensive line coach when I was there and understood all of that. As linebackers we loved our defensive linemen! We love those guys! The defensive backs – now they could be a little crazy!
Any other thoughts or memories that come up before I let you go?
All we ever wanted was to win. We all respected each other and I feel fortunate to have coached under Dick LeBeau and Bill Cowher – they were great coaches. And Mike Tomlin has become that now too.
Being in an organization like Pittsburgh, you learned that they won six Super Bowls for a reason. I feel fortunate to work for so many good and honest people. I’ve seen a lot of coaches not be honest with players and the players end up wanting nothing to do with them. I feel blessed to have worked with so many truly honest and good people.
I still have a lot of good friends there – I hope they get the chance to go back and win another Super Bowl!