Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth talk UC Bearcats past of Mike Tomlin, Rick and Jesse Minter

Cincinnati Bearcats TE Joe Royer, LB coach Cort Braswell

Cincinnati Bearcats tight end Joe Royer, linebackers coach Cort Braswell

Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth took time during NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Los Angeles Chargers game to discuss the two seasons Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spent as the University of Cincinnati Bearcats’ defensive backs coach, as an assistant under then-head coach Rick Minter.

Minter is a senior defensive analyst for the Chargers, and his son, Jesse, a Mount St. Joseph grad, has been the Chargers’ defensive coordinator since 2024.

“So Mike Tomlin’s breaking in, he’s at the University of Cincinnati,” Tirico said during the third quarter of the broadcast. “Rick Minter is the head coach of the Bearcats. Rick’s son, Jesse, is a high school sophomore receiver, and he’s watching Mike Tomlin and those DBs. That’s where the relationship formed. And it’s a relationship with the three of them that’s really lasted over a quarter-century in so many great ways. And Rick Minter, the dad, over to see Mike Tomlin, his former assistant coach, in the pregame.”

“And Rick Minter really had a lot to do, at least according to Mike Tomlin, with the fact that he was able to get on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ coaching staff,” Collinsworth added. “And it was Jesse who would sit and just stare as a 16-year-old at what Mike Tomlin was doing coaching defensive backs and wide receivers. He just loved it, and so much of his style is modeled after Mike Tomlin.”