Cowher's decision may come today

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Bill Cowher: NFL Coaching RecordIf Bill Cowher doesn't return as Steelers coach, he'll leave behind quite a legacy in the Steel City. Won Super Bowl

A Pittsburgh Steelers source told ESPN's Chris Mortensen that team chairman Dan Rooney and team president Art Rooney II will meet with Cowher and are expected to push Cowher to make a decision Tuesday on whether he will resign after 15 seasons as head coach.

Cowher had hoped to take up to a week from the end of the season before making a decision.

The team source told Mortensen that the Rooneys believe Cowher likely is going to walk away and want to start the process of finding a new coach, in part because their in-house potential replacements, offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and assistant head coach/offensive line Russ Grimm, are potential head coaching candidates for other NFL teams.

The 49-year-old Cowher, whose tenure with the same team is the longest of any current NFL coach, began weighing retirement shortly after the Steelers won the Super Bowl in February. He is signed through 2007 but, for the first time since being hired in January 1992, could not work out an extension.

Cowher has said several times recently he is not burned out, and there is no indication he would retire if he quits now -- the Steelers themselves anticipate he would be back on an NFL sideline as early as 2008.

Cowher's decision appears tied to family and money. He would like to spend more time at home since his youngest daughter, Lindsay, has only 2½ years of high school remaining. His two oldest daughters, Meagan and Laura, attend Princeton.

The problem: Cowher's wife, Kaye, and Lindsay are now living in a new home in Raleigh, N.C., where Cowher attended North Carolina State and the family has many friends. But the Steelers aren't interested in having Cowher significantly reduce his presence in Pittsburgh by constantly shuttling back and forth to North Carolina, where he also owns a summer home.

Another problem: Cowher, for the first time, seems focused on being one of the NFL's highest-paid coaches in his next contract.

Cowher made about $4 million this season, or about half of what Seattle coach Mike Holmgren is making. The Steelers are giving no indication they are willing to pay any coach $8 million a year.

[SoFlaJets]

he's as good as gone-his wife bought a house in Raleigh NC and took their daughter down already to live there-that sounds like the old tomato to me-"quit that job or I'm moving on without you..."