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Steelers hire son of early Mike Tomlin mentor

Pittsburgh Steelers v Detroit Lions

DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers watches his team against the Detroit Lions during the first half at Ford Field on October 29, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

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Football is family, they like to say.

And the Steelers just brought in a member of a family close to them.

Via Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Steelers hired Blaine Stewart as a coaching assistant. He’s the son of the late West Virginia coach Bill Stewart, who died in 2012 of a heart attack.

The elder Stewart gave a kid named Mike Tomlin his first coaching job at VMI in 1995, creating a bond that obviously wasn’t forgotten.

Now that Tomlin’s the head coach of the Steelers he had a chance to pay it forward. Blaine Stewart played wide receiver at James Madison and the University of Charleston, where he just earned his MBA.