“Spending more time with the family” is usually what coaches say when they just got fired.
But for new Broncos offensive line coach Mike Munchak, it was the motivating factor to leave Pittsburgh and move to Denver.
Munchak told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the chance to get closer to his daughter’s family was the reason he left the Steelers after five years.
“As my career shows, when I get somewhere, I stay there,’’ Munchak said. “When this opportunity came up to work in a city with my daughter, her husband, my granddaughter and my other daughter not far away in L.A., that’s what we wanted.
“I’m not 30 or 40 years old anymore. I’m 58 and different things become important as you age.”
Munchak interviewed for the Broncos head coaching vacancy, but they picked Vic Fangio for that job. And when guys leave for lateral moves, there’s always a suspicion that something’s up at the old place.
“It was a family decision all the way,” he said. “This was all about family from the beginning. If my daughter lived here, I wouldn’t have taken any head coaching interviews. I’d rather be a line coach here than a head coach anywhere else, other than family.”
Going to work for the Steelers gave him a chance to get closer to his hometown of Scranton, so he’s done this before, and having a chance to be near his kids makes it easier to accept working for a guy you were competing against for a job.