On Saturday, the NY Giants requested permission to interview Steelers’ assistant defensive and secondary coach, Teryl Austin, for their defensive coordinator position.
On Sunday, the Steelers gave them the Heisman and will be, according to Josina Anderson, promoting Austin to defensive coordinator, a position left vacant after former defensive coordinator, Keith Butler, retired last month after 19 years with the team.
Austin, 56, gives the Steelers stability on the defensive side of the ball.
He joined Pittsburgh in 2019 after stints with the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals.
Austin played at the University of Pittsburgh and began his coaching career at Penn State as a graduate assistant in 1991. He spent a decade in the collegiate ranks before joining the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks as their defensive backs coach in 2003.
Austin’s name garnered national attention last week when he was named in the blistering lawsuit filed by Brian Flores.
In it, Flores claimed that the NFL’s hiring practices were racist and detailed the experiences of other Black coaches including Austin, Jim Caldwell and Eric Bieniemy.
“After success with the Seahawks, Ravens and Lions,” said the lawsuit. “Mr. Austin was interviewed for no fewer than 10 open Head Coach positions. He was rejected for each one.”
Interestingly, one of the teams being sued by Flores is the NY Giants, so it’s ironic that they asked for permission to speak with Austin about their defensive coordinator position.
Flores accused New York of conducting a “sham” interview with him when they had, allegedly, already committed to Brian Daboll as their new head coach.
Now, after three decades of coaching, Teryl Austin will finally get to run his own unit and become another name in the pipeline of qualified Black head coaching candidates.
