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Mike Tomlin’s Wife, Kiya Tomlin, On Being First Lady Of The Steelers And A Successful Fashion Designer

By Pam Wright
Published on: 01:31 PST, Jan 10, 2016

Mike Tomlin’s wife, Kiya Tomlin, has remained a constant source of support for the Steelers coach, dating back to their college days.

Throughout Mike Tomlin’s illustrious career, Kiya has remained by his side during the ups and downs of an incredibly stressful occupation.

With two Super Bowl wins under his belt, Mike got his first head coaching job at 35 and has skyrocketed up through coaching ranks of college and the NFL, with nine of them at Pittsburgh.

Mike and Kiya first met at William & Mary University, where she was a gymnast and pre-med student. The two were married two weeks after her graduation and because of Mike’s career choices, she decided to put her dreams of a career in medicine on hold.

“When we got married after college, he was out a year ahead of me, and had started on his path of coaching football, which I didn’t realize was what he wanted to do.”

Instead of continuing towards a profession in medicine, she followed her husband to the University of Memphis, where he became a graduate assistant and a football coach, and refocused her career dreams.

“My understanding was that he was coaching so that it would pay for him to get his master’s degree, and he would then go get a real job. Once I realized he wanted to coach, and what that all entailed, I realized that football and medicine really didn’t make for a happy family life.”

On the website of her fashion line, Uptown Sweats, Mike Tomlin’s wife notes that she always dreamed of being a fashion designer and life’s turns led her back to her dream. While her husband coached in Cincinnati, Kiya was afforded an opportunity to finally attend design school at the University of Cincinnati.

“I enrolled in their College of Design, Art and Architectural Planning to formally study fashion design. Until then, my education came from studying commercial patterns, design textbooks and magazines, and whatever workshops on fit and couture construction I could find.”

Like Kiya, Mike has been a source of support as his wife’s career dreams became a reality.

Despite Kiya’s unending support of her husband and his career, that doesn’t mean that she has had to change her ideals.

Heavy magazine notes that Kiya is most definitely not a football fan. However, that has not prevented her from cheering on the man she loves in his endeavors, as she revealed to the Daily Record.

“I was not a football fan at all growing up. I did not watch football at all, understand it or care.”

Kiya has remained out of the NFL arena, preferring to support her husband in her own way. According to Heavy, HBO reached out to Tomlin to encourage his wife to share her story as a “first lady in sports,” but she declined twice. She eventually accepted HBO’s proposal once the concept focused on her success, rather than on that of her husband.

But it seems to work for the couple, who have three children together. Kiya has said that when Mike comes home, the football talk ends.

“That’s how I protect Mike. Everyone wants to talk to him about football. I don’t think he should have to come home to it and have me talk about football.”

Seems as if Mike Tomlin’s wife, Kiya, leads a charmed life. What are your thoughts?

[Image via Twitter/Kiya Tomlin]

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