Bill Cowher copes with wife's death due to cancer

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who played for the Cleveland Browns from 1980-82, lost his wife to cancer last month. Here's an in depth story on Cowher in The New York Times about his wife's cancer, her death and how returning to the NFL is not on his list of priorities. Kaye Cowher received a diagnosis of melanoma. Late last...

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press Former NFL coaches Bill Cowher (left) and Jon Gruden.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who played for the Cleveland Browns from 1980-82, lost his wife to cancer last month.

Here's an in depth story on Cowher in The New York Times about his wife's cancer, her death and how returning to the NFL is not on his list of priorities.

Kaye Cowher received a diagnosis of melanoma. Late last month, she died, at 54

“It was a quick and unfortunate downward spiral in five months’ time,” he said Tuesday at CBS’s Midtown headquarters. “They went in to remove what they thought was a muscle mass and after doing a needle biopsy, they found the melanoma and couldn’t really find a treatment to cure it.”

In the interview, Cowher said that the pace of his wife’s illness was “a tough process.” 

So now it seems that the next step in his life is coaching, right?

He enjoys the CBS job and has done well at it. “If the right situation occurred, I’d consider coaching,” he said. “But everyone asks, ‘What’s the right situation?’ I don’t know. I’m not sitting and looking at any one job.”