PITTSBURGH — Mike McCarthy has visions of the Super Bowl parade beginning at 1137 Greenfield Ave., the three-story, four-bedroom house where he grew up, right across the Monongahela River from Steelers headquarters.

Maybe that sounds outlandish for a franchise that hasn't won a playoff game since 2016, let alone reached the pinnacle of the NFL. Then again, becoming the head coach of the Steelers someday probably seemed like a wild dream, too.

But that's exactly where McCarthy sat Tuesday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, welling with emotion and struggling to make it through his first words in the job he'd always wanted. He playfully blamed a Steelers staff member.

"I told you not to sit my family down there in front," McCarthy said, looking up from his prepared remarks. "This is so unfair."

No, this isn't a rejected storyline from "This Is Us." This is real life, a real challenge for McCarthy and the Steelers, and this is Pittsburgh.

Tim Kelly was listening to his usual channel, SiriusXM NFL Radio, while driving across the Homestead Grays Bridge — he still calls it the High Level Bridge — when breaking news interrupted the show Saturday afternoon. The kid he taught and coached at Bishop Boyle High School in Homestead had just been offered the gig as Steelers head coach.

"I screamed something that I was glad I was the only one in the car," Kelly recalled. "I said, 'Get the [expletive] out of here!' "

In the best way, he means. Because Kelly can still see the 7-year-old whose family lived down the street. Kelly remembers the short kid who was maybe only 5 feet 4 his freshman year of high school, didn't play football as a sophomore so he could focus on basketball, then shot up as a junior and got back on the field as a tight end and outside linebacker.

The Greenfield neighborhood southeast of Downtown Pittsburgh has countless residents who have crossed paths with the McCarthys, from Calvary Catholic Cemetery to the top of Haldane Street to down in "The Run," as the locals call it. It's a small world in McCarthy's neck of the woods and about to get smaller. His first full-time coaching job was at Pitt, and at 62, this one may well be his last.

It's almost too good to be true, what with the way the Steelers rarely change head coaches and McCarthy having had the opportunity twice already with flagship franchises of the NFL. But now it'll be the talk of the town, particularly in the Frankstown Club on Hoosac Street and the Soldiers and Sailors Legion hall behind Magee Field, where McCarthy cultivated his passion for sports.

"Following his career from Pitt all the way through now, it's just been surreal," Kelly said. "He's a great guy and deserves everything he gets because he worked hard."

Not long after McCarthy wrapped up Tuesday's introductory press conference, complete with his gruff Pittsburgh accent that turns "program" into "progrum" and pronounces Will Howard's last name with one syllable, 18 family members surrounded him for a photo. One who wasn't by his side was his late brother Joe, who died in 2015 at just 47.

Joe was actually the first McCarthy who came to mind for Craig Rafferty while he was at a birthday party Saturday. Rafferty, 59, was best friends with Joe since second grade, the two so close that he considered the McCarthy house his second home as a kid.

Some of the older generation of Greenfielders had just been asking Rafferty about McCarthy's interview with the Steelers and whether he'd get the job. When someone at the gathering pulled out a phone with the headline that it was happening, Rafferty's jaw dropped.

"My first thought was that his brother would be smiling ear to ear," Rafferty said. "It was very emotional — more so than when he even won his first Super Bowl. I think his brother would've absolutely loved him coming back to Pittsburgh."

It's fitting that Rafferty framed it through that lens. Because a few hours later, McCarthy pulled back the curtain a bit on his whirlwind 72 hours between getting word that he was the team's choice and putting pen to paper, and he also compared it to that 2011 win for his Green Bay Packers against the Steelers on the game's biggest stage.

"Phew," McCarthy said with a shoulder shrug. "I've received probably twice as many — at least — text messages and calls than I did when we won the Super Bowl."

Speaking of that monumental victory for McCarthy and near miss for Pittsburgh, Rafferty had a party at his house for the occasion. Kelly was there, too, and remembers half the attendees wearing Steelers gear and the other half proudly representing McCarthy's Packers.

But for McCarthy's longtime pals, it was never a question of for whom to pull. To Rafferty, it was always worth it to drive 11 hours with Joe to go watch his best friend's big brother coach at Lambeau Field, stay the night and head back home the next day.

"You've got to show that support," Rafferty said. "Didn't matter what team he was coaching, I've always rooted for him. It'll be nice to root for him and root for the Steelers at the same time."

All that Packers stuff? You've got to burn that, Rafferty insisted with a laugh. He admitted he still has some, but McCarthy's firing from Green Bay was abrupt. McCarthy was disappointed with how it was handled with four games left in the season.

After a season away, he found himself back in the NFL, coaching the Dallas Cowboys. According to Kelly, his cousin Scott McCaffrey — who's married to McCarthy's sister Kellie — went door to door in Greenfield peddling merchandise.

The old Steelers-Cowboys rivalry was a bit too much for some in the community to fully adopt McCarthy's new team, but not for folks like Rafferty. He and a few others flew to Dallas for one game and what he remembers most was McCarthy taking the time to visit with them before their trip back to the airport.

"He took time out of his day to come over and catch up with us, and it was nothing about football. It was all about what's going on in Greenfield, what's happening back home," Rafferty said. "He never forgot his roots. His roots are still here. His parents, his family are still here."

And now he's back here, too. Worlds are colliding again for Steelers fans and Mike McCarthy fans. In a word, as Kelly put it, "unbelievable." Inside Acrisure Stadium — where McCarthy was presented by Steelers president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan — his kids, siblings and others milled about, taking pictures of the scene with the field in the background.

"The crew that's here, we can finally openly wear our Steelers swag," McCarthy said, grinning. "So let's get it. My heart is full. My focus is singular. It's time to bring another championship back to this great city."

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