Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy looks back at his Pittsburgh roots - ESPN

FRISCO, Texas — As Mike McCarthy talks, the memories of Pittsburgh keep flowing.

«Roberto Clemente, that was the first guy I think I had on my wall as a young kid in the late sixties,» the Dallas Cowboys' coach said in his office at The Star earlier this week of the Pittsburgh Pirates' Hall of Fame outfielder. «He dominated in the '60s and the early '70s in baseball.»

Mention the college football games at Pitt and it is as if he can still see running back Tony Dors-itt — he didn't become Tony Dors-ett until he came to the Cowboys — run for a touchdown.

«My dad would always be like, 'Hey, pay attention, keep your eyes open. He's going to break one. Thirty-three is going to break one,'» McCarthy said. «It was just a matter of when, not if.»

After attending mass on Sundays and cleaning his father's bar, it was time to watch the Steelers.

«I could name the whole defense [from then] probably still today,» McCarthy said, and then he does.

McCarthy has not lived in Pittsburgh since 1992, but it's still home. Always will be. He still sounds like he is from there, growing up in Greenfield, just a few miles from dahn-town.

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This week, McCarthy returns home for the first time as coach of the Cowboys (2-2) to take on the Steelers (3-1), who still play in the same spot where the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers meet. Gone is Three Rivers Stadium. Acrisure Stadium is the Steelers' home now.

McCarthy's parents, Joe and Ellen, still live there,