If he didn’t realize it when he was hired in February by the Pittsburgh Steelers, it didn’t take long to discover he isn’t the only Mike Sullivan coaching in the city.

One has been part of two world championships and worked closely with a long-time leader and captain who is destined to be enshrined in his sport’s Hall of Fame.

The other, of course, coaches the Penguins.

“I’ve heard it a few times since I’ve been here,” said Sullivan, the Steelers first-year quarterbacks coach. “Let me go on record as saying I’m a huge Pens fans. I’m looking forward to great things for them in the future, and I’m looking forward to meeting the other Mike Sullivan.”

Truth be told, outside of football circles, this Mike Sullivan is the lesser known — and accomplished — member of the coaching profession. While the Penguins’ Sullivan has hoisted the Stanley Cup twice as a head coach, the Steelers’ Sullivan was a position coach with the New York Giants when they won the Super Bowl after the 2007 and ’11 seasons.

Still, he has worked with one two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback in Eli Manning, and now he’s trying to help Ben Roethlisberger toward a third championship while also overseeing the development of the three younger quarterbacks on the Steelers roster.

“Mike has been great so far,” backup quarterback Mason Rudolph said. “He’s a great person. He has a lot of wisdom, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him.”

Sullivan, 54, was hired to fill the vacancy created when Matt Canada was promoted to offensive coordinator. A 16-year NFL coaching veteran who made two stops in New York and one each in Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and Denver, Sullivan had returned to Army, his alma mater, in March 2020 to serve as the military academy’s director of recruiting.

Eager to get back into coaching — his last stop was a one-year stint as quarterback coach in Denver in 2018 — Sullivan applied for the Steelers job despite lacking any personal history with coach Mike Tomlin.

“I tried to pull my resources and phone calls and ‘who knows a guy who knows a guy’ and do everything I could to throw my hat in the ring,” Sullivan said. “Thank God I’m here.”

Sullivan has run the gamut of NFL coaching experiences. He’s been hired, fired, promoted and had his job opened up after a coaching staff shakeup.

Now, he will be, in essence, the third position coach Roethlisberger has had in as many seasons, counting Canada in 2020 and Randy Fichtner, who held the dual role of quarterback coach/offensive coordinator in 2019. He already has forged a relationship with Roethlisberger and, as proof, rattled off the names of the quarterback’s three children without hesitation.

“The thing that makes it so gratifying is he has a willingness to work, and he wants to do whatever it takes to win,” Sullivan said of Roethlisberger. “He’s open-minded. Things he needs, from whether it’s a fundamental standpoint or a drill standpoint is going to be different that the other guys, I have to make sure I zero in on some specifics that can make him be at his best.”

Much of Sullivan’s work will be overseeing the progression of Rudolph, Joshua Dobbs and Dwayne Haskins, the latter entering his first season with the Steelers. With Roethlisberger approaching possibly the final season of his career, Sullivan’s task could involve developing the team’s starter for 2022 and beyond.

Rudolph called Sullivan a “drill guy, a structure, detailed-oriented guy,” which isn’t surprising considering Sullivan graduated from West Point in 1989 and served as an infantry officer after graduating from Ranger, Airborne and Air Assault schools. He also owns a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

“He has a lot of information for us, holds us accountable,” Rudolph said. “Whether it’s drills on the field, he’s big on footwork, the little things like carrying out fakes. He’s being diligent with us. We all appreciate that.”

Sullivan’s first full-time job as a position coach was in 2004 when he was hired by the Giants to coach wide receivers. His time that season overlapped with the final year of Ike Hilliard’s career with the organization.

“Having the opportunity to work with him on the coaching side is just a joy for me,” said Hilliard, who is entering his second year as Steelers wide receivers coach. “As a position coach, he was very detailed and knowledgeable about what we had to do in terms of executing our assignments. He was a huge, huge influence to me as a player.”

Sullivan switched to a quarterbacks coach role in 2010, and he served as offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay for two years and again with the Giants in 2016-17. That experience could make Sullivan a mentor of sorts to Canada, who is in his first season as an NFL coordinator.

“I love the concepts. There are a lot of things that are new and fresh to me, as well. As we blend things from his background to what we’re doing … he’s very sharp. My biggest responsibility I can do for him is make sure whatever message is for the quarterback that it’s clear and consistent, that what he says, I say the same things to the quarterbacks.

“I’ve taken a few lumps along the way, and if there are any pitfalls or obstacles or lessons that I’ve learned, it would be bad on my part if I didn’t share them with him.”

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