Bruce Arians has the “itch” to coach again, the 74-year-old told NFL insider Jordan Schultz in an interview on “The Schultz Report” that was teased Thursday.
He’s feeling renewed after undergoing open-heart surgery this past winter.
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Arians served as head coach for the Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He guided the Cardinals to three straight 10-plus-win seasons from 2013-15 — a stretch that culminated in a NFC championship appearance — and then, while in Tampa, he oversaw a Tom Brady-led Bucs team that won it all during the 2020 season.
In the process, Arians became the oldest head coach to win a Super Bowl. He was 68 at the time. Following the next season, he stepped down from his post, transitioning into a role as a senior football consultant with the Buccaneers.
His defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles, took over as head coach.
“I had torn my Achilles early in that season, and I was wearing these prosthetic high heels, and it threw my back out, and I couldn’t stand on the sideline for four hours anymore without a lot of pain,” Arians told Schultz.
“I was also monitoring an aneurysm on my heart. So I had some health issues. We did everything we thought we could do in Tampa after winning the Super Bowl, trying to get two. And then it was time to give it to Todd.
“Now that I’m all healthy again, I got the itch again. So we’ll see.”
Arians has posted an 80-48-1 record as a full-time head coach. That mark doesn’t include his stint as interim head coach with the Indianapolis Colts, whom he helped to a 9-3 record while Chuck Pagano battled cancer.
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After that 2012 season, Arians was named NFL Coach of the Year. He also earned that award following the 2014 campaign, during which he guided the Cardinals to an 11-5 record and back to the playoffs for the first time in five years despite losing quarterback Carson Palmer to a season-ending ACL tear.
Arians, whose coaching career dates back to the 1970s and is wide-ranging, informed Schultz that it hit him in mid-September that he’d possibly like to return to coaching.
“I’ve always missed the players,” Arians said. “You miss the players in the locker room. I damn sure don’t miss the refs, and I’m sure they don’t miss me.
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“Now being with the Bucs, this is the first time I’m not a consultant anymore. Going to some high school games. My son started coaching out in Arizona. Just talking to him every day about ball, going to talk to their coaches in the spring and talk to the team — just another fire got lit.”
Arians is known for his fiery demeanor, his agressive play-calling tendencies and his diverse staffs, among other things.
Time will tell if he does in fact make a return to the NFL ranks as a coach. He clarified to Schultz that he hasn’t spoken to any organizations, except he also noted that this is probably the first instance where he’s expressed his interest in coming back publicly.
“I had no desire to go back, and I was still fighting some health issues, but now after the open-heart surgery, I’ve got so much more energy. It’s amazing.
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“So yeah, it’s just a matter of we’ll see what happens.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
