http://coachingsearch.com/article?a=Bruce-Arians-I-tried-to-do-too-much-I-almost-died
Coaches work ridiculous hours, but they have to step back and get rest. It’s something Bruce Arians has struggled with — something that’s nearly killed him.
Arians was featured on the latest episode of HBO’s Real Sports and talked the pressures of a head coach, no matter the level. He first became a head coach at Temple in 1983, the youngest in D1 at the time, and he didn’t know how to stop or hand off duties. He drove himself into the ground.
“I tried to do too much. I almost died,” Arians said. “I was having two to three migraines a week. I had chewed my teeth off. I was having ulcers. Because I was the head coach, the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator and the recruiting coordinator. I refused to delegate, other than the defense. … I was in the hospital so many times, I knew.”
Arians’ wife, Christine, told HBO she struggled to handle it. “I just watched his health deteriorate year by year,” she said. “I remember one time he had a headache that basically made half of his body paralyzed or numb. … I was fine with him not being a head coach. It was relief to me when he got fired (after 1988). Surely, the next job won’t be this hard.”
As soon as he got dismissed, the migraines stopped. The years went by, and Arians didn’t get another head coaching job. After Mike Tomlin let him go from the Steelers after 2011, despite a successful run as offensive coordinator, Arians figured he was retired.
But Chuck Pagano called in 2012 and hired Arians as offensive coordinator. Then Pagano was diagnosed with Leukemia, and Arians became the interim head coach. Arians helped take the Colts to the playoffs and won the NFL Coach of the Year award, but the same problem returned: He couldn’t stop the intensity, and it nearly killed him again. Pagano returned late in the season and Arians was the offensive coordinator, but Arians missed the playoff loss to the Ravens because he was hospitalized.
“When we went to Baltimore for the playoff game, he had an incident where the doctor was afraid it was a stroke,” Christine Arians said. “Bruce said, ‘I think I can coach from the press box.’ The doctor said, ‘No, you could be dead before the game’s over.’”
The Arizona Cardinals hired Arians, and he’s led the team for four years, reaching the playoffs in the past two. How has the coach kept himself in control? For one, he has a sleeping chamber from a company in which is wife is one of the co-owners. HBO’s Andrea Kremer explained to Mike Florio on PFT Live on Tuesday.
“It’s this gigantic wooden box that’s got music and these crystals in it, and these lights,” Kremer said. “It sounds pretty new age here, and he lays in it and he calls it the ‘chill zone.’ There is some science behind it, and you turn the different colors depending on if you want to sort of tone it down or amp yourself up. He gets in there once a week, every week during the football season. He’s got device at home in Georgia, he’s got a place where he goes in Phoenix, and he just chills out.
“He maintains that this helps him literally maintain his cool, that it just relaxes him. Now, this does not prevent him from drinking his Crown Royal, which has that same effect, but I had no idea he uses this thing. So he showed it to us, it was pretty interesting and it’s not like he just talks about it, you actually, see this thing and it’s just crazy looking. So I had no idea that he did this and you know what? You talk about the copycat league. It did occur to me, ‘Wow, if he went to the Super Bowl and this works I wonder if this is going to be good for business.'”
Coaching is a demanding profession, but it can’t consume you. David Shaw recently advised young coaches that you have to know when to step back and know you can't do everything. Arians' ups and downs have been a lesson in that idea.
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Coaches work ridiculous hours, but they have to step back and get rest. It’s something Bruce Arians has struggled with — something that’s nearly killed him.
Arians was featured on the latest episode of HBO’s Real Sports and talked the pressures of a head coach, no matter the level. He first became a head coach at Temple in 1983, the youngest in D1 at the time, and he didn’t know how to stop or hand off duties. He drove himself into the ground.
“I tried to do too much. I almost died,” Arians said. “I was having two to three migraines a week. I had chewed my teeth off. I was having ulcers. Because I was the head coach, the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator and the recruiting coordinator. I refused to delegate, other than the defense. … I was in the hospital so many times, I knew.”
Arians’ wife, Christine, told HBO she struggled to handle it. “I just watched his health deteriorate year by year,” she said. “I remember one time he had a headache that basically made half of his body paralyzed or numb. … I was fine with him not being a head coach. It was relief to me when he got fired (after 1988). Surely, the next job won’t be this hard.”
As soon as he got dismissed, the migraines stopped. The years went by, and Arians didn’t get another head coaching job. After Mike Tomlin let him go from the Steelers after 2011, despite a successful run as offensive coordinator, Arians figured he was retired.
But Chuck Pagano called in 2012 and hired Arians as offensive coordinator. Then Pagano was diagnosed with Leukemia, and Arians became the interim head coach. Arians helped take the Colts to the playoffs and won the NFL Coach of the Year award, but the same problem returned: He couldn’t stop the intensity, and it nearly killed him again. Pagano returned late in the season and Arians was the offensive coordinator, but Arians missed the playoff loss to the Ravens because he was hospitalized.
“When we went to Baltimore for the playoff game, he had an incident where the doctor was afraid it was a stroke,” Christine Arians said. “Bruce said, ‘I think I can coach from the press box.’ The doctor said, ‘No, you could be dead before the game’s over.’”
The Arizona Cardinals hired Arians, and he’s led the team for four years, reaching the playoffs in the past two. How has the coach kept himself in control? For one, he has a sleeping chamber from a company in which is wife is one of the co-owners. HBO’s Andrea Kremer explained to Mike Florio on PFT Live on Tuesday.
“It’s this gigantic wooden box that’s got music and these crystals in it, and these lights,” Kremer said. “It sounds pretty new age here, and he lays in it and he calls it the ‘chill zone.’ There is some science behind it, and you turn the different colors depending on if you want to sort of tone it down or amp yourself up. He gets in there once a week, every week during the football season. He’s got device at home in Georgia, he’s got a place where he goes in Phoenix, and he just chills out.
“He maintains that this helps him literally maintain his cool, that it just relaxes him. Now, this does not prevent him from drinking his Crown Royal, which has that same effect, but I had no idea he uses this thing. So he showed it to us, it was pretty interesting and it’s not like he just talks about it, you actually, see this thing and it’s just crazy looking. So I had no idea that he did this and you know what? You talk about the copycat league. It did occur to me, ‘Wow, if he went to the Super Bowl and this works I wonder if this is going to be good for business.'”
Coaching is a demanding profession, but it can’t consume you. David Shaw recently advised young coaches that you have to know when to step back and know you can't do everything. Arians' ups and downs have been a lesson in that idea.
| [FONT="]Chris Vannini is in his fourth year with CoachingSearch.com and serves as its managing editor. He has previously written for the Detroit Free Press, The Oakland Press, The State News, MLive.com, 247Sports and SB Nation. A graduate of Michigan State University, Chris lives in the Metro Detroit area. Be sure to follow @coachingsearch and send emails to [email protected]. |
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