Football is not played in shorts and it's not fair to the big guys. So many guys look bad in shorts and then they put the pads on and they're football players.
— Bruce Arians
I got to know Peyton Manning when he was a high school junior and I was the offensive coordinator at Mississippi State.
You can't draft for need. You draft for need, you get fired. Draft the best player, and if you've got two of them now you've got three of them. Just take the best players available for you.
I was allergic to milk as a child. My older brother would always get a big glass and drink it in front of me all the time.
I never want to be a father figure to my quarterbacks. I've got my own kids. I want to be the cool uncle you'd like have a drink with.
My quarterbacks have to be a member of my family, and that has nothing to do with football. Trust is everything. We have to connect on a deep level in order to really be able to build something together.
And opportunity doesn't always come. I thought I should have had a head-coaching opportunity a long time ago. Called plays in the Super Bowl. Won the game. No phone calls.
I felt like Cleveland deserved a winner. They have the most loyal fans in the world. I just thought it was a goal of mine. Every time that job came open I tried to get it.
There's not one moment from my journey that I'd want to change. Everything happens for a reason.
I've always loved Cleveland.
To show my quarterbacks how much I believe in them, I let them pick their favorite plays that we'll run in the game. On the nights before a game we'll sit down in a hotel conference room and we'll have six third-down calls for certain distances.
My family moved to York, Pa., when I was eight. As a kid I spent virtually all of my free time at Memorial Park, which was just down the street from my house on Springdale Avenue in our blue-collar neighborhood.
How do you stay married 47 years? You are probably apart 20 of them. You get fired, move to another job. She would raise the kids and come six months later. Just start all over again. New romance.
Both times I had cancer? Preventative medicine. Caught 'em both early. I'll take physicals anytime I can get one.
You learn a lot about human nature in a bar.
The most important relationship a head coach has on his team isn't with the other coaches, the owner or the general manager. It's with the quarterback. He's the one who runs the show on the field; He's the ultimate extension of his coach. If there isn't a high level of mutual trust between them, both coach and quarterback will be doomed.
When I coached guys that I knew would be good coaches, I kind of push them.
I loved the three years I had in Cleveland, especially that playoff run with Timmy Couch and Kelly Holcomb. And obviously those great years in Pittsburgh.
At 30 I thought I knew everything, and 30 years later I didn't know anything.
You can die at any moment doing anything. I mean, so why not do what you love to do. If I die on game day, have a drink. Celebrate.
I work hard, but I also play hard. Everyone needs balance in life.
You never know about team speed until you get out there. You don't know who is a slow learner. A kid may not be very bright or he may be real bright but he doesn't know football. You've got to find out all those nuances and how they learn.
I thought that's what you did, you know? You graduate high school, you went to work.
I wasn't happier for anyone more than Vic Fangio. He deserved to be a head coach, in my opinion. I was really pulling for him and pushing him whenever I got a chance.
Trust brings a higher level of communication and a higher level of commitment and accountability.
We have to build that African-American offensive coordinator/quarterback coach that is going to be a head coach. I think that's our job as head coaches - to find those guys.
I think all the great ones have it. They just have a will they can put on their teammates. Refuse to lose mentality. When you step in the huddle with any of those guys, you're so calm that he knows what the heck he's doing and he can get the job done.
When you get in coaching, you realize there are only two kinds of coaches - those that are fired and those who are going to get fired.
I think Chris Godwin is going to be close to a 100-catch guy, especially because I think he can play in the slot.
