Arians talks marriage proposal, Percy Sledge, choir
azcentral sports NFL writer Bob McManaman sat down with Cardinals coach Bruce Arians for a series of on-thespot, off-beat questions:
Question: When did you first discover football? Why football above all other sports?
Answer: I loved playing it in the backyard with my dad and my brother. He’d take a ball out and we’d tackle each other until we couldn’t stand up anymore. Then we moved to the city and they had youth-league football and right away, I was in love. I was a center for the first game and then a quarterback from then on.
Q: Did you ever aspire to be anything else, be it a teacher, an astronaut, a cop?
A: I wanted to be a coach. Also, I studied to be a teacher, a guidance counselor. I was going to be a physical therapist, but we didn’t have that as a major at Virginia Tech. They told me they were going to have it, but they never had it. I was always going to be a teacher and a coach.
Q: Well, a coach is kind of like a guidance counselor, right?
A: Yeah, it’s the same thing. (Laughs.) You’re right, it’s very similar.
Q: Why is it that you think it takes until Thanksgiving for an NFL rookie to be able to contribute much of anything to his team?
A: Because it’s the volume of information they have to learn to be able to play at full speed. You can play them in small packages, but hopefully they can play fast and adjust to playing against grown men.
Q: Speaking of Thanksgiving, what’s your favorite thing on the table for a typical Arians family Thanksgiving Day dinner?
A: Oh, turkey. Yeah. And we’re fighting for it, too.
Q: How did you propose to your wife, Christine?
A: (Laughs.) On the phone! I put about three quarters in the pay phone at Virginia Tech, called her up, and said, "You know, I can’t do this anymore." She thought I was breaking up. I said, "No, we need to get married." Q: And evidently, you got a “yes"? A: Yeah. She said, "Oh yeah, cool." Q: So do you two lovebirds have a favorite song?
A: Yeah, probably Percy Sledge –
"When a Man Loves a Woman."
Q: Oh, that’s a great song. You can do a lot of things with that song, yes? A: (Smiles.) Yes indeed. Q: OK, if I took you out and made you sing karaoke with me, what could I expect out of you? What song? What singer? A: I can hum. I can hum. Because you wouldn’t want me singing. When I tried out for the choir in the fourth grade, they gave me a broom. They told me I can sweep the loft; I couldn’t be in the choir. Q: And this is probably a true story, isn’t it? A: (Laughs.) Oh, it’s true. It’s exactly true.
Q: How is that you got your players not to say a word when you told them the news about your health scare last winter, when you needed cancer surgery to remove a part of your kidney? I know you must have told some of them and they didn’t tell a soul, did they?
A: It’s just trust. That’s all it is, trust. Everything that we stand for is trust, loyalty and respect.
Q: You’re not surprised that somebody didn’t leak the information out?
A: I was surprised nobody found out from the doctors.
Q: What’s changed about you, if anything, since that moment, that scare? Have you changed anything about your outlook on life?
A: No, because I’ve always tried to live every day like it’s my last. You know, no risk it, no biscuit. Q: Even in health, eh? A: That’s it. Q: OK, last question. I’m going to assume you’re going to keep doing this for as long as you want to do this, right?
A: Oh yeah, there’s no doubt. It’s too much enjoyment being with the guys. I don’t know what the hell I’d do if I wasn’t coaching. Get old fast, I guess. Q: You’d fish and golf, wouldn’t you? A: (Laughs.) Yeah, and I’m not very good at fishing. Drinking and golf, maybe. Or hell, maybe drink and fish. There’d be some drinking, though, for sure.