Bruce Arians has been coaching in the NFL for so long that it seems hard to believe that he has only been a head coach for three years. The Cardinals were the first team to give Arians a head coaching job (aside from an interim stint with the Colts), and the 63-year-old says his first will be his last.
Following a 13-3 season and a trip to the NFC Championship, Arians knows expectations are high in Arizona. But regardless of what happens, he won’t be seeking employment elsewhere.
“Oh, yeah. You never know how long this will last,” Arians recently told Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic. “There’s the old saying, there’s two kinds of coaches, ones that are fired and others who are going to get fired. You just enjoy every day. Right now, it’s the highlight of it. There will be lowlights, we know that. But I’m enjoying every single day.”
Arians has done a fantastic job with the Cardinals and is consistently one of the most underrated coaches in the league. It’s unlikely that the team would fire him even if Arizona took a step back in 2016, but Arians isn’t thinking about any of that.
“This will be my last job,” he said.
As Marc Sessler of NFL.com notes, Arians said in 2011 when he was an offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers that that would also be his last job. The organization and the fans love hearing it, but things can change in a hurry.
Arians — what with all his hilarious zingers — is one of the most entertaining coaches in football. He also wears his heart on his sleeve. While he’s hoping Arizona will be his last stop, there are no sure things in the NFL.
