Bruce Arians led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the NFL championship, becoming the oldest coach to win the Super Bowl. It was the third time Arians achieved “a first” during his distinguished coaching career.
On this Super Bowl Sunday, it’s always good to remember those who have helped make the NFL what it is today, and the name of Bruce Arians deserves to be on that list.
After playing collegiately at Virginia Tech, Bruce Arians embarked on a nearly half-century coaching career. It was a most unusual career, too, which included going back and forth between college and the NFL from 1978-1999 before focusing exclusively on the NFL.
Temple was his first stop as a head coach, and at 30 years old, he became the youngest head coach in Division I football. Then, his first of many NFL jobs was coaching the running backs for the Kansas City Chiefs. Later, he was Peyton Manning’s quarterback coach at the Colts and the Steelers’ wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator during an era when Pittsburgh played in two Super Bowls.
Graphic courtesy Tampa Bay Bucs
Arians returned to the Colts as interim coach, overseeing the team for 12 games (9-3) while head coach Chuck Pagano was being treated for leukemia. The Associated Press named Arians the NFL’s Coach of the Year for his work there, making him the first interim coach to win that award.
That performance led to his first full-time NFL coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals, where he won nearly two-thirds of his games over five years. Then Tampa Bay came calling, and he again won almost two-thirds of his games over three years, including Super Bowl LV, when he was 68, the oldest coach ever to win a Super Bowl. Overall, Ariens went 89-51-1 as an NFL head coach (64% wins), including 6-3 in the NFL playoffs (67%).
He’s Bruce Arians, one of the NFL’s all-time greats.
Well done. I learned a lot and remembered a lot.