Chuck Pagano Has Died And Gone To Heaven
(SOURCE)
Pagano, whose very public conquest of leukemia in 2012 was one of the great feel-good stories of recent NFL seasons, was fired by the Colts 16 months ago. Coaches who get fired go away quietly and stay away. They don’t say what they really feel most often—that they were wronged, that they weren’t the problem. The firing team moves on, and rarely mentions the vanquished coach.
The Colts are different. Pagano is different. Indianapolis is different. And now the Chicago Bears are in the Pagano web.
“I’m not bitter,” Pagano said from Illinois the other day. “I’m better. [Colts owner] Jim Irsay and I have a relationship for life. I love Jim Irsay. I love the organization. At some point coaches have to say goodbye to teams, and teams have to say goodbye to coaches. If you win, you keep your job, and if not, they move in a different direction. I never took it personal. And now I get to coach with one of the great franchises in sports, the Chicago Bears. I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
Well…. no fucking shit he’s died and gone to heaven. He’s a defensive coordinator lucky enough to have been handed the keys to the best defense in the goddamn league.
Lemme ask you a question, how would you feel if you were a defensive coordinator and you were contacted about running a unit that makes plays like this?
and more specifically, has all pro caliber talent on every level? Akiem Hicks and Khalil Mack, two of the very best defensive players in football, followed by rookie freak show Roquan Smith anchoring MIKE, and Eddie Jackson who was the best game changing DB in the entire league last year?
Yup, that’s heaven. That’s heaven for everyone in Chicago. Now in case you were wondering, we still have a bit of a kicker problem. But that’s for Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy to figure out. Not Chuck Pagano. All Pagano has to worry about is not fucking up the best defensive unit in the game. Let Mack/Floyd pin their ears back and fuck up QBs, Hicks plugging up the middle, Roquan going sideline to sideline, and Jackson cleaning up the leftover scraps.
Football season cannot get here soon enough. Bear fucking down!