There’s no question that stress has something to do with it. I’d really never thought about it and had done it for years and years.
I had some heart problems in the past and I had some problems with cholesterol, and I addressed those things. I thought I was doing fine, but ended up having some blockage there and was just fortunate enough to catch it before I had a heart attack and was able to get bypass surgery.
I didn’t think about it. I really thought it would be more stressful if I couldn’t coach. But when I got fired (by the Falcons), I had a physical, oh, probably about two months after coaching, and I hadn’t done anything any different as far as working out except that I wasn’t coaching anymore.
My cholesterol had fallen down a bunch. So, there is no question that there’s some stress there that coaches have to go through. Anybody in any kind of operation has stress that they have to go through. But it’s maybe a little bit more stressful because it’s so out in the public and you have a contest every week, whether you win or lose people know whether you are successful or not by whether you win or lose.
You are surprised by it, particularly for (former Texans coach) Gary (Kubiak) to have slight stroke. It was surprising because he’s real young. But that’s what it does. You’re going through a losing streak and all of the things that they were going through, and it takes a toll, no question. You know it’s there after experiencing it yourself. You know it’s there.
Gosh, I was head coach for 23 years. So, I know I was very fortunate that something that awful didn’t happen to me.
I think it’s always been there. It just happens that this year two coaches had some incidents. But I think the coaches have been well aware that the hours that you spend and so forth, taking care of yourself and doing things that you should do to try to keep yourself in condition. Those things have always been there.
(Broncos coach John Fox), of course, had some problems before. He had the stents in there. He was fortunate enough that he was at the right place when all of a sudden he had some problems, and he could get some surgery done before it became a big problem. Sort of like how mine was. I got to the doctor before I had a heart attack.
