Having two NFL coaches go to the hospital in the same weekend might have been unprecedented, but there is someone who can tell them how to handle it.
Colts coach Chuck Pagano, who missed most of last year while he battled cancer, said he reached out to Broncos coach John Fox and Texans coach Gary Kubiak to offer his support.
“Hopefully they get things taken care of and get their health back,” Pagano said, via Mike Wells of ESPN.com. “We’re lucky. We’re playing a kid’s game. Our players are playing a kid’s game, but real life is real life. If you don’t have your health, you really don’t have nothing. . . .
“I feel very fortunate, obviously to have behind me what I went through. But the game is the game. When it comes to a guy’s health and those things those guys are dealing with now is not easy. This game could be hard on you as we know.”
Pagano’s comeback has been impressive, even if other coaches who have been through similar battles worried that he pushed himself too fast.
But the pressure of the game won’t change when Fox and Kubiak return, and no one knows that better than Pagano.