Could Jim Caldwell Coach Until He's 90? Why Not?
By Will Burchfield
Twitter @Burchie_kid
DETROIT (WWJ) - Jim Caldwell landed his first job as a football coach at the age of 22. Thirty-nine years later, he's closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
But the 61-year-old coach doesn't ponder life without football. He doesn't allow himself to think about how much he might miss it.
"What I do say, and I say it very often to the guys on our staff, I say, 'You know what? Where would you rather be than right here, right now?" Caldwell said with a smile. "Or, 'You know, these are pretty good jobs.' They are. They're very unusual."
Caldwell was in a reflective mood on Wednesday, perhaps due to the holiday season.
"There's a lot of things I'm thankful for, particularly an opportunity to work with young people. Set an example for them, drive them to actually become the best they can possibly be. A lot to be thankful for in that regard. Not certain what I would be doing if I didn't have it. I'd certainly find something, and I'm hoping maybe when I'm about 85 or 90 I'll have to worry about that."
One of Caldwell's motivations to push the average age of retirement - indeed, to defy it - seems to comes from Tom Moore, the 78-year-old assistant coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Caldwell became friends with Moore during their time with the Indianapolis Colts.
"One of the things that he would always say about coaching is, 'You never leave this game the same,' talking about in the National Football League," Caldwell recalled. "Because of the pressure, because of the intensity, because of the scrutiny, because of the second-guessing. All the things that come along with our sport. The drive to win, the insecurity of the jobs and the things of that nature. All those things can take a toll on you."
To combat the mental stress of his job, Caldwell is ever nourishing his body and his soul. Balance away from the game helps offset the turmoil within in.
"My routine is pretty much the same," he said. "I get up and I pray every morning. That kind of gets my focus where it should be, and I do it early so I get my day started off right. I exercise continuously, try to do it six days a week. That's just me."
He runs on the treadmill. He rides the bike. He lifts weights. Caldwell is as vigorous in the gym as many of his players - with one minor exception. Asked how much he bench-presses his days, Caldwell flashed a grin.
"Barely (my) weight," he said. "And that's heavy."
(The 225-pound Dwayne Washington, by comparison, benched his body weight 21 times at the 2016 draft combine.)
Last Sunday, Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians was hospitalized due to chest pains after his team's loss in Minnesota. The 63-year-old was released the following night, but Arians' health scare would figure to resonate with a man like Caldwell, perhaps bringing him to question the mortality of his own career. If so, Caldwell wasn't letting on.
"You don't know everybody's situation. It might not just be the game, it could be genetic as well. Most of us are predisposed to certain things depending upon our family histories. There's a lot of things that people want to attribute to our game that really has nothing to do with it. Whoever's medical situation it is, those are all different," he said.
(One thing he didn't say? "Check the report.")
But in comparing Arians and Caldwell, plenty of similarities arise. They have spent the majority of their lives coaching football. They are chasing after the same shiny grail. And they are racing against time in the process, aging further away from their professional mean with each tick of the clock.
Of the various head coaches that have lined up across from Arians this season, all but two have been his junior. In Caldwell's case, there hasn't been an exception. Nearly every time they converge with their counterpart at midfield, exchanging hand shakes and a tip of the cap, Caldwell and Arians come face to face with the fact that they are outliers in their profession.
For Caldwell, though, the hourglass remains relatively full. That's due in large part to a record of good health, one free of serious scares and emergencies.
"Other than a fumble in those later quarters or later minutes of a game? Or an interception? Or something of that nature? I haven't had many other than that," Caldwell said. "And that's been pretty consistent across the board through the years."
90 is still a long way off for Caldwell, almost as distant as 22. Maybe, then, his career is as young as it is old.
