Next week, Colts coach Chuck Pagano turns 55. By January, he could no longer be the coach of the Colts. If that happens, Pagano says he won’t resurface anywhere else.
“My plans?” Pagano told Ray Lewis on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown. “This is my last job. And that’s what my plans are. We’ve won, and we’ll continue to do that. But when I took this thing, I said that’s my last job. And when I said that I meant it. I’m not going nowhere.”
English majors in the crowd would say that this technically means Pagano is definitely going somewhere. The real question is whether he’ll be staying where he is.
Pagano could have signed a one-year extension in the offseason, but he declined the offer. That makes it easier -- and cheaper -- for owner Jim Irsay to move on, if the Colts disappoint in 2015.
Some would say that Irsay wouldn’t even be firing Pagano. Instead, his contract would expire, and Irsay would decide not to renew it.
Regardless of the label applied, if Pagano means what he says, it means he won’t be resurfacing elsewhere if Irsay decides to go “big-game hunting” in the hopes of finally getting back to the biggest game in football.
