Joe Pascale for Defensive Coordinator!

JOE PASCALE!!!!

Old article from 2004....

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/canepa/20040109-9999_1s9canepa.html

Chargers need Pascale to run defense again

January 9, 2004

Joe Pascale is out of the wheelchair and walking around. The Chargers are looking for a defensive coordinator. At the very least, they should consider Pascale, talk to the man. They owe him that much. They owe him more than that.

Chargers bosses aren't about to tell me what they're going to do to replace Dale Lindsey as coordinator. But we do know a few of the folks they have in mind.

Ted Cottrell, fired by the Jets despite running their defense with skill, is one possibility. He will meet with the Chargers cadre early next week, but he has been offered the coordinator job by the Vikings.

Dave McGinnis, bounced as head coach by the hopeless Cardinals, has a defensive résumé and could be another candidate.

Dick Jauron, canned as the Bears' head coach, also is said to be on the list.

All experienced. All very good at what they do. So is Pascale, who still resides in Coronado. If nothing else, he plans to call the Chargers.

"We're talking to a lot of folks and, yes, Joe's name has come up. I've brought it up," Chargers general manager A.J. Smith says. "I can't say he's on the front burner right now, but I know he wants to get back into coaching or scouting. That is a very good man."

I'm convinced that, if Pascale had not had the back problems and remained on the job, the Chargers defense, despite its talent flaws, would have been better than the mess of the past two years. For sure, a fearsome player such as safety Rodney Harrison would not have been wasted in a soft, two-deep zone, as he was in 2002.

Maybe you noticed that, when Pascale coached Harrison and Junior Seau, they always lined up on opposite sides of the field, giving him a great player on each side.

I am not here today as Pascale's agent or biographer. I am merely an observer, and having observed the Chargers attempting to play defense since Pascale's spinal injury forced him to leave the club in mid-2001, I can tell you and tell them a thing or two.

The defense has been awful since Pascale stopped coordinating it. It is no accident. Pascale was – and, I would think, remains – a brilliant defensive mind, a master of on-the-move, game-day adjustments, of stopping the run, of creating an attitude.

"I'm different than I used to be," says Pascale, 57, who now walks with a cane. "But I get around. I'm ready to go back to work. I believe I can put a better defensive product on the field than a lot of people have – or at least be a part of it."

Pascale's story is one of tragedy by accident and triumph by his own perseverance. During the 2001 season, he had surgery for two slipped disks.

"I came back and called the Cincinnati game, the third game, and my leg started getting weaker," says Pascale, who joined the Bolts in 1997. "The next day, I had electrical shocks in my legs. I had developed an infection."

Another operation.

"Then I fell and injured my spinal cord."

More surgery.

"It was Oct. 11, 2001, a month after 9/11, and that was the day of our family catastrophe. I was fighting for my life. I was paralyzed. I was in intensive care for five days. I was in a rehab hospital for seven weeks."

He has rehabbed diligently, no longer needs a wheelchair and gets around well with a cane. He isn't going to run wind sprints, but he can coach.

"Sure, there would have to be some adjustments made for me," he says. "It's about finding a niche where I can use my ability. My best assets are not running around the practice field drill-to-drill. Mine is teaching, devising defensive schemes and then teaching the players how to do it.

"I have talked to some people about a job, yes. Their first question is: 'What can you do? How's your health?' But it's no problem for me to go into a press box on Sunday and call a game.

"I think I'll get a job. Whether it's the kind of job I want, remains to be seen. I'm not necessarily looking for a job as boss. I want to contribute, use my experience and coaching abilities. I don't want to be a quality-control guy, breaking down film.

"But, if I were 'normal,' I don't believe I'd have a problem getting a job at all."

Pascale, who needs one more year to qualify for his NFL pension, isn't saying he's being ostracized because of his health, but he knows how injured athletes are sometimes cast aside in a what-can-you-do-for-me-now game.

"It's tough to get a job in this business when you're healthy," Pascale says. "Then, to show up with a cane . . . This is a league of extremely healthy super athletes. When they get hurt, they have to step aside, and that attitude carries over. Can you get it done on game day?"

A coordinator doesn't have to do somersaults. Tom Bass, who ran the Chargers defense – one without much talent – during a portion of the Don Coryell era, was a victim of polio. I can't say I've met a smarter man in football.

Fact of the matter is, Pascale has done nothing that shouldn't warrant another opportunity. He is a splendid coach who has a history of developing an attitude among the people who play for him. And the Chargers certainly can use that.

"My candle is a little shorter now," he says, "but I can do all the things to get a team where it wants to go. But they have to believe I can make a difference.

"I'm not bitter. I know I can help. It just has to be in the nontraditional way."

With a bad back, on one leg, Joe Pascale could out-think most of the NFL geniuses. All he needs is a chance. He never will be a crutch.

Nah, Pagano or Rivera.

If Joe Pascale is available, I would get him back in a heartbeat. Dude kicked *** while he was here.

The only way the Chargers have Ryan is as HC. Not yet.

Agreed .. but he ran a 4-3, didn't he?

Yes and he's been out of football for years. He'd be a great assistant, but Pagano is probably the best choice for this team.

We ran a 4-3 back then but when you get dudes as smart as Joe Pascale and Bill Arnsparger, they can run it all.

Not sure I want that bend but don't break mentality back on our defense.