Bruce Arians' job title may be head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, but he will always be a father first.
The veteran coach says he does not allow assistant coaches to stay at the facility past 10:00 p.m. and that he makes sure they do right by their kin.
"For our coaches, I tell them, if you miss a recital or a football game or a basketball game, I'll fire you," Arians told SiriusXM NFL radio. "You can always come back and work.
"Those kids are not going to be there forever. They're going to grow up and be gone."
Arians says he made the policy in spite of one of his former bosses and mentors, Marty Schottenheimer, who didn't allow coaches to leave the office with the Kansas City Chiefs. Thanks to a lenient offensive coordinator, Arians was able to go see his son play a seventh-grade football game, and recalled the anecdote when deciding his own coaching policies.
"It was killing me to miss the game, and they played Thursday afternoons and Joe Pendry was a great offensive coordinator that we had," Arians said. "He said, 'Why you upset?' I said, 'I wanted to go see Jake play. They're playing right now.' He said, 'Go ahead.' I said, 'You know Marty doesn't allow us to leave the office.' He said, 'Well, I'll tell him you went jogging. Just, when you get back, throw some water on your face.'
"As soon as (Jake) saw me in the stands, he lit up. It was some of the best days, watching the kids play."