Bruce Arians ‘excited’ about moving to broadcast booth

After retiring as an NFL coach after last season, Bruce Arians couldn’t see putting a whole lot of distance between himself and the game that has consumed him for most of his life.

That made it easy for the former Arizona Cardinals coach to accept an offer from CBS Sports to become a game analyst, joining Greg Gumbel and Trent Green in the booth while Jamie Erdahl handles sideline reporting.

‘I’m so lucky to be with Greg and Trent and Jamie’

“I wanted to stay  in the game, I wanted to do something where I was still involved and CBS was great and everything worked out perfect,” Arians told Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on Movin’ The Chains. “I’m really excited because I’m so lucky to be with Greg and Trent and Jamie. I mean, what a great crew to put in as a rookie and bringing me along. I’m anxious to learn from some of the best.

“I’ve got to be me, that’s the thing. I’m taking speech classes to learn some new words. I’ve got to know what they mean when I can say them.”

‘I just wish my (golf) game was better’

Otherwise, Arians, 65, said he is taking it easy, enjoying his family and playing a lot of golf. “I just wish my game was better,” he said. “I keep getting worse instead of better the more I play.”

Arians said he began to have thoughts about walking away from coaching after the 2016 season.

‘How can I miss all that time with my family?’

“My wife said, ‘You know, (their son) Jake’s 40 this year.’ And, I mean, it hit me like a ton of bricks,” Arians said. “How can I miss all that time with my family? How can my son be 40? And just, as the (2017) season went on, I was having a blast. We went through all the injuries but the guys were fighting, they were doing everything you wanted them to do as a coach.

“Not until after Thanksgiving did I think, ‘This is it.’ Then we had that great win in Seattle and it was like, ‘OK, it’s time.'”