Tom Moore, 74, ready to give ‘120 percent total commitment’ to Cardinals job
Feb 8, 2013, 8:40 PM | Updated: 10:50 pm
New Arizona Cardinals assistant head coach/offense Tom Moore didn’t need to continue his career for the accolades.
Already regarded as one of football’s greatest offensive minds, he has worked with some of the NFL’s best quarterbacks and won a trio of Super Bowls, most recently with the Indianapolis Colts.
So, one might ask, why would the 74-year-old joined Bruce Arians’ coaching staff in the desert?
“I’m a people person,” Moore said at his introductory press conference Friday. “I have great, great respect for Bruce Arians.”
Moore and Arians worked together with the Colts from 1998-2008, and more said the chance to reunite with his friend was not something he was prepared to pass up.
“Bruce is a winner, and I want to be with a winner,” he said. “As soon as he called me, why, I told my wife, I said ‘honey, we just hit the lottery.'”
The feeling appears to be mutual.
Arians said Moore has “forgot more football than most people in this league know,” and is thankful he was able to bring a man with Moore’s credentials to Arizona.
Moore said he’s excited to be part of a staff that includes many men he’s coached against, but more than that, is glad to still have a chance to keep doing what he loves.
“It’s a great organization and I want to be a part of it,” he said. “To me it’s a privilege to get an opportunity to coach in the NFL.
“There are no entitlements; it’s a privilege and I appreciate the privilege and I thank Bruce.”
It’s not as if the Arians lured Moore out of retirement, though. Moore made it clear he’s never actually “retired”, but admitted he was “in denial” over how he was feeling the last few years. He said things had been tough since about 2008, with knee pain sapping him of energy.
But he had both knees replaced last year, which led to him feeling good enough to spend some time working with the Tennessee Titans last season.
“It’s like new world,” he said. “All of a sudden you’re pain-free. You’ve got all your energy back; you’ve got your life back and it’s a new world.”
Moore said he feels like he’s 50, making his chronological age a non-issue. So, when presented an opportunity to continue his coaching career, the decision was easy.
“I jumped on it because I still have got a lot of coaching to do,” he said. “I love coaching. You know, I’ve lived a dream, and to be able to continue to coach is, as I said, it’s a privilege.
“And I appreciate the privilege, but I wanted to make sure I could do it justice because I believe in professionalism. I wouldn’t go and take the job unless I could give it 120 percent total commitment to do my job, because people deserve it, the players deserve it, the organization deserves it and certainly Bruce deserves it.”
