Ravens fans got more than just Chuck Pagano’s defensive philosophies and typical remarks Wednesday.
During the press conference to announce the new Ravens defensive coordinator, Pagano’s personality that has endeared him to so many of his players also came oozing out more with each question.
Departed Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison had an easy-going, dry sense of humor that was also well-liked. But Pagano is more colorful and fiery, as he showed Wednesday.
“He’s like this all the time,” said linebacker Jarret Johnson, who joined Haloti Ngata and Haruki Nakamura at the press conference, along with coaches and front office personnel. "Now you guys see it."
Pagano brought down the house when asked whether he had talked to the Oakland Raiders about their defensive coordinator opening, as had been rumored.
“I had a great experience, or sentence… Well, I can’t say sentence. Sentence, a two-year sentence in Oakland…” (laughter) Pagano said, speaking of his time there from 2005-2006.
“Congratulations to [new Raiders Head Coach] Hue Jackson. It’s well-deserved, and he will earn every cent that they pay him. It won’t be much, but he will earn every nickel.
But I had a great experience out there, and two years was plenty. So, I’ll just leave it at that.” (laughter)
Pagano is teased by his players for being a bit … fervent … on the sidelines. Here’s some other one-liners the coach came up with during his press conference:
- ”If we make a mistake in the back end, the first thing you usually see is the referee doing this (signaling for a touchdown), and then some crazy secondary coach on the sideline doing something else.” (laughter)
- “I understand that being in the box and getting away from the action, there’s a certain calmness to that. But, I’m not really a calm-type of guy, and I think these guys will tell you that. I try to do my best to maintain my composure, and I’m really going to have to do that now. ” (laughter)
- “The first thing [when] we go in to [meetings] isn’t about, ‘Hey, we’ve got to cover this guy, we’ve got to cover that guy.’ As a secondary coach, you’re thinking, ‘OK, here we go again. A lot of Cover 1, guys, or Cover 0.’ This is our signal for zero. (Shrugs shoulders, rolls his eyes and throws his hands in the air.) ” (laughter)
- "[The players] already agreed that they’re going to get together in Florida twice a month – it’s a good reason to vacation – and they’re going to go through their own set of OTAs for us. So, we’ll be in good shape [in case of a lockout]. [Turns to players] Did you guys know that? ” (laughter)