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INDIANAPOLIS – The fight Chuck Pagano displayed in 2012 still touches Bruce Arians to this day.
With the 2015 ESPYs airing on Wednesday night, Arians put those feelings into words to describe what Pagano's fight meant to him during that 2012 season.
"I think the most revealing thing about a person's character is when tough times hit and how you react. Watching (Pagano) fight, and fight, every day, the battle against leukemia and still try to coach his team from the couch, was amazing," Arians said with a smile in an ESPN video for the ESPYs.
During the 2013 ESPYs, Pagano was nominated for "Best Moment" in his return game to the sidelines to close out the 2012 season.
After Arians served as interim coach for 12 games, while Pagano was in the midst of winning his fight against leukemia, the goal was always to extend the 2012 campaign until the head coach could get back doing what he loved.
That moment came in the 2012 regular season finale against the Texans when Pagano was back on the sidelines for the Colts 28-16 win over Houston.
Walking off the Lucas Oil Stadium turf that afternoon cemented the remarkable journey Pagano and Arians embarked on some three months earlier, ending in a trip to the playoffs.
"Anyone who hears that word 'cancer' and its involved with you personally, it's scary," Arians, a cancer survivor himself, said in the video.
"Believe in yourself, and the fight that you are going to put up, and never, ever give up."
The ESPYs has always had a major charitable element to the show with a portion of the proceeds going to the V Foundation for cancer research.
