Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano diagnosed with Leukemia

The process is now to begin in Chuck Pagano's fight to defeat this disease. His prognosis is encouraging according to Larry Cripe of Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center. The form of Leukemia that Pagano has been diagnosed with is considered highly treatable and has a high percentage of remission.

The fact that remission percentages are high is a reason to be optimistic for Pagano's recovery but it obviously is still a form of Cancer and is a very scary thing to have to deal with. Chuck is a fighter though and is entering his four to six months of chemotherapy treatments upbeat and ready to take on the challenge. If remission is achieved there could still be up to two years of additional therapy treatments.

With Chuck Pagano sidelined now the reigns of the Colts will be turned over to Bruce Arians on an interim basis. Taking over control of a team is something that Bruce Arians has wanted to do for his entire life but never once did he dream it would be for this reason. He was emotional at the press conference and made sure that this event was in no way about him with a very clear cut statement of "Today is about Chuckie."

Jim Irsay says there would be nothing better than to bring Chuck a winning game ball from their upcoming Sunday game versus the Green Bay Packers. He also has several other quotes on this situation;

"I am optimistic. I feel with every fiber in my body, and I know Chuck feels the same way, that he can beat this thing."

"Chuck feels he can beat this thing. When you get a difficult diagnosis, it's tough. The case here is we feel that he will battle and get this disease in remission."

"He's upbeat and he's ready for the fight. He's tough as nails. He's in great spirits."

We all hope for a safe and healthy recovery for Chuck Pagano who had served as the Raiders Defensive Back coach for two years from 05-06. Silver and Black Pride sends their best wishes to a former Raider, although that wouldn't have mattered in a story like this. To finally have the chance to be a head coach and then have something like this come up is a travesty. Chuck Pagano is not somebody who is going to take this lying down and hopefully we will see him back on the Colts sideline sometime in the future.