Bordow: Danny White has his priorities right

Danny White has a lot to learn about being a football coach. For example, this idea that he hopes to spend more time with his family than his team? Blasphemy. And his pronouncement that football isn't the most important thing in his life, that it's third or fourth on his list of priorities?

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Well, someone needs to go all Woody Hayes on him.

Finally, what's this idiocy about a better lifestyle?

Coaches don't have lifestyles. They have ulcers.

Yet there was White on Tuesday, saying his new job as offensive coordinator of the Arizona Rattlers is ideal because, well, he won't have to work as hard as he did in the past.

Look, if he wants to retire, let him buy a double-wide and move to Apache Junction. But if he's going to be a football coach, he better spend 15 hours a day in the office, have 15 extra pounds around his gut and see his wife only on Thursdays.

Otherwise, he's going to have to settle for having balance in his life.

And what good is that?

"I told my wife if I ever got back in football, I wouldn't be in a bad mood all the time," White said.

Hiring White was a no-brainer - for both sides. The Rattlers bring back the coach who led Arizona to two Arena Football League championships. White, a Mesa Westwood High and Arizona State legend, gets to return home and drive just five minutes to work every day.

"You can take the boy out of Arizona but you can't take Arizona out of the boy," White said.

It might seem odd, White coming back as offensive coordinator after having so much success as the head coach here. But it's a demotion in name only.

White didn't like who he had become last year. The Utah Blaze started 0-5, and White felt he had no choice but to fire good friend and former Rattlers player Hunkie Cooper, who had been Utah's defensive coordinator.

That ate at White. So did Utah's struggles. It was only the fourth time in his 38 years of football that he had been associated with a losing team.

White had read about coaches burning out but thought it would never happen to him. But by the end of the season, the stress of coaching had extinguished his flame.

"This last year kind of did me in," he said.

White planned to take some time off. But then Rattlers coach Kevin Guy called with an offer: Come be my offensive coordinator.

White had to think about it. He asked his wife, JoLynn, what she thought about the opportunity. She wasn't sure, either.

"I think she was concerned with what people would think as far as this being a step backwards," White said.

White also wondered whether he and Guy could coexist. Would he truly be happy just coaching the offense? Would Guy be comfortable bossing an icon around? And if the Rattlers got off to a slow start, how soon would fans be screaming for White to be the head coach?

But over a two-hour lunch, White and Guy talked everything over and decided the relationship would work.

"Our egos are not going to get in the way," Guy said.

That's because White's ego needed a vacation. Sure, he has a smaller office and a smaller paycheck, but he'll be home for dinner every night.

"It may be a step backward in title, but it's a giant leap forward in terms of lifestyle," White said. "It's everything I want."