AJ Sports

December 13, 2009

Coach learns patience from raising special-needs son

By Tom Robinson
Go Lackawanna sports correspondent

National Football League coaching jobs are notorious for their long hours.

Joe Marciano, however, has found a job in the NFL where he can balance his work duties with raising a special needs child on his own.

Marciano credits the Houston Texans, who he has coached for since 2002, with helping to make the situation manageable for a single father who found out his son was autistic shortly after taking the job.

The result is that Marciano, a Dunmore native, is a changed man, at home and on the job he has held for the last eight seasons as special teams coordinator for the Texans. Overall, it is Marciano’s 24th year in the National Football League.

“Being a dad at a late age has helped me,” Marciano said, according to a team transcript of a meeting with reporters in Houston during training camp this summer. “That has taught me. We’re in a profession that everything has got to be perfect right now, first time. It’s not that way. It’s just not that way.

“I’ve learned from raising a boy, my son, that you’ve got to have patience, especially with a special needs son like I’ve got. You’ve got to have patience.

“He’s come along fine, so that has helped me transform into having some patience with these guys.”

Marciano, in the same interview, describes times when he yelled much more as a coach or even threw tapes off the wall above a player’s head in anger. He credits working with Tony Dungy earlier in his career with helping him approach his profession in a calmer manner.

“Being around Tony Dungy has helped,” said Marciano, the team’s special teams coordinator. “He’s not a yeller and those guys will run through a wall for him.

“So, it’s a combination of being around T.D. and being a dad, having some patience.”

Marciano, who went on from Dunmore to play quarterback at Temple, keeps himself active in fundraising efforts while serving as a spokesperson for Autism Speaks.

Repeated attempts to contact Marciano for this story through the Texans office in August, September and December were unsuccessful.

Among the highlights of the special teams coached by Marciano, one of only two coaches on the staff since the Texans’ inception, are:

His Tampa Bay teams blocked 20 kicks in six seasons.

Houston’s Jerome Mathis was named NFL Special Teams Player of the Year in 2005.

The Texans tied four NFL special teams records in 2007 – fewest punt return yards against in a season (151), most field goals of more than 50 yards in a game (three) and most kickoff returns for a touchdown in a game (two) and season (four).

Houston returned two punts for touchdowns in 2008.

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