Bruce Arians wins 2012 Coach of the Year Award

Arians took home the Coach of the Year Award. (Ryan Wilson, CBSSports.com)

NEW ORLEANS -- The story of the 2012 Indianapolis Colts is an incredible one and it resulted in Bruce Arians, recently hired by the Arizona Cardinals as their next head coach, winning the NFL's Coach of the Year Award.

Arians actually served as interim head coach for the Colts, filling in for Chuck Pagano after the first-year coach was stricken with leukemia. In support of Pagano, the #Chuckstrong movement took off and so did the Colts, who managed to win 11 games and make the playoffs just one year after having the worst record in the NFL.

"I can't stand here and say I was coach of the year. The organization was coach of the year," Arians said. "But more than anything it was Chuck. Cuz, I love you. You set the path. We just drove the bus. We kept the lights on the whole time."

Pagano actually finished second in the voting for Coach of the Year. He received 5.5 votes to Arians' 36.5.

Seattle 's Pete Carroll received five votes and Minnesota's Leslie Frazier received three votes.

Arians is the first interim coach to win the coach of the year award.

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