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Class move by Jaguars to keep George Yarno under contract
By Michael DiRocco | ESPN.com
MOBILE, Ala. --The Jacksonville Jaguars have three offensive line coaches currently under contract and the team has no plans to change that in 2015.
The Jaguars hired Doug Marrone on Tuesday to be the assistant head coach/offensive line coach. Luke Butkus, who coached the offensive line in 2014, will remain with the team as an assistant OL coach.
So will George Yarno, who hasn't been with the team since last spring because he is battling cancer. Even though he's not going to be able to coach in 2015, the Jaguars are keeping him under contract, meaning he'll still receive his salary and medical benefits. It's a class move by the organization and they deserve to be praised for it, especially because they are reluctant to publicize it.
Yarno has asked the Jaguars to not disclose the details about his medical condition and they are honoring that request, but the team did say recently that Yarno was responding well to treatment. It's no secret that cancer treatments can be very expensive and nearly impossible to afford without health insurance. If the team had opted to terminate Yarno's contract, he would have been forced to go on disability and that would have had an impact on his health benefits.
Coach Gus Bradley and general manager David Caldwell declined to discuss the decision to keep Yarno under contract, saying they wanted to respect his privacy.
However, one source close to the situation said that Jaguars owner Shad Khan enthusiastically supported Yarno remaining under contract.
Yarno will do some consulting work for the Jaguars, including evaluating film of prospects.