A common opinion following Bruce Arians’ retirement from coaching was that Tom Brady was responsible for pushing him out the door.
Arians was at the NFL combine as well as the owners meetings, but it was announced late Wednesday that he would not be coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going forward and would instead be moving into a front office role.
That news comes just a couple weeks after Brady announced he was unretiring. Given Brady and Arians seemed like they would butt heads at time, it was somewhat natural to connect the dots that Brady's return could’ve been predicated on the ousting of Arians.
But longtime NFL executive Mike Lombardi said on his podcast “The GM Shuffle” that such a theory is “nonsense.”
“This one shocked me, only in the sense of the timing,” Lombardi said. “Bruce was at the combine talking about Brady’s not coming back and was extolling the virtues of Blaine Gabbert. And at the owners meeting he wasn’t in the team coaching picture, he left early, it just doesn’t make sense why – and it’s going to add to a bunch of conspiracy theories.
“I just don’t think Brady was on the sixth floor of the depository waiting for Bruce to turn around on Elm Street to come down and be in a triangular configuration. I think that’s a lot of nonsense.I just think Bruce probably felt like it was time to play more golf, if that’s even possible.”
If you're the type of person who thinks these types of things are worth reading into, then it's worth noting Brady shared a thoughtful Instagram post about Arians after the news came down.
Brady was said to have known about Arians leaving when he decided to come back. Now, he’ll be coached by Todd Bowles, who is getting a deserved second chance after a head coaching run in New York where he was set up to fail by the Jets.
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