Tom Brady can write all of the flowery Instagram posts he wants. Bruce Arians can talk about friendly text exchanges and golf games. But there’s no hiding the apparent truth: Brady forced Arians out.
Arians resigned Wednesday night as head coach of the Buccaneers just 17 days after Brady announced he was actually returning for his 23rd NFL season. ESPN’s Jenna Laine reports Arians told Brady about his decision to step aside shortly after that.
The timeline highly suggests this was a Brady-orchestrated coup.
Brady’s surprise retirement in early February was bizarre from the start. The all-time great signed a two-year contract extension last March, and there were no rumblings about his uncertain future for the entire regular season. Then the playoffs came around, and Seth Wickersham, one of the ultimate Brady insiders, predicted he would retire at the end of Tampa Bay’s playoff run. That proclamation unleashed an avalanche of speculation about the “souring relationship” between Brady and Arians.
It was a chaotic end of the season for the Bucs. Antonio Brown stripped off his uniform and quit in the middle of a game, and Arians even smacked one of his own players. The Buccaneers were also dealing with an array of injuries, leaving Brady with a patchwork slate of weapons.
And yet, Brady almost led the Buccaneers back. They rallied from a 27-3 deficit in the Divisional Round to tie the Super Bowl Rams, only for Cooper Kupp to blow past their woefully unprepared defense for a 64-yard reception that set up for the game-winning field goal.
That seemed to be the final straw. Brady was elusive about his future plans after the game and then said he was walking away a couple of weeks later.
It was a power play.
Ask yourself this question: if Arians was truly thinking about leaving the sidelines for a while, why didn’t he make his decision in conjunction with Brady’s retirement? That would’ve been the perfect time for the 69-year-old coach to step away. Instead, Arians waited until Brady came back, forfeiting the chance to coach another Super Bowl contender.
Ian Rapoport and some other NFL Insiders contend Arians resigned now to ensure his good friend Todd Bowles would take over a winning team. Sorry, not buying it.
With the defensive-minded Bowles at the helm, Brady and Byron Leftwich will presumably be granted total autonomy over the offense, just like one of his Brady’s former teammates said he wanted.
It all makes perfect sense. Brady retired in an attempt to force the Buccaneers to trade him, but Arians publicly shot down that idea at the NFL Combine. Desperate to play, Brady announced his comeback shortly before free agency, ensuring the Buccaneers could retain core players and build a good team around him.
But that doesn’t mean Brady’s lobbying against Arians stopped. Last week, Dale Arnold reported the Buccaneers were working on a deal to send Brady to Miami. Maybe Arians’ confirmed resignation is what ultimately stopped the deal.
This is a case where the occam's razor theory applies. Brady is the utmost perfectionist and never improvises. Do you really think he retired to spend more time with family, only to get sick of Gisele and his kids 40 days later?
No. These kinds of things are almost always about money and power. Brady has plenty of the former. Now he has the latter.