Knowing how much pull Tom Brady has within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization, coupled with reported rifts between the quarterback and Bruce Arians, it’s reasonable to believe he forced out the now-former head coach.
And folks within the Bucs are trying as hard as they can, apparently, to change that narrative.
Pretty much everyone who has spoken on the record, including Arians, have said that there’s no legitimacy to that chatter. But the timing is certainly odd that Brady retired for a few weeks, unretired, and after the owner’s meetings Arians decided to retire. It’s not impossible that he did it on his own, but the timing does raise some eyebrows.
NFL Insider Ian Rapoport was asked on the “Rich Eisen Show” if he was buying that chatter.
"I don’t think that’s true, I really don’t," Rapoport said. "It’s one of those things, like I tweeted the night that (Arians) retired, basically about how he got to do what he wished, which is hand his team over to his top lieutenant Todd Bowles with a great chance to win the Super Bowl. It was everything he wanted. And I got accused of all sorts of things on social media, which tends to happen.
"And I’ve talked to I would say six or seven Bucs sources and people close to Brady who all say that’s completely ridiculous and have said it was ridiculous throughout. Could everyone be lying to me? Sure, theoretically possible, there could be some great vendetta to make sure that everyone tells the same lies to me at the same time, I guess that’s possible. Or, Bruce Arians got his team set, signed all the free agents, got Brady back and handed Bowles the best team he could imagine."
As Rapoport jokes, people within the Bucs could all just be lying. It’s feasible that they decided on how they wanted to spin the story and everyone has their messaging consistent. It would be a tremendous effort, but never rule anything out.
Or maybe it is true, and despite all the smoke around the situation, it’s just that: smoke, but not fire.
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