Watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers induct former head coach Bruce Arians into the team’s Ring of Honor
Bruce Arians was the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for only three seasons, but that was all he needed to make an indelible mark in franchise history.
Arians holds the highest winning percentage of any Bucs head coach, and helped lead the team to its second Super Bowl victory, the first for any NFL team in their home stadium.
For all his efforts, Arians was inducted into the Bucs’ Ring of Honor during halftime of Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers, making him the 14th member to receive the team’s highest accolade.
Here’s the tribute video and ceremony from Sunday:
If Tom Brady does return for another NFL season in 2023, it’s hard to imagine it’ll be anywhere other than Tampa Bay
Throughout this past offseason, there were multiple rumors about Tom Brady leaving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to finish his NFL career elsewhere.
Instead, Brady ended up returning from his brief retirement for a third season with the Bucs. While many outside of One Buc Place had wild theories about the GOAT playing for another club, those closest to the Bucs (and common sense) knew that if Brady was going to play this season, it would be in Tampa Bay.
Brady was still under contract for the 2022 season, so any other interested party would have had to trade for his rights, something the Bucs were obviously never going to do.
Now, the intriguing question becomes, what will Brady do next season?
(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
He’s no longer under contract with the Bucs beyond this year, so he can become a free agent in 2023 if he decides he still wants to keep playing.
Former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians spoke with longtime beat writer Ira Kaufman recently, and seemed to show optimism that Brady could return for another season in Tampa Bay.
“He loves it here,” Arians told Kaufman. “He loves his teammates, his coaches and the organization. If he decides to play next season, I think it will be with the Buccaneers.”
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dan Pompei at The Athletic recently wrote a feature on Arians, and the Bucs’ special assistant to the general manager spoke about Brady’s insatiable commitment to excellence.
“In practice, even in quarterback drills, he’s over there competing to win the damn drills every day,” Arians told Pompei. “I still spend a lot of time with him, but not as much probably as I used to. In a week, we maybe spend an hour talking about football and another hour talking about life.”
It still feels most likely that 2022 will be Brady’s last NFL season, but if he does decide to keep playing, it’s hard to imagine that he’d want to start over again with a new team. Most of Tampa Bay’s key players on offense are under contract for 2023, and though the team obviously has some salary cap issues they’ll have to sort out, they would obviously do whatever was necessary to keep a winning team around Brady for another season.
Despite the Bucs’ offensive struggles throughout the first half of the 2022 season, Brady is still playing at a high level, so it wouldn’t be a total shock if he decides to return for a 24th NFL season.
If he does, it’s hard to believe it’ll be anywhere but Tampa Bay.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was hospitalized with pericarditis back in October
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was hospitalized back in October after dealing with a heart issue, per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
The 70-year-old Arians, who is now Tampa Bay’s special assistant to the general manager, ended up in the hospital with pericarditis, he told Stroud.
Pericarditis is swelling and irritation of the thin, saclike tissue surrounding the heart known as the pericardium. It causes sharp chest pain that can mimic a heart attack. It typically goes away without treatment.
Arians said he was put through a battery of tests that showed no blockage or damage to the heart and treated with anti-inflammatories.
Since the scare, he has not traveled with the team but continues to attend practices and home games.
Arians told Stroud he feels “great” now, so we’re glad to hear all is well with Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl-winning head coach from two seasons ago.
Arians retired from coaching after the 2021 season, moving into a front-office role after spending three seasons as Tampa Bay’s head coach, helping to lead them to a victory in Super Bowl LV. Those three seasons were all it took for Arians to leave as the winningest head coach in Bucs history.
The hurricane headed for Florida is forcing the Bucs to postpone the Ring of Honor induction for former coach Bruce Arians.
We've postponed the planned induction of Bruce Arians into the Ring of Honor on Sunday and will reschedule the ceremony for a later game.https://t.co/o0jtIENO8O
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are postponing the Ring of Honor induction of former coach Bruce Arians to a later game on the team’s home schedule, although the new date for the ceremony hasn’t been determined.
On-going scheduling conflicts created by Hurricane Ian necessitated the postponement.
Arians, now a senior football consultant with the Bucs, coached the team for three seasons (2019-21). He led the team to the playoffs in two of the three seasons and won Super Bowl LV following the 2020 season. He remains the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl.
Overall, the Bucs went 36-19 in the regular season under Arians, including a 13-4 mark in 2021, and won five playoff games.
Once inducted, Arians will be the 14th member of the team’s Ring of Honor.
The Todd Bowles-led Buccaneers lost their home opener on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. The team will operate out of South Florida this week while preparing to play the Kansas City Chiefs. The primetime game, scheduled for Sunday night, is still currently expected to be played in Tampa, although the location is subject to change based on Hurricane Ian.
Report: Suspensions could be coming after Buccaneers-Saints brawl, both for players and Bruce Arians
This isn’t going away. NBC Sports’ Mike Florio first reported Sunday evening that suspensions could be coming for the players involved in Week 2’s brawl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints, in which Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette and quarterback Tom Brady were jawing with Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore after a critical late-game stop on fourth down.
Some pushing and shoving started up, then Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans threw Lattimore to the ground, and the benches cleared. NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson called in from the league office in New York and ordered Lattimore and Evans both be ejected, though he chose to let the instigator, Fournette, remain in the game. Afterwards Anderson told Nola.com’s Luke Johnson that “We just did not feel like those actions rose to the level of disqualification.”
Now Florio is reporting that the league is “reviewing all aspects” of the fracas in deciding who should be subject to league discipline, including fines and suspensions. And that isn’t just limited to the players who traded blows (Evans and Lattimore). It includes Fournette’s role as an instigator and the bizarre presence of former Bucs coach Bruce Arians on the sideline.
Arians was seen shouting at players and officials on the field throughout the game and especially in the moments that led up to this fight, but it’s unclear why he was around in the first place. After stepping down as the team’s head coach earlier this year he was kept around in an executive role with the title of “senior adviser to the general manager,” which still doesn’t carry any specific job descriptions. In any case, he played a part in starting this brawl, and he may be subject to league discipline, too.
What a mess. If Evans ran better routes he wouldn’t be beaten so often by Lattimore’s coverage, and then he wouldn’t get so frustrated and start fights like this. Unfortunately, Evans has a history of losing his cool in this matchup and trying to even the score with his paws instead. He may feel confident he won’t see a suspension after starting another fight (he missed one game after a similar incident in 2017), but maybe he should feel some level of concern.
As for Lattimore: it would be baffling to see him suspended, too, but “baffling” is actually a great descriptor for the league’s disciplinary process. They threw him out of the game in the first place despite him being the victim of Evans’ escalation, so there’s a real chance they botch the follow-up, too. Stay tuned for updates on this front.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady shot down rumors of a soured relationship with former head coach Bruce Arians
Amid an eventful offseason for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one persistent conspiracy theory involved a rumored degradation of the relationship between quarterback Tom Brady and then-head coach Bruce Arians.
Arians shot down the rumors at every turn, both before his retirement from coaching and after. Now, Brady is doing the same.
Speaking to the media Thursday following the final practice of the team’s mandatory minicamp, the GOAT made it clear that his relationship with Arians wasn’t an issue at all, and reiterated that Arians’ presence was a driving factor in his decision to sign with the Bucs in free agency back in 2020 (via Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times):
Tom Brady says there was no truth to reports that his relationship with Bruce Arians soured. “Zero whatsoever.” pic.twitter.com/XVkpkiTDJ9
There are sure to be some who still won’t believe anything Brady or Arians says on the matter, but both parties remain adamant that there was no negative friction between them.
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers led the NFL in explosive plays last season, and they did it in many different ways
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Tom Brady back in 2020, some wondered whether or not the GOAT would be a good fit for Bruce Arians’ vertical passing game.
Would an aging quarterback in his 40s be able to push the ball down the field as often as Arians wanted, and with the kind of success he would demand of himself?
Turns out, those concerns were greatly exaggerated.
In fact, the year after Brady, Arians, and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich helped lead the Bucs to a Super Bowl victory at the end of that 2020 season, Tampa Bay’s offense led the league in explosive plays in 2021.
Check out this fantastic thread from NFL Network/Next Gen Stats researcher Taylor Kyles on just how effective the Bucs were at generating big plays through the air last season, and how they made it happen in many different ways:
Last season, Tom Brady and the Buccaneer were the only offense to eclipse 70 explosive pass plays, posting a whopping 76 completions of 20+ yards
This thread will break down the concepts that helped Tampa Bay accomplish the ridiculous feat pic.twitter.com/1y1ZIu9tSm
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles doesn’t care how his offense scores points, as long as they win
Bruce Arians was famous for his “no risk-it, no biscuit” philosophy, which was evident in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ style of play on offense over his three seasons as the team’s head coach.
Some have wondered whether or not that style of offense will continue now that Todd Bowles is the head coach in Tampa Bay. After offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich made it clear earlier this month that he has the same approach as Arians, Bowles himself said he won’t be pulling the reins back on the offensive play-calling.
“My attitude is to win the game any way possible,” Bowles told the media Tuesday. “If we have to throw the ball 50 times to win, that’s great. If we have to run the ball 30 times to win, that’s great. We’ll take what they give us – we’ll always have shots for big plays.”
Obviously, [Tom] Brady is a great passer,” Bowles continued. “We want to equal that with the running game, if we can. But, if they’re taking away the run and we have to throw the ball 60 times – and [Brady] throws five or six touchdowns – I’ll take the win. If we’re running the ball pretty good, and we can guard about 25 to 30 times, I’ll take the win. Whatever we have to do to win the ballgame. Nobody’s putting handcuffs on the offense from that standpoint. We’re going to do whatever we have to do to win the game.”
Brady led the NFL in pass attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes last season, at 44 years old. It wouldn’t be surprising if all parties involved preferred a more balanced approach this season, with a stronger emphasis on balance with a strong running game. But’s clear they won’t be forcing that balance at the expense of success, regardless of how they move the ball and put points on the board.
Todd Bowles plans on using what he learned from his failed stint with the Jets to succeed as the Buccaneers’ new head coach.
Todd Bowles’ tenure as Jets head coach got off to such a good start that it was nearly impossible to envision the failure that would transpire shortly thereafter.
New York fell just short of the playoffs in Bowles’ first season as head coach in 2015, but went 10-6 and showed enough to indicate that it would be a contender under the long-time defensive assistant’s watch for years to come. That never came close to becoming a reality, as the Jets went 5-11 in 2016 and 2017 before going 4-12 in 2018.
That proved to be the final straw for Bowles, as he was fired after three seasons of failing to manage personalities in the locker room and falling even shorter in the in-game coaching department. Clock management was a major issue for Bowles, as was being far too passive in situations where the Jets should have been pushing the envelope. His calm demeanor, meanwhile, didn’t always play well in the New York spotlight.
Now Bowles has been given a second chance at being a head coach in Tampa Bay after Bruce Arians retired. Bowles plans on doing things his way instead of what he thought was the right way when he took over the Jets as a rookie head coach.
“I think that when I first started in New York [I found that] when you try to do things the ‘right way,’ you don’t do things your way and you end up having regret,” Bowles said Friday. “So I’m going to do things my way.”
Bowles played a major part in helping the Buccaneers win a Super Bowl in 2020, making him a natural fit to replace Arians — even after the way his stint with the Jets ended. Bowles’ coaching acumen has seldom been in question. He is widely regarded as one of the better defensive minds in the NFL and a strong Xs and Os coach.
How Bowles improves upon the issues that plagued him with the Jets will ultimately determine how his second chance at a coveted head-coaching job plays out. Bowles’ time in the Big Apple is long behind him, but the lessons he learned from the job are something he will carry into his newest gig.
“I think when you take a head job [for the first time] you have to wear a lot of hats, but you had never experienced wearing those hats,” Bowles said. “When you understand that going in…without the experience I think you tend to do things a little differently. You have to be man enough to know when you can change things. Usually, when people get fired they blame everybody else. The first thing I did was look within myself, and there were a lot of things I can do better.”
