Many people believed there was some sort of friction between former Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians and Tom Brady. Those rumors were fueled by Arians’ decision to step away from coaching football a few days after Brady came back.
Earlier this year, Brady announced he would call it a career after more than two decades. However, only a month later he restored peace in Tampa Bay by saying he would run things back for at least one more season.
But a few days later, it was theveteran head coachwho stepped aside. Many people thought Brady’s return had something to do with it, and they were right (sort of.)Arians admitted that he could still be at the helm of the Bucs if Brady hadn’t come back, but not because of a strained relationshipbetween them or anything like that.
Bruce Arians says he wouldstill be coachingif Tom Brady hadn’t returned to the Bucs
“I was going the other way. I was thinking he wasn’t going to play,” Arians said, via the Tampa Bay Times. “I was thinking about who are we going to get? Who wants to trade? There wasn’t anybody to draft. That was obvious. Me, to the public, I was fine with the two we had: Blaine (Gabbert) and Kyle (Trask). Because I’ve seen Blaine win with a good team behind him. Had Tom not come back, I probably would still be coaching. I couldn’t give Todd[Bowles]that situation.“
So, it turned out to be true that Arians decided to retire after Brady came back. However, it was not because they didn’t get along. Instead, Arians didn’t want to leave a difficult quarterback situation to his successor.
So once he learned that Tom was back, he felt it was a good time to leave the team in Bowles’ hands. Besides, Arians admitted he didn’t plan to continue coaching for much longer either. “It was 90 percent that (this) year would be my last, anyway,” Arians added. “Seventy was going to be it.”