did you first have an inkling of what was going to go down on
Wednesday night and then, on Thursday?
About the time, I guess, that Bruce, Arians decided to give
the story to our good friend, Sam farmer and Peter King,
which I saw a bone to pick with Bruce about that. What do I do
more?
But,
yeah, you know, it's never a dull moment around here. We
have retirement parties, and then under fireman parties. And
then, I don't know who's next. But,
you know, listen,
it was surprising to say the least, the timing of it, but then
you listen to Bruce and, you know,
I'm one, that's always skeptical.
Maybe not as skeptical as you might, but a little bit
skeptical about how these things come the past.
But you know what? It talking to Bruce.
I do believe he wanted a role, you know, that would last
beyond his coaching years. And I know this is going to be his
last year coaching. There's been some signs, you know, when
you go back and you look at it,
you remember him at the combine doing very little, if anything
getting around on a cart? Like he did all season long. I know
he says his health is not an issue, believe me. It's
an issue. He wants to stay as healthy as he is now,
but there were a lot of reasons and you know, it's
I'm sure we'll get into Tom Brady, but I do think that
there's a big part of Bruce Arians
that has always wanted to take care of his guys and I know he
feels good about his decision.
Well, yeah, it Mike alluded to Rick the the Tom Brady. Did he
order the code red? So that's the obvious question. The big
debate is what kind of handed, Tom, Brady play in this
decision of Bruce. Arians. Do you believe that Tom Brady
ordered this code red?
I don't think that he did
this is not a Jack Nicholson moment on the stand. I do think
though that he did that. He had
certainly input about the direction. He wanted things to
go. And, you know, those guys have never been,
you know, at each other's throats and Bruce has a very
demanding coach, but from the standpoint of or there's
something, you know, Tom would not be a guy that would say,
for example, hey, I'll come back, if right if I don't have
Bruce Arians, to deal with,
that's not his style. What he would say is
hey here. Some things I think we need to do
and those would be things that Bruce Arians doesn't want to do
right? Maybe an eyeful back, maybe
more emphasis on running the ball. I don't want to throw it
700 times. I want to help our defense complimentary football
that sort of thing. And you know, so he might paint
a picture where
there's a number of things that he enumerated, that
Bruce. He knows Bruce didn't on board with. But
regardless of, you know what he said, or how he said it too.
There's no question. He He's
the biggest stick in this in his franchise. I mean, just
look at who they have re-signed and, you know, the two years
he's been here. They first said, never said no to him
about anything, while
they may have, I don't know
if Odell Beckham was a guy wanted or not, and I don't know
if he wanted Antonio Brown cut necessarily, but I think at
the end of the day, they've given Tom everything that he's asked
for. So,
you know,
I just don't think it came down to, you know, I'll come back at
Bruce, Arians is in my head coach,
and let me flip it. And Rick because this dawned on me
Wednesday night. I was I was processing. What had happened?
Tom Brady on retires 17 days. Later. His head coach is out.
I got no sense of any dismay disappointment
concern. Nothing along lines of. Well, if I would have known
that Aryans was going going to be gone. I wouldn't have come
back and there's no sense of regret from Ryan, Jensen
Leonard. Fournette. Logan Ryan.
Have you heard any kind of?
Oh God. Like this is a major. A problem for the team going
forward or, or does it seem from the inside
the same that we see it on the outside that it's just going to
be a smooth transition. And nobody seems to be all that
perturbed by it.
Yeah, I think the latter is true, Mike. And I think it's
because if you watch Bruce every day, he has been
the ultimate CEO coach with the box, right? He came in here
saying he wasn't going to call plays wasn't going to stay all
night up all night, you know doing scripts and things like
that
and he stuck to that and he lets his coaches coach know you
got up there and his farewell address and said I didn't do
a damn thing and I know he's being
a little magnanimous there but part of that is true. He let
his guys do a lot of the heavy lifting most of it, in fact,
and so My day-to-day standpoint and Bruce's still with
the organization. You know, this is the thing
that I think it's overlooked is that he still going to have
an influence on this on this club? Whether it's with Jason light
and Personnel, still being on a cart, you know,
practice, whatever. That is,
and his guys aren't intimidated by that, you know, they have
coached this way, some of them for 30, 40 years. And so
I don't think that there is a any kind of Panic or gosh,
I think will be, you know, disarray without area. Has as
our head coach. And so that's why I don't think you've seen,
you know, a lot of a lot of shock and awe
necessarily. Once those players got the word.
Bruce Arians has talked about calling out, Tom Brady and he
obviously did perhaps more than any other player. He's not
afraid to call out as quarterback, the go.
How would you describe the relationship from the inside
from? What may we don't see on the outside?
Yeah, you know, I think Tom has a lot of respect for Bruce and
I also think that before he chose Tampa Bay.
This is the most prepared guy in football, right? Maybe in
sport. And so he did his homework. He was trying to lead
Belichick. He wanted to do it a different way. Certainly,
the roster attracted him here, most of all because you had a chance
to win.
But he also knew that Bruce had handled celebrity quarterbacks
before. He had Peyton Manning. He had guys like this and so
that that was very important to him. And I think that they got
along great. I mean II didn't see the sort of schism that
people have
alleged, you know, like any relationship. They weren't
always, you know together mean that first year was bumpier
than hell. They were seven and five. Five,
Tom was taking a bunch of seven-step drops. They didn't have any
pre-snap motion. They didn't have a lot of play action
and they had a meeting of the minds and Tom got his way. And
now you see an offense that resembles exactly what he did
in New England. That's not by accident. Tom was shocked that
Bruce Arians had
very little or no input whatsoever on the offense. He
left Byron Leftwich. Do it. And Byron was not prepared to wait.
Tom is obviously. So I think a lot of that was worked out in
the first year,
you know, these stories about Redlining game plans and things
like that that just simply I don't think ever happened.
But again, you know going forward. I think Tom has
a Clear Vision of what he wants.
It may not be exactly what he's been doing here. These last two
years and so, you know, Todd Bowles is going to enact some
of those things. So I think Todd believes in, you know,
more of a commitment to the Run game, protecting the defense
play, more complimentary game.
Maybe not at making him throw it 700 times a year.
So I think you're going to see some changes and they're going
to be changes at Tom. Moana.