Buccaneers HC Bruce Arians furious at accusations against him

With all the drama surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season, it’s no shock at all that their offseason would follow suit.

This is exactly what has happened so far with the fake retirement, followed by the real retirement of Tom Brady stealing headlines for weeks. The Buccaneers may not be playing right now, but it will be a while before they truly leave the headlines.

Questions always arise when a great player decides to finally hang up the cleats, especially when they are still playing at an exceptional level such as the way Brady was last season. Still though, it shouldn’t be that hard to believe that a 45-year-old might just want to hang it up, even if he could keep playing.

It’s not exactly the most fun thing to be trampled by 300-pound linemen every Sunday no matter how old you are, but especially when you’re as old as Brady.

Nevertheless, the rumors began to fly as a result.

Most recently, former NFL lineman Rich Ohrnberger Tweeted that the relationship between Brady and Arians had seriously deteriorated as last season progressed, which directly led to the star’s eventual retirement.

When asked about the rumor, Arians was obviously irritated that he even had to take the Tweet seriously. Arians went as far as to call the tweet “bulls–t.”

Arians proceeded to poke holes in the rest of Ohrnberger’s remarks and stated that Bucs offensive coordinator Bryon Leftwich could corroborate his side of the story as well.

If their relationship was on the rocks, it certainly didn’t appear so. Few teams gave their QB as much freedom to throw the ball as the Buccaneers gave Brady all season.

Additionally, Brady’s stats were spectacular throughout his tenure with the Bucs (and Arians), which is usually not a symptom of a poor QB-head coach relationship.

Brady and Arians may not have been best friends, but after playing 20 years with Bill Belichick, who always had an exclusively professional relationship with Brady, it’s highly doubtful that it was the relationship between Brady and Arians that lead to the former’s retirement regardless of the rumors.