Joe might fly the Buccaneers flag at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters just a little bit higher this morning.
As free agency chatter was heating up in February of 2020, and it became clear from Bucco Bruce Arians that the Bucs eagerly were looking past Jameis Winston into the sea of potential available quarterbacks when free agency opened in mid-March, Joe wanted answers.
And frankly, the only hope of a straight answer was from loose-talking Arians.
Arians was about to chat with Tampa-based reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, and the head coach had to be pressed on his repetitive one-liner claiming the Bucs wanted to look behind Door No. 2 for Jameis replacements. That ancient Let’s Make A Dealreference wasn’t cutting it.
League rules prohibit coaches from talking about players on other teams, as it relates to potential interest or contract matters, and Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers and Drew Brees were among the pending free agent QBs for the 2020 season. But if anyone was going to break NFL protocol, it was Arians.
So Joe tried to pin down Arians and get him to reveal a name. Here was the exchange that led to national headlines.
JoeBucsFan.com: Coach, you said regarding quarterback, you can win with Jameis but you want to see who else is available. Is it fair to say there’s one guy out there, that if he was available you would pick up the phone?
Bruce Arians: Tom Brady.
Speaking on the Sports Day Tampa Bay podcast this week, Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht said that was a pivotal moment in Bucs history.
“We were at the Combine and we were getting ready to do our interviews. I sat down with Bruce and said, ‘Now you can’t mention quarterbacks [under contract] by name,'” Licht said. “‘You can’t mention; someone asked the question and [Bruce] goes, ‘Hell yeah, I’d answer his call.'”
Obviously, Licht didn’t recall the Arians quote verbatim, but he clearly expressed that the exchage made Brady-to-Tampa more likely and got that ball rolling for the Bucs faster.
Co-host Rick Stroud said he thought the Arians-JoeBucsFan exchange “kind of sealed it,” referring to the eventual Brady signing, and Licht replied, “I think that helped it.”
And to think Joe never got a Super Bowl ring from Team Glazer, not even a t-shirt. Damn.
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