Bruce Arians didn’t want to count his chickens before they hatched.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht recently admitted he feared Tom Brady at the 11th hour would choose to return to the New England Patriots in free agency. It turns out Licht wasn’t the only member of the organization who was nervous about Tampa Bay possibly losing out on Brady, as the thought also crept into Arians’ mind.
In fact, Arians was concerned enough that he contacted NFL insider Jay Glazer to make sure another team hadn’t made a last-ditch effort to sign Brady.
“I was talking to him (Arians) throughout the whole thing. Believe it or not, while everybody thought it was a done deal, he didn’t because Tom hadn’t signed,” Glazer said Wednesday on FS1’s “The Herd.” “Like, it took him a couple days and he didn’t sign. At one point Bruce actually hit me up and said, ‘Do you think there’s a secret team here?’ He’s been around football so long, paranoia is part of your DNA if you’re a head coach. He was like, ‘Is there another team?’ I was like, ‘You’re good, dude. I think you’re good.’ He was almost like, ‘It’s too good to be true.'”
Considering shaky quarterback play arguably was what kept the Bucs out of the playoffs last season, it’s easy to understand why Arians and Co. were so motivated to bring Brady on board. With the greatest to ever play the position now under center, Tampa Bay could be a real threat in the NFC.
