Brady puts out media firestorm with bounceback against Carolina
Updated Monday, September 21, 2020
An unwritten rule of football is that players and coaches shall not criticize their quarterback. That rule became popular in the 1960s when Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr complained to Vince Lombardi after the coach screamed at him during practice. “It undermines my leadership,” Starr said, and Lombardi never again berated his quarterback in front of others.
Bill Belichick, on the other hand, often excoriated Tom Brady during 20 years of Patriots practices and team meetings. The most venerated coach in the sport felt it important to make everyone on the team accountable. Even so, you never heard Old Stoneface criticizing Brady –- or for that matter, his other players — to the media. He wanted negative opinions to stay in-house.
Brady has been treated much differently by his new coach, Bruce Arians of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The six-time Super Bowl winner threw two interceptions in the season opener in New Orleans, and Arians created a media firestorm by saying that both turnovers were Brady’s fault.
Arians served up more detail on Brady’s struggles in the 34-23 loss. Some of his check-offs “were good, some weren’t.” And on the morning after, Arians threw yet another dart. Brady needs to show “a little more grit, a little more determination.”
That was too much for Tony Kornheiser, of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption: “How many Super Bowls has this guy won? . . . Bruce Arians thinks he’s the smartest coach in the world. You’ve got Tom Brady. Back off a little bit.”
Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre said on The SiriusXM Blitz: “Getting to Bruce Arians’ comments, true or not, I think the last person you want to call out after the first game of the year is Tom Brady. Now, maybe they had an agreement going into the season: ‘Hey, I’m going to be hard on you. I want the guys to know we’re going to treat you the same even though technically I’m not, so are you OK with it?’”
But if they don’t have that understanding, Favre said, “dissension could enter quickly.”
Indeed, all football coaches worry about distraction, and the worst distraction is quarterback/head coach controversy. The Las Vegas Raiders have a perpetual black-and-silver cloud hanging over them, as Jon Gruden does not conceal displeasure with Derek Carr, who’s statistically one of the better quarterbacks in the league.
Arians is known for brutal candor when speaking with reporters, which of course the reporters love. He shaded Rob Gronkowski, who was also making his Bucs debut: “There were some times he was matched up against Cam Jordan, we would have liked to have seen a little more push. But we’ll take a stalemate.”
Considering the ex-Patriot tight end is, like Brady, a certain Hall of Famer, “stalemate” probably wasn’t the affirmation Gronk was seeking.
Not that a football team is doomed by constant friction between a head coach and his most vital players.
Dan Reeves and John Elway were barely compatible in Denver in the 1990s, as were Jimmy Johnson and Dan Marino in Miami and Barry Switzer/Troy Aikman in Dallas. I covered the Georgia Bulldogs when they won the national championship and Vince Dooley and Buck Belue barely spoke to each other.
Not all the pundits consider Arians out of line. Israel Gutierrez on Around the Horn said, “I think dissension sneaks into the locker room when you don’t blame the people who deserve the blame. Arians blamed Brady because that’s the way he saw it. That’s fair.”
Much depends on how sensitive the quarterback may be. Damien Woody, former teammate of Brady, said on ESPN’s Get Up: “If you think Tom Brady is going to get sensitive about things Bruce Arians says to the media, then you don’t know Tom Brady.”
Brady’s second game seemed to prove Woody right. In Sunday’s 31-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers, Brady completed 23 of 35 for 217 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions. Arians had nothing but compliments for his quarterback. He called him “outstanding” and noted that he made the right audibles every time and showed leadership on the sideline as well as on the field.
Arians dialed back the deep game he favors. He stayed away from the arm-straining out that Brady underthrew into a pick-6 in Game 1. The Bucs opened up their running game. Recent acquisition Leonard Fournette rushed for 103 yards. At 43, Brady has lost something from his fastball, but Arians’ offense gives him plenty of options, even if Rob Gronkowski is becoming less of one. The coach seems more flexible than many thought. The dissension that Favre warned about now seems unlikely. Honeymoon resumes.
