Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians didn’t want Antonio Brown in Tampa. When Arians finally relented to Tom Brady’s desire to reunite with Brown, Arians huffed and puffed about Brown being on a one-strike arrangement.
With Brown now swinging and missing on the issue of providing a fake vaccination card to the team and, in turn, the league, Arians has yet again eaten his words in the name of eating more W’s. Even though Arians knows that he’s supporting a guy who did something he definitely shouldn’t have done.
“I wasn’t very proud of what he did this time, but I’ve got a spot in my heart for him now,” Arians told Tiki & Tierney of CBS Sports Radio, via JoeBucsFan.com. That’s awfully charitable of Arians. And, again, it’s surely influenced by the fact that Brown’s presence helps the team win.
So is Brown, who has been a chronic problem, finally changing?
“I think he’s working at it,” Arians said. “He’s still got a ways to go. He’s working hard at it.”
That’s debatable. Brown opted for belligerence in his return to social media, demanding that “respect” be placed on his name and then vowing to post a video of his vaccination, before deleting it. That’s not evidence of someone who is “working hard” to change.
Still, none of that matters. The Bucs have done their deal with the devil in the hopes of winning another Super Bowl. Brown arguably didn’t deserve to be there in the first place, but Brady wanted him. And Brady, whose mere presence fills the stadium and the coffers, will get what he wants.
That’s really the best explanation for Arians’ shifting standard as to Brown. Arians is a bystander. Whatever Brady wants, Brady gets. And Brady wants Brown on the team.
Brady currently needs Brown on the team, especially with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Leonard Fournette injured. And so, Arians will ignore anything he may have previously said or anything he currently may desire in order to placate the most important employee of the organization, by far.