Bruce Arians is Making it His Mission in Life to Pin Losses on Tom Brady

Jeff Bottari. Shutterstock Images.

It can't be easy to be Bruce Arians. Or really any leader who tries to be a populist, Man of the People, Joe Sixpack type of Regular Guy. Tyrants have it easy. A Josef Stalin, Kim Jong Un or Bill Belichick type doesn't have to worry about pleasing people. And when things go wrong, they don't have to worry about being perceived as weak and vulnerable. Because that's something that can be cured with a few purges. But when you care about the opinions of others, your image becomes a concern you have to spend time addressing. 

Like when your team gets positively debacled at home in prime time, a cold, ruthless coach can be the opposite of cruel. As counter-intuitive as it might seem, absolute power gives you the luxury of taking all the blame on yourself and sparing your subjects from ridicule. When you're worried about your own image, you have to point fingers at others. Which is exactly how Coach McFriendly has been doing it every chance he's gotten this season. 

Consider his reaction to the interceptions Tom Brady threw in Week 1:

Or when he questioned the Grit of the most accomplished winner in league history:

And now, with his quarterback coming off one of the five worst performances in the history of his life (Rocky Balboa reference), Arians took a big pass on saying he needed to coach it better, prepare better and make better adjustments. And instead chose to put his stubby sausage finger on what he saw was the crux of the problem. 

Nice approach, Coach Kangol. I'm sure that's going to play well in the locker room after a game where the defense couldn't make a stop, Byron Leftwich set an all time record for fewest rushing attempts and his No. 1 rushing defense got chainsawed and on several occasions Lavonte David was signalling wildly before the snap of the ball because they were in wrong defenses and gave up chunk plays each time. 

But I'm sure it's playing even better in the quarterback's room. And at his home. Particularly in light of the fact he and his lovely wife moved the whole family South just to get away from a coach who didn't make him "feel appreciated." Her words, not mine. Despite the fact that coach never once came within a parsec of this kind of fault-finding in public over 20 years. And this guy can't go a few weeks without blaming the best player he has ever or will ever coach, just to deflect from himself. 

Yeah, good luck with that. But take it from someone who's seen what kind of bold move the player in question is willing to make when he feels he's being overly criticized. Let's not forget either that Brady's newest receiver is Antonio Brown. In fact, they're living under the same roof, watching TV together, making blanket forts together. And that agent of chaos is no stranger to leading revolts against his coaches. And learned the art by making Arians' life miserable.

Sometimes you don't appreciate how good you had it until you move out into the world. And I'd be lying if I said I hope this strategy doesn't blow up in Arians' face. Stay tuned.