Bruce Arians Broke Down Everything That Happened When He Cut Antonio Brown On The Sideline After AB Ran Off The Field Against The Jets Last Season
On today's Pardon My Take... BRUCE ARIANS! The former Head Coach of the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter in-studio to discuss his relationship with Tom Brady, how it was to coach Andrew Luck, whether or not he knew who Steven Cheah was, and much more.
Arians also happened to be the Head Coach of the Bucs last season when Antonio Brown took off his jersey and ran off the field against the Jets. And on today's show, we got the chance to hear how everything went down from Coach Arians' perspective on that crazy day in the Meadowlands. Let's hear what he had to say...
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Mr. Cat: What about when you cut Antonio Brown on the sidelines? Was that emotional?
Bruce Arians: That was, yeah, very emotional. Very high-pitched.
Mr. Cat: Because that was an interesting cut.
Bruce Arians: Yeah, I mean, you've been around football a long time. I bet you probably haven't seen a player, like, take off his gloves and his shirt and go running across the field like kissing goodbye to the fans on their way out.
Bruce Arians: That's a unique individual. And, you know, he helped us win a Super Bowl, but uh, AB, he's a great player. Nobody works harder than AB.
Mr. Cat: Did you... when that happens, when you're walking off the field after the game, are you like, "Yeah, maybe it wasn't that big of a deal?" Or did you know, like, "Oh, this is going to be a shit show.
Bruce Arians: Oh yeah, you do already know.
Mr. Cat: Because like, I would delude myself and be like, "There's other games going on, probably someone's watching…"
Mr. Commenter: It's the Jets, no one's watching this game.
Bruce Arians: It was going to be a story for a while.
Mr. Cat: Yeah, and it was, and I remember we were watching it, and I think we missed it when it happened initially. And then we saw it and we're like, "Is this pregame? Like is this pregame that he's waving to the fans?" And we're like, "No this is actually happening right this second." It's crazy.
Mr. Commenter: And then you have to be ready after the game's over to answer jackasses like us who are going to ask you questions about it, and you have to be like, "Okay, now how do I answer this in a legal way where I'm not going to get in trouble as a head coach?" So, did you have anybody that, like, advised you like, "Hey, here's what you have to say to the press right afterwards."
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Bruce Arians: No, they knew I wouldn't do it anyways.
Mr. Cat: It was good that it happened to you, like a grizzled, you know, guy who's been in the league for a long time, because if it was like, a new Head Coach, it would probably be…
Bruce Arians: Oh, it would be hard. Very, very hard for a young guy, yeah.
I remember I was with the entire PMT crew in Hoboken for this game and we just couldn't process what was actually happening on the field. We all thought they were flashing back to pregame warmups or something and were stunned when we found out that was happening LIVE during game action. What a crazy, crazy moment.