With Many Cardinals Ties, Bruce Arians Plays For A Ring

[Big Red]

Of course, it wouldn't have happened if Arians had decided to un-retire, a move that even he acknowledged had been unlikely.


"I was not itching to get back into coaching," said Arians, who told his team in the celebratory locker room of an upset win in Seattle in the 2017 finale he was done. "This job just happened to have everything line up perfectly."


Buccaneers GM Jason Licht – who was Cardinals GM Steve Keim's right-hand man in Arizona before getting the job in Tampa – is a "great friend," Arians said, and so when he called Arians, it piqued his interest.


But even then, Arians admitted, he wouldn't have taken the job "if some of those assistants had not been available."


Arians has mentioned both Goodwin and Leftwich by name in that regard. Leftwich, who ended up as the offensive coordinator under Arians replacement Steve Wilks in 2018, might have been unavailable if Wilks had stayed. Instead, he ended up being the chosen one by Arians to finally take over playcalling duties for Arians – the ones he once said he'd likely never relinquish.


But a smile creeps over Arians' face when asked about his time in Arizona, and what those six years meant to him.


"So many relationships," Arians said. "Great organization. I love all the time I had there. I just wish I had stayed a little healthier. And I wish I had learned how to delegate maybe a little sooner.


"Michael (Bidwill) and Steve and Carson (Palmer) and Larry (Fitzgerald) and Pat (Peterson), the relationships we built with everyone. The media, everybody. Just fond, fond memories. The fans were fantastic, they were always supporting our foundation. I can't thank them enough for that."


His health was a problem by the time he walked away to live in his Georgia "forever home" with his wife, Christine. He battled kidney cancer and diverticulitis, which sidelined him for a shared practice with the Chargers in San Diego in 2016.


Now he's hoping his current team, with its many Cardinals roots, can finish off a Super Bowl run he had once hoped for during the "All or Nothing" season of 2015.


"As far as goals go, we have one," Arians told his Cardinals players in that summer of 2015, in a speech he could've recycled to his current Bucs. "A Super Bowl ring. Not a Super Bowl. A Super Bowl ring."

Continue reading...