Getty Bruce Arians coached Tom Brady hard during the team's Super Bowl run.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians promised to be hard on the team following their Super Bowl season. Arians is keeping his word as the coach called out the Bucs for a “horse****” practice.”
“Same thing, defensively we didn’t stop anything over third-and-nine,” Arians explained after a July 30 practice. “It was just a horse**** practice. Hopefully, we’ll be better in pads tomorrow.”
Arians described the practice as “sluggish” after an off-day. The Bucs coach also called out the receivers for a series of drops.
“I’m really not pleased; I thought we were really, really sluggish,” Arians noted, per Tampa Bay Times. “We talked about it before we left [Wednesday] and took the day off [Thursday]. I don’t know if our receivers caught a pass.
Even Brady was not saved from Arians’ wrath after the team’s subpar practice. The Athletic’s Greg Auman reported that Arians received a follow-up question asking if Brady was included in the “sluggish” practice.
“Arians unhappy with sluggish tempo today and too many drops,” Auman tweeted. “Asked if it was a bad day for Brady, too, he says: ‘He’s in there with them.’”
Brady Described Bucs Practice as ‘Really S*****’
Brady appeared to be equally frustrated by the team’s poor performance and offered his own assessment. Brady described the team’s play in the on-field workout as a “really s***** practice.”
“Feeling like he wasn’t giving the type of response we wanted, Tom Brady stopped mid-answer saying, ‘You guys are catching me on a really bad day today. We had a really s***** practice. I’m not feeling great about what we did today,'” ESPN’s Jenna Laine tweeted about Brady’s response. “Came away really appreciating the candor.”
Brady offered a longer response laying out a plan for how the Buccaneers can bounce back.
“Yeah, it wasn’t our best day,” Brady admitted. “Gotta watch the film and correct it. I think that the important part is we realize we’re starting at the bottom with everybody else, and we gotta climb our way up. We’re going to have our challenges. It’s an entirely different challenge this season than last year. You gotta put the work in. So, it’s training camp. It’s a grind. You gotta grind through it. You’re going to have bad days, you’re going to have good days. We gotta come out tomorrow with more urgency.”
Arians to Bucs: ‘Soccer Practice Is Over’
Brady also relayed some of Arians’ message to the team as the Bucs move towards padded practices. Arians joked that the day marked the end of “soccer practice” implying there would be more intensity and contact in the coming days.
“Coach [Arians] said a good thing today, soccer practice is over – which really means we haven’t played any football,” Brady noted, per Pewter Report. “There’s no pads, no tackling, no run force, not run fits, no breaking tackles, no play action response. Things will change quite a bit tomorrow.”
CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco believes Arians’ rant is was a calculated effort. Arians admitted this offseason that he was going to be harder on the Buccaneers to ensure they did not get too comfortable after their title run.
“Love how Bruce Arians played the day-before-pads motivational game calling today a “horse****” practice,” Prisco tweeted. “Coaches love that technique.”