The Big Lead

Tom Brady's Camp Fires Back at Bruce Arians

By Brian Giuffra

Bruce Arians and Tom Brady.
Bruce Arians and Tom Brady. / Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
facebooktwitter

Tom Brady and Bruce Arians' relationship is on the rocks just 11 games into their union. Arians has called out the Bucs quarterback multiple times this season for failing the team and reports of a growing rift have circulated the news waves over the last week.

Previous to today, however, we haven't heard from Brady's camp, but they came out counterpunching with some unflattering reviews of Arians. Based on this report from Jason La Canfora, Brady is not happy with how he is being utilized and Arians is really the one to blame. This quote, from "one source close to the quarterback," stood out.

""It's a great way to deflect blame from Arians. Keep everybody asking about the quarterback so they don't focus on the limitations of the scheme or the lack of adjustments being made. Are they really grinding to find every way to make this work better or just blaming the quarterback?""

So basically they're saying Arians' scheme is limited and he isn't making the right adjustments to win games. Within the report, La Canfora also says people close to the quarterback believe Arians isn't playing to Brady's strengths. This week, a report emerged saying several members of the Patriots believed the Brady-Arians marriage wouldn't work, but I don't think anyone predicted it would crumble this fast.

Arians has called Brady out to the media following two losses this year, pinning much of the blame for the team's struggles on the quarterback. Brady got that behind the scenes in New England for 20 years, but Bill Belichick never blamed the quarterback in public. That, coupled with Brady's struggles this year, has led to the tension between Brady and Arians.

It seems this relationship is faltering before a full season is even complete. Arians threw the first punches and Brady is now firing backs through unnamed sources. Based on the recent back and forth, this situation is getting worse by the day and seems destined for a public divorce where grievances are aired publicly much to the delight of those who enjoy watching Brady suffer.