In his passing, Bruce Aryan walks the talk.
The Super Bowl-winning coach is stepping down as head coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers So his longtime friend and highly qualified defensive coordinator Todd Bowles can get his chance to run a successful team.
“I wanted to make sure when I left that Todd Bulls would have the best chance of success,” Arrian said in a statement Wednesday night. “A lot of coaches are in situations where they are predisposed to failure, and I don’t want that to Todd.”
Arius has always been an ally of blacks and minorities. As the primary quarterback for Virginia Tech in the 1960s, he became the first white player to have a black roommate. He’s the diversity champion in the NFL coaching ranks, having added women to his crew and has three black coordinators on his staff.
As well as any white coach in the NFL, Aryan has known the struggles and ordeals of the black soccer coach. This is, in part, why I think he made the extraordinary decision to retire from coaching until March 30th.
Leaving now not only ensures Bowles will get the job, it ensures a great performance at the time. All too often, NFL coaches become head coaches for bad teams. This is most likely why the job opened in the first place. As we know, black coaches rarely get head coaching jobs. The ones they do are usually worse smelling than other available ones.
And if you were a former black coach like the Bulls? Good luck getting that second gig. Only seven other black men have ever been the permanent head coach of at least two NFL franchises in their careers.
Bulls’ first coaching mistake was failure. for him New York Jets He went 24-40 in his four years there, marred by poor free agency decisions, worse draft picks and inconsistent quarterback play. I spoke to him during the 2020 season about how he won’t jump at the next opportunity just to become a head coach again.
“I think the situation should be fine and you go from there. If the situation is not right…if it doesn’t match, I won’t deal with it,” Bulls then said. “Maybe it’s the first time, because you really want to be a head coach and do good and save the world. But after you go through it with experience knowing the situations have to be right for you to succeed anywhere, you obviously have to bring a lot to the table. But They have to bring something to the table as well. And if it’s not a match, it’s not just a match.”
The move to install Bulls, the fourth black coach in the history of the Buccaneers, comes against the background of the NFL continuing its decades-long battle with diversity in the head coaching ranks. Just this week, the league (again) amended Rooney’s rule, requiring all teams to hire a minority offensive assistant coach and creating a panel of experts to make recommendations to NFL team owners. All while Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL is said to be getting new plaintiffs in the coming days.
Aryan’s decision to retire while promoting the Bulls reminds me of what legendary UNC men’s basketball coach Dean Smith did in 1997. He shocked the sports world when he retired just pre-season with a team ready for the Final Four, just so he could make sure his longtime assistant Bill Guthridge He will finally get his shot. He has known the Aryans Bulls since playing the former under him as a starting point for Temple in the mid-1980s.
And Aryan doesn’t just hand over any team. It’s one with Tom Brady Once again looking for a Super Bowl VIII title.
However, conspiracy theories do exist. For folks who can’t sign up for Occam’s razor, they’d rather believe a fairy tale swirling around something like this: Brady returned to Tampa on the condition that Arians not be the head coach. The goats did not have a good relationship with the walrus coach. Without making it clear, Brady designed his comeback from his grueling retirement but only if the Box family could Aryan. And in the league that is a sieve, they will all be kept confidential for about a month.
Certainly.
There is no lady babushka or umbrella man here. Instead, the answer here appears to be fairly straightforward.
A perennial ally close to 70 years of age wanted to do well with a successful black coach and old friend.
Arianes could have topped out after the 2020 season with his championship but decided to try for a second and ultimately failed on the field. I’d say by doing this step, it’s still on top.