As recently as November, new Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said that he'd only come out of retirement for the Cleveland Browns. Clearly, somewhere in the month and a half since then, something changed his mind. But what could it have been? Apparently, the tipping point was Cubs manager and former Rays manager Joe Maddon.
Maddon and Arians were introduced by Buccaneers GM Jason Licht while the Cubs were training in Arizona four years ago, when Arians was still with the Cardinals. Fairly unsurprisingly, the two hit it off. They both hail from Pennsylvania, and they're both fairly unconventional.
With that in mind, Arians was on the fence about taking the Bucs job, per The Tampa Bay Times, so Licht got a favor from Maddon. Maddon is a co-owner of the restaurant Ava, and Arians was smuggled into a private room of the restaurant so Arians could reportedly hear Maddon's pitch.
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Whatever he said must have worked. Arians ended up signing with the Buccaneers to a four-year deal with a fifth-year option on Tuesday, and they now have their coach. Arians will try to mold Jameis Winston and the Bucs into contenders in the tough NFC South. If he does, no one in Tampa can ever say Maddon didn't do anything for them (if they could somehow say it before).
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