Editorial

Bruce Arians Says Tom Brady Was ‘Playing Bad’ To Start The Season. Has The Team Gotten Better Since The QB’s Divorce?

(Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Seth Roy Contributor
Font Size:

Bruce Arians said in an interview following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 21-16 victory over the Seattle Seahawks that star QB Tom Brady underperformed to start out the season.

“Nobody is going to say that Brady was playing bad, but he was playing bad,” the Super Bowl-winning former head coach said after the Nov. 13 game.

It was very uncharacteristic of a Tom Brady-led football team to be two games under .500 midway through the season, but they were. Their defense looked average, and their offense couldn’t find the end zone. They looked like a shell of their former selves and seemed to be trending in the wrong direction — until something life-changing happened with Brady.

Surprising though it may be, the moment Tampa Bay turned around their season was when Brady got a divorce from his wife, Gisele Bündchen, after 13 years of marriage. Since the divorce, the Buccaneers have regained their swagger, and they have yet to lose a game. (RELATED: Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp To Undergo Right Ankle Surgery. Are His Best Days Behind Him?)

For the first time all season, Brady looked happy and energized during the Bucs’ week 10 victory over the Seahawks. Knowing his relationship with Gisele is over, I think Brady has his mind right again. The burden of that divorce seemed to be holding him down.

“Tom smiled at practice last week for the first time this season,” Brady’s former coach revealed during the interview.

It’s uncertain exactly what happened internally with Tampa Bay to spark this sudden resurgence of theirs, but something tells me it was Brady and Bündchen finally calling it quits. Brady’s performances over the last two weeks are night-and-day ever since the divorce, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. All Arians did was point out the obvious.

It’s refreshing to see the GOAT back to his old self, carving up defenses once again. From the looks of it, single Tom might even guide Tampa Bay to another Super Bowl championship.