
Officials from the NFL said Wednesday that Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians was fined $50,000 for slapping and elbowing one of his own players during a playoff game this past weekend.
The unpleasant event occurred in the third quarter of Sunday’s game in Tampa, when the Bucs recovered a muffed punt and scored a touchdown to take a 24-0 lead over the visiting Philadelphia Eagles.
Arians was spotted hitting Andrew Adams in the helmet and directing his elbow into the player’s shoulder after the recovery.
The fine was initially published on the NFL’s website on Wednesday, before an NFL spokesman confirmed it to NBC News.
When asked if he had any regrets regarding the incident earlier this week, Arians emphatically stated, “No.”
Adams was unnecessarily mixing it up with Eagles players, according to the coach, and it might have cost the Bucs a 15-yard penalty.
Arians told reporters, “I’ve seen enough stupid (things).” “You can’t pull men out of a slam dunk. We had just gotten a tremendous play with fantastic field position, and he was trying to pull a person out of a pile, and I was trying to knock him off that guy so he wouldn’t get a penalty.”
Replays of the incident, however, showed Arians going at Adams as the Buccaneers safety was heading backwards, away from Marcus Epps of the Philadelphia Eagles — and with down judge Patrick Turner visibly in between the two players.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the NFL Players Association declined to comment on Arians’ sanction.
“It’s not a good look,” NBC’s Chris Simms observed of the event in Tampa on Sunday. “It’s 2021, and things like that don’t happen anymore.”
Simms defended the 69-year-old coach in a moderate manner.
Simms said Tuesday, “I know it doesn’t fly anymore.” “But I believe there is a part of the old school football world, including myself, who came up in an era where the head high school coach whacked you in the head at times. He snatched your face mask and told you how stupid you were. That’s how it used to be in the world of football. In the last 10 or 15 years, we’ve lost that. But that’s the school he went to for a while.”
On Sunday at 3 p.m. EST, the reigning champion Buccaneers meet the Los Angeles Rams in a game that will be aired on NBC and streamed on Peacock.
In the NFC title game a week from Sunday, the victor of that game will face the winner of Saturday night’s Green Bay-San Francisco matchup.