Super Bowl-winning Bucs head coach Bruce Arians is known just as much for his feisty demeanor and his propensity to cuss as he is his for his offensive wizardry and ability to develop quarterbacks. In many respects, Arians is the polar opposite of current Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, who is a defensive mastermind and is usually calm, cool and collected by nature.

Arians’ genuine, tell-it-like-it-is approach to coaching without sugar-coating a damn thing won over his players over the years – as well as the fans of every team he’s coached, including those fans in Tampa Bay.

So when current Bowles, Arians’ protégé and hand-picked successor in Tampa Bay, shocked the world by dropping seven F-bombs in a profanity-laced tirade following Tampa Bay’s crushing defeat to Atlanta, 29-28, on Thursday Night Football last year, Arians applauded the move. In that post-game press conference, Bowles seemed to channel his inner “B.A.” in that moment as he cussed out the performance of his players the way his mentor would have, as the Buccaneers lost a 14-point lead in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

On a recent appearance on the Pewter Report Podcast, Arians was asked to rate Bowles’ post-game tirade from that legendary press conference.

“I don’t think it’s in my top 10, but I thought it was really damn good for Todd!” Arians said with a laugh. “I loved to see it. Everybody thinks he’s the calm, mild-mannered guy, but man, he can get fired up. I’ve seen him in the locker room throwing chairs. I know what he stands for, and I love that he let it out. Sometimes you can’t hold it back anymore and you just have to let it out.”

Arians recalled a time when Bowles went berserk at halftime back when he was his defensive coordinator with the Cardinals.

“I think the most memorable for me was in Arizona,” Arians said. “I thought there was a bomb that went off in the back of the defensive room. That was Todd throwing chairs and hollering and screaming, and we came out and played a helluva second half.”

Arians didn’t mention which game it was, but it might have been during a 29-18 loss in 2014 – at Atlanta of all places. The Falcons built an early 17-0 lead in the first quarter before the Cardinals woke up and made a game of it.

Arians had a famously similar on-air profanity moment when he was talking to Bucs Radio sideline reporter T.J. Rives at halftime of Tampa Bay’s Week 2 game against Atlanta during the 2021 season. The Buccaneers had a 21-10 halftime lead but had allowed the Falcons to kick a field goal right before the half that ignited Arians.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When Rives asked Arians what he liked about the 11-point lead at halftime, he responded: “Not a damn thing! I’m not happy about a damn thing. We turned the ball over. This should be a 35 point-game at the half right now! We’re not happy about shit!”

Rives asked Arians what he liked about the play of Tampa Bay’s defense in holding Atlanta to 10 points.

“The same thing – nothing!” Arians said. “Too many damn penalties! Same thing right there – too many penalties!”

The Buccaneers went on to beat the Falcons at home that day, 48-25, en route to a 13-4 record that season.

Bruce Arians Recalls Todd Bowles Going Berserk In The Bucs Locker Room

Bruce Arians wasn’t happy at halftime during that 2021 win over the Falcons.

And the previous time those teams played each other – in Week 15 at Atlanta during the 2020 Super Bowl season – Arians was also fuming at halftime.

It turns out Todd Bowles, Arians’ defensive coordinator, was too.

The Bucs had improved to 8-5 with a win over the Vikings coming out of the bye week in 2020 and had a big divisional game at Atlanta versus the 4-9 Falcons. When Tampa Bay trailed at halftime 17-0, Arians and Bowles erupted at halftime over the embarrassing first half performance.

Former Bucs ILB Devin White – Photo by: USA Today

“Going back to the Super Bowl year I think halftime in Atlanta he went off and I went off and JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) went off,” Arians said on the Pewter Report Podcast. “There was a bunch of guys going off in that locker room at halftime. But then we came back and played like we were supposed to and went on to win it all.”

After getting chewed out at halftime, the Buccaneers outscored the Falcons 31-10 in the second half and came back to prevail 31-27 and improve to 10-5 while the Falcons fell to 4-10.

On the Pewter Report Podcast Arians was asked when during the 2020 season he actually thought the Bucs could be legit Super Bowl contenders.

“I don’t think I ever did until the second half in Atlanta when we won that game and the way we won it,” Arians said of the thrilling Week 15 comeback victory. “I think we found ourselves – finally – offensively and defensively because it took a long time to mesh everything together not having any spring practices [or preseason due to COVID-19].”

There’s just something about the Falcons that seems to bring out the tirade in Todd Bowles.

Click the link below to watch the entire Pewter Report Podcast episode with Bruce Arians on the PewterReportTV YouTube channel.