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Like many, new Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles may have pictured his next promotion coming with a long meeting, a pat on the back, and a ceremony or press introduction. Some of those things may have come, but the way he found out about his return to leading a coaching staff was not what he expected. The bombshell was dropped from several states away.
Here's how Bowles found out, according to a story he told on the Adam Schefter Podcast:
“I have a house in Charlotte and I flew down to check on my house. And when I got off the plane, I turned on my phone I had a message from Bruce who said, 'Call me’, and he asked me where I was. I said I was in Charlotte, 'I'm going to check on my house.' He said he wanted to tell me in person, but I guess he can't."
This was when Bruce Arians dropped the bombshell:
"He said he was stepping down and he was turning it over to me. I said 'what? Like you kidding me? Right?' You know, it's owner's week, which is a week off. You kind of [past that point] for all that stuff for job changes and everything else. So you kind of set your sights on things that you have to do."
At this point, Bowles admitted he wasn't going to cut his vacation short, even for a promotion of this magnitude:
"And I said, 'okay,' he asked me when I was going to be back, I said 'I would come back on Tuesday,' because I had, you know, four seats to the Nuggets and the Hornets that night I was going to the basketball game. I went to the basketball game. And Jason called me a few times at the basketball game and I'm trying to hear him over the phone."
The head coach went on to talk a bit about what happened when he got on site:
"But you know, basketball games, that music and everything going on at one time. It's kind of hard to hear. And then I talked to Bruce again on Tuesday. When I landed, I landed on Tuesday and talked to Jason some more, talked to Joe Glazer and found out that Bruce was okay. I thought something was wrong."
How has the Buccaneers' defense fared under Todd Bowles?
To get a promotion out of the blue, one has to be doing outstanding work. Bowles, the defensive coordinator of the last three years, has done just that. Before he arrived, the team was ranked in the bottom six in terms of total defense, according to ESPN.
In 2019, the defense shot up to 15th overall. In 2020, the team jumped again to 6th overall, winning a Super Bowl with the help of a defense that shut down Kansas City in epic fashion. In 2021, the defense slipped to 13th, but still much better than during the pre-Bowles era. Most assume this was part of the reason for his viewed candidacy for the position, even if he had not applied.
