Buccaneers’ Bruce Arians wanted nothing to do with ‘diva’ Antonio Brown

Time, and perhaps a little desperation, appears to have healed any wounds between Antonio Brown and Bruce Arians.

Months after the Buccaneers head coach shut down the possibility of his team signing Brown, the star wide receiver on Saturday finalized a one-year contract with Tampa Bay that is worth “slightly over the minimum” and includes incentives, according to NFL Network.

The minimum salary for NFL players with seven or more years of experience in 2020 is $1.05 million for a full season.

While Tom Brady has reportedly been the 32-year-old Brown’s biggest supporter, Arians told the “Tiki & Tierney” show in March that Brown signing with Tampa Bay was “not gonna happen” because “it’s not a fit in our locker room.”

Arians, who coached Brown as the offensive coordinator for the Steelers, also told ESPN’s Adam Schefter in 2019 that Brown was “too much of a diva.”

But with Brady’s top two wide receivers, Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, playing through injuries, Brown is set to join the Buccaneers (4-2) as soon as his eight-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy is up in Week 9.

“[Brown] has a history with Bruce Arians, it’s not a great history,” said FOX NFL insider Jay Glazer, who said he spoke to Arians on Friday. “Early on, when Tom Brady signed with the Bucs, he did bring up Antonio Brown, but back then, Bruce Arians told him an emphatic no — unless their wide receiver core got injured.

“What’s happened? Godwin’s been hurt, Mike Evans [has] been hurt, obviously tight end OJ Howard went down. So that changed things, according to Bruce. He said, ‘I was open to it if guys were banged up, and, well, all our guys are banged up.’”

Since a brief cameo with Brady and the Patriots last year, Brown has been accused of sexual misconduct and pleaded no contest to burglary with battery, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and criminal mischief stemming from a separate incident.

In the only game Brown has played since 2018, he caught four of eight targets from Brady for 56 yards and a touchdown in a Patriots win over the Dolphins last September.

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