Joe will pause a moment from the euphoria surrounding the Bucs’ 3-5 record to share a newly-released historical nugget.

Super Bowl winner Bucco Bruce Arians appeared recently on The Athletic Show and talked about how he not only demanded quiet on his headset channel when he was calling plays, but he also insisted on it as Bucs head coach for former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.

No input was allowed for Leftwich until the offense came off the field.

“If you talked on a headset other than, ‘it’s 2nd-and-6 on the right hash,’ you got your ass fired or chewed out, for sure. No communication whatsover on it,” Arians said. “And I didn’t allow when Byron [Leftwich] took over for me in Tampa, there was no talking other than down and distance and hashmark until we got off the field. Defensively, there’s a little more collaboration going on sometimes on defenses.”

Interesting to hear Arians describe how he wanted Leftwich on an island while calling plays. Of course, Joe has no doubt Arians got on that headset with his protégé at times.

It also was intriguing to hear Arians say there is more headset chatter when it comes to defense.

One day, somebody will ask Arians if he ordered the misguided all-out blitz that led to Cooper Kupp burning the Bucs and ending their 2021 postseason. Joe is comfortable saying Arians called that shot. Joe has no idea if Todd Bowles agreed with it or not.