Bruce Arian says he’s pissed off. It makes for a good sound bite in the wake of two players lying to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about their COVID-19 vaccination status. But wideout Antonio Brown and safety Mike Edwards are still on Arians’ roster today, which is a place neither would be if anyone in power actually wanted them gone.
That has been the simplest of truths in the NFL when it comes to COVID or vaccination or even honesty in general. If someone is important enough in the overall construct of winning games, that person can survive nearly anything, whether it’s missing key games, breaking NFL and union protocols, misleading the general public, spreading misinformation or even lying to the point of making a head coach look foolish.