Arians fined $50k for swiping own player during wild-card game

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Buccaneers HC Bruce Arians fined $50,000 for swiping own player during game vs. Eagles

By Victor Barbosa | Last updated 1/19/22

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the defending Super Bowl champions and easily handled the Philadelphia Eagles during their NFC wild-card game on Sunday. As they prepare for their divisional round contest against the Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians was hit with a five-figure fine on Wednesday afternoon for an incident that took place during the battle against Philadelphia.

Oddly, the occurrence in question happened with one of his own players.

Bruce Arians was seen swiping at #Bucs player Andrew Adams, saying after the game he was attempting to make sure Adams didn’t pull players from the pile. Now, fined $50K. https://t.co/TIR635M6gI
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 19, 2022

Arians says he was trying to prevent a penalty by smacking safety Andrew Adams in the helmet and elbowing him. Instead, a rare fine from the NFL for a coach's actions with his own player. https://t.co/twuUVQMJ05
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 19, 2022

For what it's worth, Arians responded to the fine on Wednesday and doesn't seem concerned about it.

"I'll appeal it and it ain't got nothing to do with the game, so we're good," Arians said, per NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano.

ProFootballTalk reported that "with no union and no independent contractor, it will be a steep uphill climb" for Arians to win his appeal.

The 69-year-old is in his third season as the Bucs' head coach, following a five-year run as the lead man with the Arizona Cardinals. No. 2 Tampa Bay will host No. 4 Los Angeles at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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