Is Bruce Arians a Hall of Famer? His work to hire Black, female coaches might do it

Bruce Arians seemed to love the timing of the question about the football saga that apparently isn't one, after all:

Talk to Tom Brady lately?

"Yeah, he just texted me. Said he's got a present for me. Can't wait to see what it is ..."

Arians laughed because he swears life and football are good now, maybe better than ever in some ways. He just needs a bit more time to find his footing since stepping down as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The York High grad loved and lived to coach, especially since finally getting to run his own NFL show a decade ago.

But fast-approaching 70, he admits to needing other things even more now. He talked about family, loyalty and leaving the business better for the next person.

He will enjoy long conversations with his wife again and outings with his grandchildren and more golf. But this is what truly makes it all work: He's still immersed in football.

He can even continue to build his Pro Football Hall of Fame resume, even though he says he doesn't care a bit about that.

Arians will now be a senior advisor for the Bucs, a position he's still figuring out. He does know he will invest deeply in the NFL Draft, give advice to his former coaches and continue relationships with guys like Brady, despite weeks of rumors to the contrary.

"It's not like I retired. I'm just not the coach. It's a great job," he said this week. He will enjoy "just being able to be leaned on" by others.

"I'm sure once game day hits, and I'll be sitting upstairs and wanting to make a decision or two, that might be hard. But right now I'm having a ball. My grandkids are here, so I worked for two hours and I'll take them bowling, and tomorrow I'll work a few hours and we'll go to the aquarium."

Bowling? Ask Arians about it and, of course, that leads to a story ... one about him actually teaching a bowling class while attending Virginia Tech. That's also where he roomed with James Barber, the first white football player to room with a Black one at the school.

Which all leads to one of the most intriguing parts of his coaching career − one of those intangibles that could help earn his way into the Hall of Fame. How will voters weigh his drive for diversity in the NFL, in regard to color and gender?

Growing up in York City, Arians said his first youth football coach was Black and one of his best friends in high school was Black. He and wife Christine ended up babysitting James Barber's two boys, future NFL stars Tiki and Ronde Barber.

Arians saw discrimination and understood it and hated it. It dug at him particularly hard after becoming a head coach. He hired more Black assistants than anyone, more female coaches and probably more coaches over 65. The Women's Sports Foundation named him its 2020 Champion for Equality.

"Not getting a (head) job until I was 60, and being looked over so many times, made me want to give people equal opportunity," he said.

"I get a lot of credit for having minority coordinators, but they really were the best coaches I could find. I can take credit for breaking down the door for women, and it needed to be broken down."

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And so he had the perfect chance to bring his beliefs together a month ago in Tampa. When Brady un-retired, Arians felt like he could truly leave his team in the best possible shape for a new head coach − a move he said that definitely would happen in the next year, no matter what.

He could reward loyalty and help ensure all of his assistants would keep their jobs. And he could push down the NFL's diversity door a little more.

The timing of Arians' retirement allowed Tampa to more easily promote defensive coordinator Todd Bowles − just the fourth Black head coach in the NFL. Arians has known Todd Bowles for nearly 40 years, since he was a captain for him at Temple. "He knows the lay of the land here, and I think this will show his true genius," Arians said.

It still eats at Arians how several of his assistants lost jobs when he left the Arizona Cardinals for burn-out and health reasons in 2017. Now, his staff's still in place in Tampa.

"The ability to take care of 31 families is more important to me than winning more games and going to the Super Bowl," he said.

"I grew up in a household where everyone took care of each other. You and your brother might fight, but no one better mess with them. That's how this has evolved, my coaches are still family."

Enough for the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Arians said he never considered the Hall of Fame until his football son, Jake, "started hitting me over the head with it" recently.

The best part of this is that it couldn't be any kind of a discussion until he was about to turn 60. Until NFL owners finally viewed him as head coach-worthy. Since then, though, he's won the Super Bowl with one team and took another to the conference championship game. He won two coach of the year awards.

He owns a better winning percentage than coaches Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher and Dick Vermeil − all in the hall of fame.

He even had better postseason success (6-3, Super Bowl victory) than several hall of famers, like George Allen (2-7, no championships).

It's, at least, a discussion now.

He just won't march in by typical Hall of Fame standards. Arians didn't become a head coach soon enough (age 60) and didn't go long enough (just eight seasons). He won one Super Bowl but didn't win that clinching second one, or even get to it.

For him, it will come down to those "intangibles," and how much voters value them.

Like how he was one of the most prized NFL assistant coaches for years, known as a "quarterback whisperer" for developing young stars Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck. He rejuvenated Carson Palmer in Arizona and led the Cardinals to their best run in franchise history.

Like how he went to three Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an assistant, winning once as offensive coordinator.

And how he made Indianapolis a winner after taking over for cancer-stricken Chuck Pagano in 2012. He went 9-3 with a rookie QB and was named coach of the year.

All of that could make him close.

This may put him over the top: He's been a catalyst, a difference-maker, for diversity in a league slow to fully embrace it.

His last coaching staff in Tampa included a league-high 11 Black coaches − including all three coordinators. He also employed two full-time female coaches.

The NFL just ruled that every team must now hire a minority offensive assistant coach.

The kind of rule, Arians "has been pushing for seven, eight years. He's been telling league officials in league meetings, 'Why don't you require each team to hire a minority assistant?' and they ignored him until this year," his wife said. "They didn’t listen to Bruce, but he did it anyway. That, to me, is part of his legacy ...

"I think grooming, hiring and promoting Black players to be coaches, I think that should count for a lot, I just do."

For now, they can keep winning with Arians, prove the value of his work, in a sense.

And maybe just lift him up to a place he never thought of ever going.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on Twitter @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Bruce Arians adjusting after retiring as coach of Tampa Bay Buccaneers