Bruce Arians fires back at Brett Favre’s Tom Brady warning: ‘I don’t really care’

Bruce Arians doesn’t want Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans to hit the panic button.

After publicly criticizing Tom Brady following the Bucs’ Week 1 loss to the Saints, the head coach poured cold water on concerns of early trouble between the pair.

“Tom and I are fine,” Arians told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t really care what other people think. So it’s just what he and I think. We left the stadium fine. We showed up today fine. There ain’t nothin’ to talk about.”

Tampa Bay lost Brady’s first game with the team, 34-23 to New Orleans, with the future Hall of Famer throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns, along with two picks. Arians didn’t hold back after the underwhelming debut.

“He looked like Tom Brady in practice all the time, so it’s kind of unusual to see that in a ballgame because they didn’t do things that we didn’t get ready for,” Arians  told reporters Monday. “Everything they did, we thought we were ready for.

“One [interception] was a miscommunication between he and Mike,” Arians told reporters following the loss. “He thought Mike was going down the middle — it was a different coverage — Mike [Evans] read it right. He should have been across his face, but Tom overthrew it.

“The other one was a screen pass with an outlet called. He threw the outlet and it was a pick-six. Bad decision.”

Arians later corrected himself, saying Evans was at fault for the first interception, but former Packers star Brett Favre cautioned Arians against hanging Brady out to dry the next day.

“I think the last person you want to call out after the first game of the year is Tom Brady,” Favre said Tuesday on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “Now, maybe they had a mutual truce going into the game, going into the season, ‘Hey, I’m going to be hard on you. I want the guys to know we’re going to treat you the same even though technically I’m not, so are you OK with it?’ If they have that truce, great. If not, I think you are barking up the wrong tree.

“Bruce Arians is the head coach, he’s gonna do it the way he wants to do it — and I’m not saying that it’s right or wrong — but what’s happened in New England for so many years is that it worked,” Favre said. “And I’m not saying that it’s the right formula, but it certainly is one of the right formulas. I just don’t see any good that comes out of calling your quarterback out.”

Arians said during camp that Brady “gets cussed out like everybody else,” to which Brady replied, “I’m used to it!” on Twitter. Despite Favre’s concerns, Arians still seems at ease about his coaching style and the Bucs’ prospects.

“I was amused when they handed us the Lombardi Trophy in July,” he said Wednesday. “But, yeah, it’s part of the business. You go with it. It’s one week at a time, one day at a time. We win a few games, everybody will be back on the bandwagon, happy [laughs]. It’s just part of the game.”