“It’s about Time!” - Bruce Arians Bashes NFL Refs in Reaction to Suspensions

Bruce Arians is retired from coaching, but he has not retired from having opinions. Back on The Rich Eisen Show the morning after Atlanta ran the Saints out of their own building, the Super Bowl winning head coach compared Bijan Robinson to Barry Sanders, picked the champs in the NFC West, sided with the coach who curses about his rivals, and greeted the league's referee suspensions with three words: "It's about time."

Rich opened with Monday night in New Orleans, a tough place to play on a night when everyone was ready to show up, and a game where the Falcons "hit them in the mouth."

Arians was not surprised. He has always loved Michael Penix. "I said, 'Boy, if the Falcons get him back, they're going to be a really good offensive football team,'" he recalled. By his count, Atlanta has been scoring about 40 points a game since Penix returned and running for something like 200 yards every week.

"I think the Falcons are legit right now," Arians said.

He also flagged the danger for anyone on the schedule. "You better have your whole defense when you go up against the Falcons, cuz they got too many weapons."

With Bijan Robinson on the screen, Rich asked the obvious question: who does he remind you of?

Arians went straight to the top shelf. "The only guy I can even come close to is Barry Sanders," he said. He mentioned Jahmyr Gibbs among the backs who are "so dynamic," but said Robinson "takes it to a whole 'nother level with his jump cut ability, his pass catching ability. He reminds me a lot of Barry when he's running the football."

Rich called that as high a compliment as exists, pointing out that Robinson can cut on a dime but can also hit the hole and be gone. Arians agreed and went further. "Barry Sanders scored the fastest touchdown I've ever seen," he said, describing a touchdown on a draw play. "Bijan is the same way. He runs that zone play as good as anybody, cuz he can hit D gap from one end to the other."

Coming from a coach who has spent decades drawing up run fits, that is not casual praise.

Four weeks in, Rich said the league feels wide open. Arians still had a favorite.

"I love where the Chiefs are," he said. His reasoning started with the offseason. "I thought Kenneth Walker was the biggest get in the entire off-season to put with Patrick." The problem before that move, in his view, was obvious. "When Patrick Mahomes is your leading rusher, you got problems. And that's how he got hurt last year."

Now, Arians said, the running game Kansas City has built around Mahomes "is dynamic," and the defense will hold up its end. "Spags is always going to have them playing good."

Beyond Kansas City, he expects a scramble. "I think everywhere else it's going to be a dog fight," Arians said. "I think it's going to be one of those years the last three weeks of the season going to decide everything for everybody."

Arians knows the NFC West well, so Rich laid out the board. The 49ers have yet to lose. The defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks have one loss and host San Francisco this weekend. The Rams have lost twice.

No hesitation from Arians. "I'm going to stick with Seattle," he said. He praised Drew Lock for "playing really, really well" and noted things should improve once Sam gets healthy. The defense, he said, has "a lot of new pieces" and is still "finding their way."

"I'm going to stick with the champ till you beat him," Arians said, "but the Niners look really good."

The Rams got the least charitable read. "I think the Rams got all the hype and we're living with the hype," he said. "Then Myles got hurt and Aaron's only playing 50% of the time, so it's not quite the defense everybody thought it was going to be." He added that Matthew has "thrown a few interceptions, unlike him."

With Packers and Bears on deck, Rich played two very different approaches to the rivalry. Matt LaFleur, after beating the Jets, kept it measured. "This game is about players, and so we'll keep it about the players," LaFleur said, while calling the rivalry "awesome" and "intense" and noting the Bears are the defending North champions. Then came Ben Johnson's postgame locker room speech after beating the Packers in the wild card game, the kind that does not air unedited.

Arians laughed at the comparison. "All right, Ben. That's more like me," he said. "I've had a few of those conversations when I was in Arizona and Tampa Bay." He gave LaFleur credit for handling it "with a lot of class," and said you could see an intensity burning in him. But he loves that Johnson "doesn't hold back."

Rich asked who got the F-bomb treatment in Arians' locker rooms. In Tampa, it was the Saints, "cuz they were the king of the hill at the time." In Arizona, it was Seattle. He remembered winning up there "four times" while losing all of them at home and tying once, and having "good banter" with Jeff Fisher, a good friend.

Does it work? "Oh yeah," Arians said. Players "know when your coach doesn't like the other team and if it's personal. You try to get it personal sometimes on purpose just to get a little extra into the practice sessions."

As for what LaFleur says behind closed doors: "I can't say it on the air. Eric told me not to cuss."

Asked if he misses coaching, Arians split the job in two. "I miss the locker room. I miss the guys, the coaches, the players," he said. "I do not miss the game, and I damn sure don't miss the referees."

That set up the news of the week. The league suspended two officials, and Arians did not need a second to react. "It's about time. It's about time," he said. "There's finally some accountability in that department."

Rich laid out the two incidents: one official was seen cursing out Trey McBride, and another got knocked over and became really angry at the player who did it. Arians had seen it all, and he found the target of the abuse surprising. He said he expected that if anyone got officials in trouble for a verbal exchange, it would be a coach, "because coaches say a lot of ugly things, especially me." For an official to say it to a player, "that's a little bit different."

From a man who spent years on the sideline arguing calls, the verdict carries weight. He did not defend the officials. He celebrated that someone finally answered for it.

Arians was on the show through the Relax, It's a Blood Test campaign to raise awareness about prostate cancer screening, and he spoke about it directly.

"I'm a prostate cancer survivor, so this is very, very dear to my heart," he said, adding that he is proud to team up with Novartis. He cited roughly one in eight men in the United States being diagnosed with prostate cancer, and said early detection is the key.

His advice was specific. "I beg guys, 40, start a scorecard. Get to your doctor, get your blood test, check your PSA level. That's how I found mine." When his number rose, his doctor told him he did not think it was anything but wanted a biopsy just in case. "I found out I had cancer at 51," Arians said. A great doctor operated and got it out.

He tied it to Crucial Catch month, saying it matters to players and coaches "because so many of us have been touched by that damn cancer." His closing message was simple: "Early detection, and like I said, it's very, very personal for me."