Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians fined $50,000 for slapping own player

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said he will appeal a reported $50,000 fine from the NFL for slapping the helmet of one of his own players in Sunday’s wildcard game.

Arians incurred the fine, first reported by NFL Network on Wednesday, after smacking Buccaneers safety Andrew Adams during the defending champions’ 31-15 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.

“I’ll appeal it,” Arians told reporters on Wednesday. “It ain’t got nothing to do with the game, so we’re good.”

The incident occurred in the third quarter during a scrum near the Bucs’ sideline. The Eagles’ Jalen Reagor fumbled on a punt return and Tampa Bay recovered it in the ensuing pile. Arians went after Adams to make sure he didn’t pull other players off the pile, which would have drawn a penalty. Arians slapped Adams in the helmet and followed with an elbow to the shoulder.

Bruce Arians hitting his players after the Antonio brown situation lmao pic.twitter.com/v369yd78ZT

The incident sparked controversy on social media. But Arians was unmoved when asked about it Monday.

“I’ve seen enough dumb things – you can’t pull guys out of a pile,” he said. “We just got a big play, great field position, and he’s trying to pull a guy out of a pile, and I was trying to knock him off of that guy so he didn’t get a penalty.”

Adams is mostly a special teams player for the Bucs. He played 82% of the special teams snaps against the Eagles.