Skip Bayless is saying his very well placed source is saying Tom wanted to go to the Niners but the Bucs said no. No trade. He believed he was finished with the Bucs when he announced his "retirement" hence the long-winded goodbye to them.
Skip is saying Tom and Arians have no real relationship, Tom doesn't like him, Arians isn't the hard worker that Tom was used to in BB, Arians will just casually announce he's off to play golf during TC and in the regular season and he doesn't like the way Arians hangs his players in public. It's believed the Glazers agreed to a buffer between Tom and Arians and Tom will work with Leftwich and Licht and will try and have Arians and Tom have minimal contact.
What a ridiculous situation.
Skip is mostly correct. This bit of info I'm about to drop will be coming out soon so I'm not betraying trust.
Tom knew he wasn't retiring. He knew from day 1 he'd be back. Bruschi is the first media member to speculate that Tom was up something. He said the day after Tom's 'retirement' that something smelled fishy.
Skip is right about the relationship between Arians and Tom. The Glazers and GM Licht knew how Tom felt about Arians - everyone on the team knew - Leftwich played the buffer from the beginning. Tom thought they were close to firing Arians but needed a push.
Tom's retirement was a play in hopes to get Arians to retire or to get the Glazer's to fire Arians
and replace him with Bill O'Brien. Discussions had been held.
The Glazers wanted Arians to go out on his terms by retiring.
Tom had a few other 'suggestions' for shoring up the OL and WR groups but they were secondary. Licht filled Tom's wishes for OL and WR help.
Skip is right about the buffer solution but that occurred naturally. Tom still has hope that Arians will retire. For now, Tom will ignore Arians' petty jabs at him in the media.
Many believe Arians won't last much longer.
Everyone involved will deny it when the media reports it, of course.