Bruce Arians doesn’t want Bucs “mingling” with Raiders after game

Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady‘s decision to pass on a post-game handshake with Bears quarterback Nick Foles after the teams played a couple of weeks ago became fodder for questions from reporters this week, but Brady won’t have to answer any about missing a chance to interact with Raiders quarterback Derek Carr after this Sunday’s game.

There have been questions about whether that game will go off as scheduled because Raiders right tackle Trent Brown tested positive for COVID-19 and other members of the team were deemed high risk close contacts. As of now, there have been no other positive tests and the only change in schedule has been moving the game from the evening to the afternoon.

While there haven’t been other positives, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians said he wants his players to refrain from postgame commiseration with the Raiders.

“I’m as confident as I can be,” Arians said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “I haven’t decided yet — it has nothing to do with sportsmanship — whether we will shake hands or embrace anyone after the game, just to be cautious . . . You know, playing the game is one thing but you know, the mingling and all that stuff after the ballgame, I have to talk to our guys, but I don’t think we can do that just to be safe.”

Such interactions were supposed to be curtailed under the COVID-19 protocols put in place by the league, but they’ve often been ignored. We’ll see if the Bucs hustle off to their locker room in Las Vegas this weekend.

Bruce Arians doesn’t want Bucs “mingling” with Raiders after game originally appeared on Pro Football Talk