Bruce Arians couldn't resist helping another franchise quarterback and working with a familiar, friendly boss.

The York High grad couldn't stop being a coach just yet.

In a somewhat surprising move that quickly gained steam, Tampa Bay announced Arians as its head coach Tuesday evening. He and the team have agreed to a four-year deal through 2022 with an option for a fifth year.

"Bruce Arians is one of the NFL’s most well-respected coaches over the past two decades and we are excited to have him leading our team. Throughout this process, we focused on finding the right coach with a proven ability to elevate our players and lead our team forward," Buccaneers Owner/Co-Chairman Bryan Glazer said in a team release.

This comes a year after Arians' emotional retirement sendoff from his beloved Arizona Cardinals where he was the team's all-time winningest coach.

Arians, 66, gave up coaching after more than four decades and transitioned into being a CBS Sports analyst and serving on the NFL’s career development advisory panel.

He said numerous times that he would come out of retirement to coach the Cleveland Browns, a long time dream destination, and that was about it.

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In talking about his TV job a month ago, he said this:

"There's part of the games you miss. You miss the player-coach interaction, the relationships. Part of that I still get (in TV preparation) ... but it's not the same, grinding it out and getting ready for the game. Those parts I miss. The stress ... I don't miss."

To coach again, he said, "It would have to be a really special circumstance."

The Browns apparently never called.

So what does he get in Tampa?

There's another potential star quarterback to tutor in Jameis Winston, who could use some elite re-tooling. And that's the work Arians loves most, shown by his grand success with NFL stars Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger and Carson Palmer.

Arians also gets to work with a familiar front officer. Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht served as the Arizona Cardinals Vice President of Player Personnel during Arians' first season with the team in 2013.

He also will coach closer to he and his wife's "forever home" on Georgia's Lake Oconee, halfway between Atlanta and Augusta.

And he may get to hire a portion of his former coaching staff in Arizona, including former New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles as his defensive coordinator.

Other potential hires include former Cardinals' assistants Byron Leftwich as offensive coordinator and Harold Goodwin as run game coordinator/offensive line coach. Another expected move is former Miami Dolphin offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen as QB coach, according to NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport.

Tampa already has defensive line coach Brentson Buckner under contract for another year. He worked for Arians in Arizona, too.

Tampa also won't carry the immediate pressure of taking a winner deep into the playoffs. The Bucs finished last in the NFC South in 2018 and haven't won a playoff game since winning the Super Bowl in 2002-03.

Three prominent players on Arians' roster are former Penn State stars — offensive tackle Donovan Smith, defensive end Carl Nassib and receiver Chris Godwin.

Arians said he will be a bit different head coach even from his time in Arizona. "I learned a little better how to handle" the stress and how to delegate even more.

"Be more of a CEO head coach than a play-calling coach," he said in December.

Arians is the third-oldest coach in the NFL, though barely. Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll is 67 and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is also 66 but six months older than Arians.

But, at least in one sense, being a head coach will be easier than a TV analyst. The travel demands this past fall were rougher than expected, said wife Christine Arians.

Instead of being at home for eight weeks of the season as a coach, Arians was on the road for three or four days every week, including a trip to London, England.

That made it difficult to spend more time, as expected, with their daughter's family and their baby grandson in Alabama.

Certainly, retirement didn't go as planned.

But it did make sense why he tried. Speculation over his coaching end had swirled for months in 2017 because of his age, the Cardinals' continued struggles and various health scares.

Arians was hospitalized in Aug. 2016 with symptoms of diverticulitis, and he had surgery in Feb. 2017 to remove a cancerous piece of his kidney. He was treated for prostate cancer more than a decade ago.

There also was the gradual build-up of four decades in a coaching pressure cooker, those 13 stops in which he swerved back and forth from college to the NFL before finally settling as a top-level assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After winning two Super Bowl rings there, he went on to lead the Indianapolis Colts on an interim basis before taking over the Cardinals and driving them to the brink of the Super Bowl.

He was named NFL coach of the year twice.

"It didn't matter what level he was coaching, he always threw his entire self into it. He worked too hard and worked too long," his wife said in December of 2017.

"I tell him, 'Babe, your body is screaming at you. You need to be less stressed. I've got all kind of plans for his health once he retires."

Before announcing his retirement he did say, "This decision will be all about family. I've put them on the back burner for 40 years."

Arians was a quarterback at Virginia Tech before learning his early coaching lessons under the legendary Bear Bryant at Alabama.

Not long after, he nearly drove himself out of the profession as a young head coach at Temple in the mid-1980s. Back then, he drank two pots of coffee a day and migraines and stomach ulcers hospitalized him.