Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and Super Bowl winner Bruce Arians popped on “The Today Show” last month to generate awareness and advocate for screening for prostate cancer, along with former Patriot Rob Gronkowski, and announced that he will be undergoing open heart surgery soon. The procedure is done, and the former HC delivered a positive update.

“Fixing an aneurysm I’ve been monitoring for a while,” Arians said in a text message to the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s gotten too large and needs to be sewn up. Great doc, I’m good.”

His son, Jake, also toned down the post-surgery nerves.

“He’s doing great…Thx for asking,” Jake said. “Yeh it was time. Glad it’s done.”

While on the show, Arians and Gronkowski covered a wide range of topics, including Bill Belichick not being selected as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and also predicted who would come out on top in the Super Bowl. It was later in that conversation that Arians first mentioned the upcoming surgery.

That disclosure immediately drew concern from fans, many of whom reached out to him directly on his socials, and Arians made sure to clear things up. He took to X to explain that the procedure wasn’t sudden or unexpected, and that it had been something he and his doctors had discussed for years.

“Recently on The Today Show, I mentioned I would be having open heart surgery and I wanted to clarify and let everyone know the procedure I am having is a common one and is something my doctors and I have been monitoring for a number of years and they recommend I correct the issues now so I can be as good as new back on the golf course ASAP,” Arians wrote.

He ended the message by thanking fans for their prayers and support, but their concern was understandable.

Bruce Arians’ long history of health concerns

Bruce Arians has built a long and rather accomplished coaching career, but alongside it has been an equally long list of health challenges he has faced. While serving as the OC for the Steelers, Arians underwent treatment for prostate cancer, his first major health scare.

He eventually became the head coach for the Cardinals and had skin cancer cells removed, preventing further complications. The most serious stretch came in 2016, when he was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer. Earlier that same year, he had already been hospitalized due to complications stemming from inflammation of his colon.

The troubles didn’t just end there, as he underwent surgery to remove part of his kidney in February 2017. For the next five years, he went several years without major health setbacks, which changed during his time as a senior advisor with the Bucs, when he experienced chest pains and was diagnosed with myocarditis.

He overcame that again, and there hadn’t been another major health scare since then until this week’s surgery. The good news is that the surgery went well, and the former head coach is looking to get back on the golf course.

The health issues didn’t stop him during his coaching career either, as he ended up winning the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year award twice, along with three Super Bowls, concluding a 46-year coaching career filled with trials and tribulations, but also a lot of success.