Over the last week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had more he said/she said drama of a real life soap opera, and its only the first week of the season, but from all the news and reports coming from One Buc…This season, as well as the career of Josh Freeman, is probably already over.
And the only one to blame is Josh Freeman himself.
There was no conspiracy over the vote that stripped Freeman of his captaincy. Freeman lost it himself by, once again, being inexcusably late for the team photo taken days before the vote was taken.
Imagine that, the 2013 Team Photo will not have Josh Freeman in it! Its probably fitting, because he wont be in next years photo either, and for all intents and purposes, hes not on this team anymore either.
620 WDAE's Steve Duemig has tried to pin the blame on Greg Sciano and his micromanaging ways. News flash, the Bucs owners are not going to fire their coach for doing things the way he does them, thats why he was hired. The players who cannot tow the line will be gone, and that starts with Freeman.
This team is fractured, and its only week ONE! The players hold a players only meeting to discuss if the coach screwed the captaincy from Freeman? Munity in week one, what a drama fueled reality show we have going on at One Buc..if only Hard Knocks had shown up this year at One Buccaneer Place.
The sad part is, this is yet another Raheem Morris pick that is breaking our hearts by not having his head on straight. Only this is our Quarterback, this is not Tanard Jackson.
Josh Freeman missing the team photo is rediculous enough.. when you add it to his missing his own Camp that parents spent BIG money on, to say he had car problems, is just a slap in the face to Tampa Bay. You have money, you can take a cab, you can call a teammate, heck, Im sure every single parent would have fell over each other for the chance to pick you up and bring you to the event.
Only Josh Freeman knows whats going on in his head, just as he is the only one who can turn this thing around.
Sure, no one likes to fall out of favor. Your coach was fired, and it was no fault of your own, but handle it with class. When Brad Johnson was benched by Jon Gruden, he was the consumate professional, on the sidelines, helping Chris Simms and Brian Greise any way he could.
Im pretty sure Drew Bledsoe did not like losing out to a 3rd string QB… but it happens. Freeman's case matched none of those things. The worst thing he had to deal with was a front office that saw some of these problems before we did, and did not want to throw millions of dollars at him before proving he was worth it.
Instead, he is proving otherwise, and make no mistake, we are talking about millions of dollars Freeman is throwing away here. He will NOT come out of this a starter on another team after this debacle. He is showing the league he is not serious about his craft.
The million dollar question is does Josh realize whats at stake? Does he understand what hangs in the balance? The hopes and dreams of thousands of fans. Perhaps Freeman is feeling the weight on his shoulders and its too much for him.
This is not to say some blame does not go on Schiano. It remains to be seen if his ultra control freak/ Micromanaging type of management isnt causing a problem too. But the issues we saw at the beginning of the game were not so much the team not being prepared, but looked more like another Freeman issue.
So what will we see? It all depends on the results. If the Bucs go into the Bye with only one win or worse, less, I would not be shocked to see Glennon on the field as the starter. Schiano gave Glennon a lot of reps in the preseason, probably for that reason.
Its also very possible this team may fall apart a-la 2011 and Raheem Morris. If thats the case, if this does not blow over, does not get settled, we could be looking at a disaster of a season.
And its only week one.
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