Moral Relativism

The folks over at joebucsfan have a post up going pretty hard at Brandon Marshall for being a "dirtbag" and cheering on the fact that the Bucs passed on him. Now everyone is entitled to their opinion and I certainly respect theirs, I found it pretty astounding that just a few days after upbraiding the Buccaneers for not trading for Santonio Holmes, a guy who has been in a lot of the same kind of trouble in the past as Marshall and is CURRENTLY being investigated for assault and is CURRENTLY suspended for the first 4 games next year. I am reprinting here the entire comment I just left on that post because I want to make it clear that in this particular case we have different opinions.

So let me see if I have this straight.

A couple days ago Joe was pissed that we didnt’ spend a 5th rounder on a guy who is still being investigated for hitting a girl in the face with a class cup, facing a 4 game suspension for drugs, who went on his twitter and both told a fan to kill himself and alluded to him smoking weed…again. But now today Joe is calling Marshall a dirtbag??

The mind reels.

How about a few facts to counteract the vitriol.

Since Marshall’s run ins over domestic violence with one woman who admitted she herself also assaulted him at times, he has gotten married to a totally different woman and there have been no more incidents that anybody knows about. Also Marshall was “suspended” last year because his shithead coach thinks he knows how injured guys are based on his bachelors degree in douchebaggery. Funny because Marshall couldn’t have played anyway according to him because of his hamstring, but his coach McDaniels, who also it seems fell out with everybody’s angel Tom Brady for almost a month and wasn’t on speaking terms while still with the Patriots, felt like he should suspend the guy to “make an example”. I’d like for you to go back and look up the Denver papers and see how many of them called out McDaniels for that bitch move rather than Marshall.

Oh and that “Marshall and his boys” inciting a riot? Total bullshit. They guys who shot his teammates were looking for trouble. In fact earlier in the night according to testimony Marshall played peace keeper to intervene when they were starting trouble and bought them drinks and food so they would knock it off. It wasn’t until the party was over and the same guys were STILL starting trouble that he got pissed and got into a VERBAL I repeate VERBAL altercation with those assholes. And you know what? The situation appeared to be squashed and Marshall went to his own vehicle and the murderers STILL decided to shoot up somebody’s limo, which is how Darrent Williams got killed. So to make it seem as if it was all Marshall’s fault isn’t just bullshit, its damn near libelous.

Look I could care less when people decide to get on their high horse and declare somebody a scumbag. I certainly hope the people doing that are squeaky clean in their own home lives but so be it. But what irritates the hell out of me is moral relativism. If Marshall is a dirtbag and he isnt in any legal trouble at the moment then Santonio Holmes who was also accused of domestic violence and is currently in trouble for DAMN sure is also a dirtbag and the fact that he could be had for a lower draft pick shouldn’t change that.

Peace

Are You Really Surprised? Brandon Marshall Edition

According to various media outlets Brandon Marshall has been traded from the Denver Broncos to the Miami dolphins for a 2nd rounder this year and another 2nd rounder next year. For some reason I have a feeling that this will surprise some Buccaneers fans. My question is why should it? It would be different if the Bucs had said anything, ANYTHING in the past few months to give people cause to believe they would really be trading for Marshall. But if you go back and look damn near everything they have said would have you believing the exact opposite. Someone asked me in a live chat on JoeBucsFan last week what the chances were for us getting Marshall and I said Slim and None and Slim just left town. Its not really rocket science folks. At some point fans have to differentiate between what they want the Bucs to do and what is most likely the Bucs WILL do, and that starts with actually listening to what they say rather than what you hope they said.

As Maya Angelou put it, when someone reveals themselves to you, believe them.

Brandon Marshall To The Bucs?

This may just be a pipe dream and I certainly haven't heard anything to make me think the Buccaneer brass is considering this, but imagine for a moment that the Bucs ended up trading for Brandon Marshall. Here is a big, physical wide receiver with great hands and speed and he is still young. He is a proven commodity and a Pro Bowler. AND his after the antics of his head coach in Denver, Josh McDaniels this past week, its likely that we could get him from less than fair market value.

I happened to catch Coach Morris' press conference today and he referenced several times how building the team around our quarterback, Josh Freeman, was the highest priority this off season. You couldn't help him any more than by providing him with the kind of weapon that Marshall is. Here is a guy who catches passes that aren't always perfect. A guy who blocks. And a guy who has shown he can perform in more than one type of offense.

Imagine for a moment that the Bucs finally give Antonio Bryant his long term deal as well. You would have Bryant and Marshall on the outside creating havoc for defensive coordinators and Kellen Winslow as well as Sammie Stroughter inside working the seams. That my friends would be an lineup that would be feared, especially with a big armed quarterback like Freeman who can push the ball down the field. There would be defensive coordinators in Atlanta, New Orleans and Carolina losing sleep over trying to come up with a way to defend those guys. That's before you even get to our running game.

I know people will point out Marshall's past problems and I don't necessarily dismiss them out of hand. But I will say that at least some of those same kinds of criticisms were lobbed at Winslow before he got here, but the balled out this year on the field.

I don't pretend to know the mindset of the brass over at One Buc, or if this is even in their realm of possibilities. But I will say this, it certainly seems as if just the potential of getting a guy like Marshall should warrant at least a phone call to the Broncos to gauge their interest. We have the luxury of an extra 2nd round pick this year from the Gaines Adams trade and maybe we can package that together with some later picks to get Marshall for less than market value. Hell who knows, maybe we could even get him for a 3rd round pick, you really never know unless you ask. And hell we have 5 picks in the first 99, I would think we can spare one of those for him (other than the first rounder).

I saw Ira Kaufman on my twitter feed say earlier today that the Bucs need to find 4 starters in this draft. Well I would say this would be one way to ensure that we parlayed a draft pick into a starter. And then some!

If they Glazers want to get Bucs fans excited again, this is definitely one way to get the job done.

And that, my friends, is real talk.

Bush League

If there is one thing I hate, its when a coach, especially one who never played the game or didn't play it on a high level, questions one of his player's toughness who has been one of his key contributors all year, because the guy gets injured.

You have to understand that there isn't much more disrespectful for a football player than to have some asshole who probably has never ever experience the kind of pain in their life that you walk around with daily during the season try to call you out for not being tough. Especially if you are a guy who has played through injury time and time again and has helped said asshole through your efforts, attain some notoriety.



Today's asshole is Denver's rookie head Josh McDaniels, a guy who seems to be panicking before his game Sunday which will determine if his team gets into the playoffs or not. His target today was his Pro Bowl receiver Brandon Marshall, pretty low hanging fruit I must say. I mean after all Marshall has been accused of being a head case in the past, has been in trouble with the law in the past and was suspended in the preseason just earlier this year.

But you see here is the problem, Brandon Marshall put up big numbers this year, numbers good enough to get him voted to the Pro Bowl even after all the drama to start the year, and but for him the Broncos likely would have stunk up the joint. He was damn near the only big play option on offense for them and he took big hits and bounced up all year to make more plays. But now because McDaniels has decided that in addition to be a coach he is a trainer and a doctor and doesn't think Marshall's injury is all that bad, he comes out and questions the guy's toughness?

Seriously?

There is also another tell about McDaniels. In addition to Brandon Marshall, he also chose to bench tight end Tony Scheffler because of his "attitude". So this coach who is going into maybe the biggest game of his short career as a head coach so far decides to publicly humiliate one of his best players who wasn't going to play anyway and hasn't had any issues with since the season started and in fact played so well that he was voted in to the Pro Bowl, and he decides to bench another major contributor on offense because of his "attitude". Yeah I can't wait to see how that works out for you coach.

Thing of it is, McDaniels will probably get cover on this one from the media. They won't think to ask themselves if another coach has ever pulled this kind of ridiculous shit before a big game. Nor will most of them probably give Marshall the benefit of a doubt. Instead they will likely talk about how much "guts" it takes for McDaniels to make this kind of decision. But remember, the only decision McDaniels really made was to come out and embarrass his player. Marshall was already not likely to play because of his hamstring so benching him was really a moot point. I would hope some sports pundits would point that out, but I am not holding my breath.

It is going to be very interesting to see how the Broncos play for their asshole coach on Sunday. I am pretty sure that there are guys on that team respect what Marshall has done for them all year and might not take too kindly to McDaniels' antics. Especially because if there is one thing football players know its that what is done to one guy can definitely be done to you too. Really I will also be watching McDaniels closely because I have a feeling that if he is freaking out like this now before the game then its likely he will have a full blown meltdown during the game if things don't go their way early.

If and when he does you can best believe I will be sure to point it out too. Lets see how he likes being the one getting called out.