Media Spin On LeBron's Ad

I was very critical of LeBron's ESPN "The Decision" special, mostly because I thought it a farce.  Nobody needs an hour special to announced where they are going in free agency and I said as much.

Now however it seems that the media is looking for any reason to bash the guy. They keep looking for ex NBA legends to question his mindset in going to another team that already has a superstar. They keep writing about his "posse" and how evidently they have steered him wrong. And the latest story today is about an ad LeBron took out in his hometown of Akron's newspaper.

Here is the ESPN headline.

Lebron ad thanks Akron, but Cleveland absent.

Here is the first graf

LeBron James has taken out a full-page ad in his hometown paper in which he thanks the people of Akron for supporting him -- and doesn't mention the city where he played basketball the last seven years.

That mean old LeBron didn't even mention Cleveland!

Mind you this was an ad taking out not in a Cleveland Paper but his home town Akron Beacon Journal paper. And mind you after the remarks of the Cavs owner and the death threats from some of the "fans" in Cleveland one would be hard pressed to explain why he needed to thank them anyway. But furthermore lets look at the text of his ad.

To My Family, Friends and Fans in Akron:

"For all my life, I have lived in Akron -- and for that, I am truly a lucky man.

"It was here where I first learned how to play basketball, and where I met the people who would become my lifelong friends and mentors. Their guidance, encouragement and support will always be with me.

"Akron is my home, and the central focus of my life. It's where I started, and it's where I will always come back to. You can be sure that I will continue to do everything I can for this city, which is so important to my family and me. Thank you for your love and support. You mean everything to me.

You see that second to last line? The love and support part? This wasn't a letter to fair weather fans who burn jerseys and threaten to burn your house down when you leave. This was a letter to the guy's hometown residents who "love and support" him no matter what jersey he's wearing.

Not only that, he is pledging to continue giving back of himself to his hometown, something we normally applaud in this country. The Baltimore Sun article even points out that he is going to be giving out 400 bikes to kids in Akron this weekend.

But what is the media focused on?

That he didn't thank Cleveland.

I'll use an acronym and but I'm sure you can figure it out.

GTFOHWTBS

Calling Bullshit On The Dez Bryant Story Explanation

I kept telling myself I wouldn't post about this subject but it kept bothering me.

I kept hoping someone else would make the points I would have made but it never happened or at least I never saw it.

So after more than a week of putting it off here is my take on the Dez Bryant/Jeff Ireland story.

The leaked Dolphin's story about how the conversation went was bullshit.

The End.

Oh wait, you were expecting more than that?

Ok well lets take it from the top.

The story starts about a week before the draft when Michael Silver writes a story about Dez Bryant. The story is supposed to be about how people have the wrong impression about Bryant since he was suspended for lying about a lunch he had at Deion Sanders' house and because of his rough upbringing. But somewhere along the way Bryant gave a glimpse into how crazy things had gotten for him through the draft evaluation process.

The media criticism has been frustrating, but some of the probing from prospective employers has been downright offensive to Bryant. During one visit, the receiver sat in the office of a franchise’s high-level executive and was asked a shocking question.


“They asked me if my mom’s a prostitute,” Bryant says, an account that was confirmed by Wells, who attended the meeting. “No, my mom is not a prostitute. I got mad – really mad – but I didn’t show it. I got a lot of questions like that: Does she still do drugs? I sat and answered all of them.”

At the time that I read this article I immediately said to myself and others that there is no way to justify asking a man if his mom is a prostitute.

I still stand by that.

See its a nice clinical and sterilized way of saying it when you say "Is your Mom a prostitute" but the translation is still the same. "Did your Mom fuck for money?"

Try asking a random person either of those questions today and see where that gets you.

I can't speak for everyone but for me and the people I grew up with and hang with to this day there are certain lines you don't cross. And this isn't about being "gangsta" or "hood". One of my best friends is a Vice President at a bank but if you say something disrespectful about his mother he's going to lay hands on you and I am no different. It is what it is.

Now maybe the story ends right there if Silver never posts a follow up item on the situation. After all not that many people were up in arms after the initial column so my bet is that it would have blown over.

But he did and it didn't.

Here is how Silver "outed" the unnamed executive who asked Bryant if his mother was a prostitute:

Last Wednesday, the night before he was selected 24th overall by the Cowboys, former Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant(notes) told me that during one of his predraft visits, a high-level executive of one NFL franchise had asked him if his mother, Angela, was a prostitute.


“No, my mom is not a prostitute,” said Bryant, whose background – including his mother’s lifestyle and past legal troubles – was under great scrutiny prior to the draft. “I got mad – really mad – but I didn’t show it.”

The offender was Ireland, who on Monday declined to comment on the matter. Harvey Greene, the Dolphins’ senior vice president of media relations, said, “It’s our organizational policy that we don’t discuss publicly the process we use to evaluate potential draft choices.”


That’s a wise idea given the demeaning, offensive and possibly actionable evaluation process that was used to assess Bryant’s fitness to catch passes for Miami, a franchise which apparently holds nothing sacred in such contexts.

Pretty strong words from Silver there. But to emphasize a point it was SILVER who wrote this followup of his own volition and it was his words not Bryant's in this column calling out Jeff Ireland of the Miami Dolphins. For all I know Dez Bryant may have used a lot stronger words to describe Ireland, Lord knows I probably would have. But whether he would have or not is moot because he didn't, Silver did.

The firestorm after this revelation was righteous. And by righteous I mean it was of great magnitude AND it was warranted. There are just some things that are out of bounds and asking if a guy's Mom is a ho is pretty close to the top of that list.

Ireland, for his part, obviously recognized he was wrong. How do I know this? Because he called Dez Bryant and apologized. That's what guilty people do last time I checked. And so ends the story...

Not quite.

You see power tends to back power and when it comes to professional sports one entity of power are the team owners and their front offices. Another entity of power is the media. And man do they work hand in hand at times.

It was sickening for me to watch several ESPN pundits on TV and many talk radio hosts stretch the limits of common sense looking for any excuse under the sun whereby asking this guy if his mom was turning tricks was kosher. Oh they would always start their trips down fantasy lane "condemning" the question but ultimately they were still trying to justify it.

So two prominent excuses came to the forefront. One was that Ireland was playing pop psychologist and wanted to see a "reaction". The other was that he was asking because some how some way if Bryant's mother was getting paid to screw random dudes that was going to affect him playing football and seeing as how they were going to pay him a lot of money they had a "right" to know beforehand.

But remember, these excuses are all being formulated AFTER Ireland had already apologized.

I won't even address the later excuse because its bullshit. As for the "reaction" excuse, my question will always be what would be the "correct" reaction to somebody asking you that question? Football is a violent game and while many stupid people kept trying to make this about whether or not Dez Bryant would get a personal foul called because he hit somebody on the field about his Mom, nothing would probably be further from the truth. I played 7 years in the NFL and while I don't claim to know everything about everything, I can tell you that in those 7 years I never, not once, heard a guy on a football field say something about someone's Mom.

Wanna know why?

Because football or no football most of the guys you see flying around on Sunday will go apeshit if you talk about their Mom no matter what the circumstance. Maybe it won't be a personal foul and maybe it won't be a full fledged fight but at some point the offender is going to pay for that kind of disrespect. There are lines that simply don't get crossed as I said before, and that's one of them. Even on the football field.

And besides that, what kind of dispassionate robot is it that GMs could possibly want that if you talk about there Mom they won't show any emotion? I can tell you this much, if a guy doesn't get pissed and emotional when someone calls his mother a slut I don't really want that guy on my team.

But I digress.

The story still couldn't have ended right then and there but there were some apologists who just wouldn't be dissuaded. Specifically Marcellus Wiley took to the airwaves almost all day one day last week to defend Ireland by way of invoking Bill Parcells. In the newest of excuses for asking Dez Bryant if his Mom was a street walker incredibly Wiley proffered that maybe they were asking, brace yourself, for his own good.

Seriously.

See because Bill Parcells has been on an anti drug crusade since Lawrence Taylor almost wrecked his life, evidently Jeff Ireland had just taken the baton and went a little further to make sure none of the guys were going to be plagued with having whores for mothers.

Or some such.

Interestingly enough over the course of the day and on several different shows his argument evolved until that evening he took to twitter almost bursting with excitement. You see he knew something we didn't know and when we found out WOOOO WEEEE we were all going to be floored by how smart he was and how dumb we were to be outraged.

Or some such.

This great "secret" was revealed so to speak the next day by a Sports Illustrated writer:

Two sources familiar with the situation contend that Ireland's question was nothing more than the logical follow-up to comments Bryant had made about his family. According to the sources, Ireland began the meeting by asking Bryant, 21, about his upbringing and his relationship with his siblings. Then he asked what Bryant's father did for a living when Bryant was growing up. The following exchange allegedly ensued:

"My dad was a pimp."

"What did your mom do [for a living]?"

"She worked for my dad."

"Your mom was a prostitute?"

"No, she wasn't a prostitute."

Well that explains it!

Wait, what?

There are two problems with this passage which I will get to in a minute but I want to address something else first. This "story" spread around the sports pundit world like wildfire and the reaction was both disappointing and amazing. The general response was "Oh well now that you put it that way.." As if this "context" made all the sense in the world. I can't count how many times different pundits used the phrase "he opened the door" when discussing this alleged conversation after this was leaked.

Really? Now its Dez Bryant's fault that Jeff Ireland asked if his Mom was a prostitute.

I had private conversations with a few journalists that still weren't buying the bullshit but they seemed to be drowned out by the rest. Power had spoken and power said Ireland was off the hook.

Well wait just a got damned minute.

Its funny because Marcellus Wiley kept asserting that nobody was using "critical thinking" when looking at this situation but it appears that that charge is more applicable to himself and the media.

Lets go back to the leaked story. First of all nobody put their name on it. Don't you think that's odd? I mean this is a huge story and the unnamed sources contend that Bryant is lying or at least not telling the "full context" of what happened. Why should we rely on unnamed sources instead of having Jeff Ireland come out and speak on the record about it? Something he only did when he acknowledged that he called Dez Bryant to apologize. Evidently he was apologizing to Bryant because Bryant made him ask such an inappropriate question.

Mind you Bryant came out on the record and in front of cameras and said the story was a lie. Oh wait, see nobody can believe anything Dez Bryant says because after all he DID lie to the NCAA which led to his suspension.

At least that's how the media framed this discrepancy. See unnamed sources and GMs who I am sure lied to the media for weeks about who they would be targeting in the draft, as well as lying on a regular basis about injury reports and whether a coach will be fired or not, those are the credible people. The guy who we know lied once because he was scared he would lose his eligibility (which ultimately happened anyway)he's the "bad" guy not to be believed. Its worth noting however that Bryant himself spoke on his mother openly and honestly before the draft to Jean-Jaques Taylor. But hey why let facts get in the way, right?

Ok but what about the "context"? Or rather what happened next?

Here is the question that I have been waiting on somebody to ask but I haven't seen it so far. If we are to believe that this really was the way the conversation went then how did it end?

Putting aside for a moment the fact that the context doesn't line up neatly in any of the boxes the people trying to make excuses for Ireland had constructed, even if he was just being nosey or just tactless, there's a line missing there. Lets recap it again.

Dez Bryant says his Dad is a pimp and his Mom works for him. Jeff Ireland asks if she was a prostitute. Bryant says no.

And that's it? Really? They just move on to whether Bryant prefers dogs or cats?

BULLSHIT

Try to have that conversation with a friend of yours. Then try your best NOT to apologize for asking that question. Its frikkin impossible.

Even if you "accidentally" ask somebody if their Mom is a ho, once they say no she's not then the apologies come flowing. "Oh man I didn't mean anything by it, I just thought, well you know". Or something close to that at least. What kind of guy asks somebody if their Mom is a prostitute, hears a guy say no, and then shrugs it off and keeps it moving?

And how do we know Ireland didn't apologize at that time? Well if he had I probably wouldn't be writing this long ass post right now because it would have been squashed and Ireland wouldn't have needed to apologize a second time.

Which brings me back to my initial thought on the matter. There simply isn't a context where asking a guy if his Mom is a prostitute is acceptable. At least not one where you don't either lose some teeth or apologize, one of the two if not both.

Now at this point I could go into how doubly wrong it is for someone in Ireland's position to ask that question of a potential draftee who is an obvious position of weakness but I think that aspect has been talked about already. Instead I want to focus on how wrong it is for the media to become the mouth piece for Ireland and the Miami Dolphins.

How is it that these various outlets going strictly off of unnamed sources declared the issue closed even though the Dolphins wouldn't confirm the account, and especially when Dez Bryant disputed those sources on the record? How is it that you had so many arguments from sports pundits that sounded almost exactly identical in trying to cover for Ireland? How is it that just as soon as Dez's mother spoke out and said she wanted an apology as well the media started taking shots at her and digging into her criminal history?

Have you no shame?!

There is something perilously wrong when the media is so concerned with keeping access or in some situations just too dumb to realize they are being used, that they start fighting for power instead of standing up to it. And really that's my primary motivation for writing this post. There is no way a rational person can stand back from this situation and come up with a justification for Jeff Ireland asking Dez Bryant if his mother was or is a whore. You just can't. But after more than a week that's exactly what many in sports media have done.

And I for one am appalled.

Context Matters: Deonte Thompson Edition

Its funny how a story can turn.

On Monday evening Orlando Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler posted a blog post entitled "Florida Gators WR Deonte Thompson sounds happy to usher in post-Tebow era" the premise of which came from this quote:

“You never know with Tim,” Thompson said. “You can bolt, you think he’s running but he’ll come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. You know what I mean, a real quarterback.”

Almost immediately the national media picked up on the quote and it became fodder for sports talk radio. Then yesterday Urban Meyer confronted Fowler at the Gators' spring practice and had this to say.

“You’re a bad guy, man. You’re a bad guy,” Meyer told Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler. “If that was my son we’d be going at it right now.”

snip

“I told you this five years ago – don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it – you did it,” Meyer said. “You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? It’s yes or no.”

And now Urban Meyer has become fodder for the national media and sports talk radio as well. So what gives? Whose right and whose wrong here and why is it such a big story?

Well in my opinion everybody was somewhat wrong and everybody was somewhat right but the problem really is nobody is focusing on the real issue here and that's context.

When I read Thompson's quotes on Monday I didn't really think it was a big deal because I understood immediately what he meant. When he said "real" quarterback he of course meant a traditional drop back quarterback and we all know that Tim Tebow was anything but that. I did however have a feeling that the media and sports radio wouldn't see it that way and low and behold I was right.

All week I have read article after article and heard sports radio host after sports radio host using Deonte Thompson's quote to either "confirm" the notion that Tim Tebow is not going to be a viable quarterback in the NFL, a hot topic these days leading into the draft, or alternately to bash Thompson as an underachiever who hasn't produced and seems to be blaming Tebow for his lack of production. Neither use of the quote was fair in my opinion but sports media isn't always about fairness these days.

Make no mistake about it, that initial blog post by Fowler definitely colored the comments as a knock or a shot against Tebow and this is where it starts to get dicey. On twitter last night another journalist, Benjamin Volin, who was there when Thompson gave the quote confirmed Urban Meyer's assertion that in the same interview referred to Tim Tebow as a "living legend". If that quote is included in the blog post by Foley then it would be hard to make the case that Thompson was "happy to usher in post Tebow era" as the title of the blog post asserted, no? Volin further had this to say:

All I will say about this is that 8 people were in on that Deonte Thompson interview and only one person ran right home to post that quote

And in another tweet he used the word "innocuous" to describe Thompson's quote about Tebow. That gives me the distinct impression that Fowler did in fact make a mountain after a molehill and that but for Fowler this wouldn't be a story. But I have to say this in Fowler's defense. I follow him on twitter and have been following him since the college football season started last year. If anything I've found his coverage of the Gators to almost be TOO glowing at times so its hard for me to imagine that he was trying to stir the pot with his blog post. This is a situation where in my mind maybe he thought he really did have a story even if it was based on shaky grounds at best.

Which brings us to Urban Meyer. Now make no mistake about it, Meyer was wrong in the way he confronted Fowler on the practice field. There is no doubt that he meant to embarrass Fowler in front of his peers and threatening to block the Orlando Sentinel from covering the Gators because of what he perceived as being bad press was way out of bounds.

But let me tell you something as an ex player. Urban Meyer probably couldn't have done anything better from a recruiting standpoint than to stand up for Thompson like he did. I can tell you from experience that if there is a star football player in high school following this story right now he has to come away feeling good about the fact that Meyer was willing to go nose to nose with a journalist in defense of one of his guys. That's the kind of trait you admire in a coach as a player even if it seems to be over the top to the average observer. So while Meyer was wrong, it probably will help him rather than hurt him when it comes to recruiting.

But the problem I have is this, people have already turned this story into one about Urban Meyer and his support for Tim Tebow rather than a story about his support for Deonte Thompson. I won't assume the motives behind that leap in logic and its true that sticking up for Thompson may in some small way help Tebow, but it overlooks what this young man has probably been going through the last few days.

Imagine for a moment that you are Deonte Thompson and you are trying to get ready for a breakout season as it appears it is finally your chance to be the man. You give what you think is a regular interview and you use one word, the word "real" instead of "traditional", to describe your former teammate and all of a sudden you are at the center of a controversy. You google Thompson's name and you come up with articles bashing Tebow as not being an NFL quarterback and you come up with articles bashing Thompson for daring speak ill of Tebow in any way shape or form. And remember, this kid actually gave Tebow a huge compliment in the same interview by calling him a "living legend". You turn on ESPN and people were throwing around his quote as if it would be the deciding factor in whether a team picked Tebow in the first round. You look around at message boards and you see people viciously attacking this young man because they are such big Tebow fans that they won't tolerate ANY criticism or perceived criticism of him.

So today as you watch the story of Meyer's confrontation with Fowler, check to see if you hear anyone correct the story about what Thompson said. Check to see if anybody, in the midst of criticizing Meyer for getting after Fowler, admit that he actually had a point about Fowler taking Thompson out of context. Check to see if some of the same sports talk radio hosts who were either bashing Tebow or bashing Thompson the last few days will admit that they made more out of Thompson's quote than they should have.

Some how I doubt if you will hear or see anything of the sort. And that is THE problem in my opinion. Its funny because this morning I heard several local sports radio hosts who had in fact helped push this story actually have the stones to say that Meyer himself made it a story yesterday by confronting Fowler. Talk about a total lack of self awareness and a total lack of accountability.

In the end no matter whose side you are on in all of this, Urban Meyer's or Jeremy Fowler's, just remember that there is a college kid who has had his world turned upside down over the course of this week over a quote that was made up to mean something other than what he seemed to mean. And maybe, just maybe, some of these same folks owe that guy an apology.

Just saying.

Update: As if on cue here is what ESPN's Skip Bayless had to say about Deonte Thompson just a short while ago on First and 10:

Deonte Thompsom was a highly publicized recruit out of Belle Glade Florida who was making an excuse as to why in his first two years he didn't contribute very much. 'Its kinda Tim Tebow's fault that he didn't throw me enough balls. He wasn't on time. He wasn't a "real" quarterback'"

And from where does Skip glean this assertion? Hell even he probably doesn't know.

Let's look at the original blog post again.

I’ve received plenty of feedback Tuesday from Thompson supporters vouching for the guy. I’ve interviewed Thompson numerous times in the past and he never said anything inflammatory.

Either way, Thompson’s ready to be the top receiver for Florida.

“I’ve been ready,” Thompson said. “Somebody’s got to. Why not me, right?…It feels like a fresh start.”

The only way to capitalize on a fresh start is through grunt work, and new wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni likes what he sees of Thompson so far.

“He knows he hasn’t lived up to the billing,” Azzanni said. “That’s what’s great about him. He’s humbled. He’s let his guard down. Coach, coach me. I want to catch all the balls I might not have caught in the fall. I want to run better routes. What do I need to do?”

Does that sound like the guy Skip was describing?

Better yet here's Volin's write up of the incident before Urban Meyer had even confronted anyone.

Poor choice of words? Sure. But was his intent to rip Tebow? Not at all, and that’s coming from someone who has interviewed Thompson dozens of times since his days at Glades Central High.

Thompson, 21 years old, is guilty only of not being a polished public speaker. If Thompson had used the word “traditional” — what he was implying — instead of “real,” this would never have been a national news story.

But Tebow is such a lightning rod that any comment made against him is blown way out of proportion.

But do you think Skip Bayless will ever apologize to Deonte Thompson?

I wouldn't hold my breath...

How Should We Feel About The Seahawks Win?

I have heard several people on talk radio say and read several articles and posts online profess that Bucs fans shouldn't really be all that excited about them beating the Seahawks on Sunday. The reasoning runs the gamut from people upset that we might not get the first pick in the draft to some folks saying the Seahawks are just a horrible team and so who cares that the Bucs beat them.

Now make no mistake, the Bucs have had a shitty year and the Seahawks aren't anybody's world beaters. However I just don't get the logic of saying it wasn't a good win. In my world having the top pick in the draft is not something to be proud of. Hell look back at the list of teams who have earned that top pick. How many of them are now contending for anything? Anything at all? Besides that while the Seahawks have only won 5 games, 4 of those wins came at home. In point of fact they have had won 4 out of their 6 games at home before this past Sunday and two of those wins were a blowout of the Jacksonville Jaguars and a win over the San Francisco 49ers who were recently seen blowing out NFC West division leader Arizona. Furthermore the 7 pts they scored on Sunday was their second worst point output of the season.

Now its ok to keep things in perspective, a Superbowl win this was not. But for people to try to down play the win like it didn't mean anything is a farce. The Seahawks were better on paper, especially at home, and just about none of the same people who are now saying it wasn't a good win actually picked the Bucs to win on Sunday. So you will just have to excuse me when I call bullshit. We got our running game going again on Sunday, and our defense forced at least 4 turnovers even if you count the Matt Hassleback fumble as a gimmie. And lets not forget the good day that Sammie Stroughter had on returns. Does that mean that we will dominate against the Saints? Of course not. But it for damn sure gives me more hope than if we had went out there and laid an egg like most people thought we would.

Winning is a habit just like losing is a habit. Me personally I would much rather see this team learning good habits headed into the offseason no matter who its against. Somehow I bet most real Bucs fans feel the same way.

On Tiger Woods

I don't agree with sports columnist Jason Whitlock a lot of the time but his column on Tiger Woods, or more specifically the hypocrisy of the sports pundits who are taking pot shots at Tiger, is truly a must read.

The Difference

I have to keep saying this, this blog was meant to be pretty much a hobby of mine. I had no reason to believe anybody would care about what I had to say about sports in general and the Bucs in particular. So the interest that I have drawn truly humbles me.

Having said that, there are some fans who think that I have some kind of ulterior motives. I have a feeling that they aren't feeling what I say on this blog because for the most part I give substantive critiques instead of broad (and usually wrong) generalizations. See when you speak in specifics a lot of the times the media narratives they normally hear don't fit. So all of a sudden I am covering for the defensive line or I am just trying to get some notoriety when the truth is like I said before this was all a hobby for me.

But here is the thing, I haven't actually been factually wrong about anything all year. I know this because I actually watch and rewatch all the Bucs games before I decide to offer my assessment. I highly doubt any of the chattering classes around here do that listening and reading some of what they have to say. If they do then either they don't really know football or they are intentionally misleading their fans in order to further some other agenda.

However this blog is about what God loves, the truth. Doesn't matter really to me if people believe me or not, like I told a commenter yesterday all I can do is argue with facts. After I do that I can't make anyone accept those facts but at least I will have exposed them to them.

Now here is the narrative you will hear all week about the Bucs. That they are in disarray after essentially firing Jim Bates. That they never gave Bates the players he needed for his defensive scheme. That we really don't have any play makers on defense. And that this change won't really make much of a difference.

So here is what I think about those memes. First of all, yes firing both the offensive and defensive coordinators in the same season is a bad sign. I can't defend it and I don't know that anyone should. But I will say this, something had to give. And honestly, although I would never call for Bates to be fired I would almost bet that the only reason he lasted this long was because the Bucs didn't want to fire him after firing their OC Jeff Jadgozinski right before the season started. Whether this means the team is in disarray will be seen in the final games.

As for not providing Bates the players he needed, yeah I have said for the past few weeks that what we brought in here in the draft this year versus what Bates said he needed for his defense did not line up. Neither did trying to switch Jermaine Phillips from safety to outside linebacker. But here is my thing on that, as a coordinator you have to be able to adjust your scheme to the players you have, especially in the pros. Every year people lose big time players on offense and defense. So lets imagine for a second that the Bucs brought in two big tackles and two big linebackers to fit Bates scheme. What happens if those guys get hurt during the middle of the season? The NFL is set up where you are only going to have so many big time guys because of the salary cap. If your coordinator on offense or defense can't adjust their scheme to their talent level then you will always be one or two injuries away from disaster.

As for talent level I will say again that we have enough talent to win. Not all of the guys on our defense are guys I personally think would be starters in the NFL but that doesn't mean we can't win with them. Lets take a trip down memory lane. In the year the Bucs won the Superbowl one of their starters and best players on defense, Booger McFarland, got hurt. We had to go down the stretch run through the playoffs and into the Superbowl with a guy most people never heard of, Chartric "Chuck" Darby, as our starting nose tackle. Here was a guy who wasn't drafted and had played in the World League before signing with the Bucs. And yet he still played well and we did go on that run and we did win the Superbowl.

It ain't always about the big name guys. Its about how they fit in your scheme.

As for whether this will make a change on defense, absolutely it will. The one thing that I am worried about the calls Coach Morris will make at crucial times. I haven't seen him in that situation so I am not sure how that will go. But I am telling you right here and now that our defense will show a marked improvement on Sunday against the Falcons if they truly go back to our old scheme with the weak tackle lined up over the center and at times running an under defense with Quincy Black on the line over the tight end. If you see those things happening on Sunday you will see our stats improve. Basically the thing about it is there were small adjustments Bates had every opportunity to make all year but never made them.

I know most sports pundits around here won't take the time out to actually attempt to explain what the specific problems on our defense were, but I don't work that way. I am not just going to say this group or that group is the problem or this player or that player is the problem...unless they ARE the problem. I will give you one prime example in closing.

Today on the radio I heard some very popular sports guys say, loudly, that the Bucs didn't have any hurries against the Saints. Now I like both of the guys who said this but that doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. The Bucs actually had 6 hurries. First let me make sure you know what a hurry is. A hurry is when someone hits or gets close to hitting a quarterback which either makes him throw the ball away or affects the throw and ends up in an incomplete pass. The truth is we could have had a couple of other hurries but for the fact that Brees still found a way to complete the pass even with someone bearing down on them.

As for the hurries we did have, Greg (Stylez) White had 3, one of them on a great spin move when he hit Brees right in the kisser. Jimmy Wilkerson had 2, one of them on a 3rd and 5 in the first half when he was rushing the guard and made a really nice rip move. And Roy Miller had 1 where he beat a double team on an early down and got right in Brees' face.

Now would I have liked to have had more hurries? Hell yes. I would have also liked to have some sacks too. But still you have to admit that 6 is a lot more than 0. And for someone who wants to argue with me that we didn't have any hurries they are going to have facts.

*Kanye Shrug*

Anyway, I advise all Bucs fan to at least stay on board or get back on board for this weekend and check the defense out against Atlanta. I am not saying we will win, and I am not saying we will be perfect. But what I AM saying is that you should see a noticeable improvement.

It is what it is.

Breaking: NFL Player Punches Assistant Coach And Sends Him To The Hospital!

Actually it wasn't a player but an NFL Head Coach, the Raiders' Tom Cable, who punched one of his assistant coaches who ended up having to seek medical treatment.

But just imagine what the lede would be on SportsCenter and other outlets if it HAD been a player.