Last week when Josh Freeman missed a practice, watching from the sidelines with his injured thumb wrapped, Joe wasn’t the only one that had alarm bells go off in his head.

Many of Joe’s readers scoffed, suggesting this was a devious ploy to fool the ever-so-sharp Eric Mangini into thinking Josh Johnson may start and that Freeman was, in fact, good-to-go.

Joe dismissed this notion immediately as something a two-bit high school coach wouldn’t lower himself to.

Seems Joe’s inclination was accurate. Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times Twittered today that Freeman in fact had a setback from taking snaps in practice last week.

Bucs QB Josh Freeman did not test his broken thumb until Sunday after taking snaps earlier in the week aggravated the injury with swelling.

Joe knows fans want to believe NFL coaches are a bunch of Jack Bauer wannabes, skilled in the art of espionage, but this type of stuff generally faded away in high schools in the 1970s. Not even the Manginis of the world are fooled by such a low-rent trick.