Not Buying Youth Excuse
December 21st, 2015
“You are spinning, Lovie!”
The Bucs lead the league in penalties. Joe has written about this often. In fact, the Bucs are in the running for most penalties in a season, a dubious NFL mark.
The Bucs currently have 134 penalties. The NFL record of 158 was set in 1998 by the Chiefs.
By any standard, that is simply unacceptable. And, yes, the Bucs are an undisciplined team. This goes to coaching. Any other excuse is simply spinning. To quote the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, “That’s all there is to it.”
Friday, during his day-after presser discussing the knee-to-the-balls delivered by the Rams, Lovie suggested youth is why the Bucs have so many undisciplined, downright dumb penalties.
“We act like, in some parts, a young football team that makes young football team mistakes,” Lovie said. “You have to go through it. You have to get your hand burned, so to say. What I’ve seen from our young football team is that we do learn from these situations. We haven’t handled some situations well.”
Sorry, but Joe isn’t buying this. Let’s think this through:
Lovie suggests the Bucs’ young players are still learning to avoid certain things that are not tolerated in the NFL. OK, fine.
Then please explain in just what level of football is it tolerated or accepted to kick a player when he is prone on the turf? In what level of football is it common practice to toss a ball out of the end zone throwing a girly hissy fit like your mom just took your dolls away? Exactly when in grade school, high school or college can a player be patted on the back for jumping offsides?
To suggest being a mental midget on the field is a sign of youth is such outrageous spin that Hillary Clinton would be ashamed to speak it.
Will Gholston is nearly the end of his third NFL season (second under Lovie). Gholston may be the lone example of a defensive player who has actually improved under Lovie.
However, if Gholston is still pulling the stunts like he did Thursday night, still, that’s not youth, that may not even be stupid, that’s just not giving a damn. Not sure how someone could excuse what Gholston did as acts of youth when he’s considered a veteran.
If you believe the NFL, a player’s career, if he makes an opening day roster as a rookie, lasts an average of six years. That means Gholston is two games shy of the halfway point of his professional career. And he’s still doing dumb things?
Sorry, that’s not youth. That’s just not giving a damn about the consequences.
December 21st, 2015 at 5:10 am
Agree Joe, Bucs are much too undisciplined and it shows. It shows in getting tagged for too many penalties. It shows in way too many missed tackles. It shows in not being able to consistently stop opponents on 3rd-and-long situations.
Coaching is a part of that (expectations not set high enough?) but so is players’ accountability to each other and to the team. Getting frustrated and ‘acting out like a 3-year-old’ isn’t going to help the team … ever. Leadership is lacking when that’s allowed to continue and recur.
December 21st, 2015 at 6:04 am
These are just examples of the modern culture of entitlement. Today’s athlete is too coddled and very unfamiliar with reality.
December 21st, 2015 at 7:13 am
My belief is there are no consequences. Don’t worry, Jameis will take care that next year. Shape up or ship out. Spence n gholston came in the league the same year as rookies n unless lovie is consistent with holding all players accountable, these childish spoil brats will continue to self destruct the Bucs. After watching several games over the weekend, I witness players playing n fighting, n showing true grit to the end to win as a team contrary to the Bucs players n last few games. Gholston,ASJ,ME,DDye,MJenkins,MWright,n of course Lovie heavily contributed to half our losses. Lovie as usual comes out losing or leading after halftime n not let jameis go to the no huddle until 3 minutes left in the game with 1 maybe 2 timeouts left. Lovie is very predictable. I love Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arias, he said he put his team out to score every series n often. Livid need to go back to his basement. I thought once he returned to the league last year that he had changed for the better. NOT SO!!!
December 21st, 2015 at 7:34 am
These aren’t youths they are grown men. This goes to bad coaching. Lovie is a bad coach and should be replaced but I know that’s not going to happen. If we ever win with Lovie as head coach it will be it spite of Lovie.
December 21st, 2015 at 7:36 am
Let me translate what Lovie said in that quote:
I enable. I have my head in the sand. I enable. I enable.
December 21st, 2015 at 7:46 am
Its not youth. It is not a sign of the modern culture of entitlement. They just don’t give a damn because there are not any repercussions. If the Chiefs set this record in ’98, and we are about to break the record 17 years later, does that mean there have not been any young teams for the past 17 years? What kind of rubbish is Lovie spinning?! I seem to recall Raheem having the youngest team in the league a few years ago. But even those Bucs were not this out of control.
December 21st, 2015 at 7:59 am
get over it!!! football is an emotional sports… take the emotion out of it & we might as well watch freaking bowling or golf all day sunday… at least they show they actually give a damn… instead of just sitting around accepting losing and smiling afterwards… once they weed out the players OK with losing and get some more talent they will show improvement
December 21st, 2015 at 8:00 am
Immature is the right word to describe those acts.
December 21st, 2015 at 8:08 am
So now we just need to give Lovie like 5 years before these guys mature before we can truly judge him I suppose?
December 21st, 2015 at 8:09 am
There have to be consequences…..if it is permitted….there should be a team fine with the proceeds going to charity…..if that’s not permitted…players should called out….and, or benched.
Much of this is easier to blame the coach because he is in charge and he is one person….because the penalties are wide spread it’s harder to blame many players…..but in the case of Gholston (several weeks in a row with personal fouls)….GMC several offside and ASJ….well that was simply pure selfishness.
Lovie could start by publicly calling out some players…
December 21st, 2015 at 8:19 am
I do agree, but I also see the league doesn’t divvy these penalties across the board, how many fights and after the play incidents happened in the Pitt v. Denver game, only saw two flags and they were offsetting
December 21st, 2015 at 8:24 am
I think this goes hand in hand with the next article you wrote after this one. What’s going to whip this team in to shape from a discipline standpoint is the team pulling quality top level talent out of the later rounds in our drafts and getting some legitimate depth on the team. If these guys know that they’re not being challenged from the guys riding the bench and they know that if they do sit out then the team will be eagerly awaiting their return then there’s no reason for them to change their behavior. They know that their is nobody in the administration that is established and untouchable. Chances are, especially for the highly drafted guys, that they will outlast the coaches if the team does poorly, so they know that the coaches put winning above all else. Lacking depth on the team means that sending a message will mean accepting the likelihood of accumulating even more losses.
If we can get some guys to come in and challenge our prima dona skill players and challenge our meat head linemen who can’t figure out how to line up correctly then we’ll probably still end up with a similar starting lineup but they’ll feel that breath on their neck and know that the coaches are just waiting to put somebody else in whenever they step out of line. That’ll cut down on these selfish plays instantly. Either because they straighten up or because someone else will be in there fighting to get and/or keep a starting job.
December 21st, 2015 at 9:16 am
Why would millionaire athletes (who have been playing the game since they were young) need to be educated on discipline and penalties? Did they suddenly forget that engaging in penalties can affect the game?
December 21st, 2015 at 9:34 am
Well you didnt expect Lovie to take any part of the blame did you? I mean just listen to the Lovie Lovers, he has done a fantastic job of coaching. It HAS to be ALL the players fault becauase Lovie can do no wrong.
December 21st, 2015 at 10:47 am
Couch, its some where in between the two extremes. Get over it.
December 21st, 2015 at 10:47 am
Will Gholston has not been coached up, he is just getting more playing time!!! I still have not seen one player that has improved and played his “best ball” with lovie as the coach!!!!
I think we are all seeing that lovie does not build a defense, he can only hope to collect some hall of famer’s and pro-bowlers to make up for his passive ( according to his past starting safties) system!!!
December 21st, 2015 at 11:03 am
Lovie has performed the second worst of all the coaches hired in 2014. Only Whisenhunt was worse and we all know how that ended. Nevermind that Lovie was by far the most experienced coach hired. I’m not sure we hired the most experienced coach in the hopes we’d be in single digit wins after two years of that coach.
Lovie deserves that vast majority of the blame for where we are. The Bucs were absolutely not in worse shape than the Texans or Redskins, and they’re both going to the playoffs before the Bucs. Are people saying Jay Gruden is a much better coach than Lovie? I don’t think they’d ever cop to it, even if it’s sadly true.
December 21st, 2015 at 11:21 am
Sloppy mentally weak mofos.
December 21st, 2015 at 11:49 am
Agree with you Joe, although your political analogies / viewpoints are a bit strange.
December 21st, 2015 at 12:48 pm
What happened to us getting a veteran coach? I’m not going to drop the hate bomb on Lovie, and I’m aware that he’s a players coach, but what the hell is going wrong? Are there any reports of the locker room culture being different or the coach being mentally retired.
Something isn’t adding up. Lovie has had success in big markets, what’s developed is the opposite of what I would have expected bringing him in.
December 21st, 2015 at 1:33 pm
Not buying the excuses either. Like most of us who have jobs, we are accountable for what we have produced. It’s either up to standards or it’s not. There is rarely, if ever, an excuse for a substandard product.
December 21st, 2015 at 6:14 pm
Only the players can decide how much it means to them to not make penalties. Sure, the coaches need to motivate the players but in the end either you care or you don’t. When you see GMC making his weekly encroachment penalty and he just does not improve enough to make it stop happening, week after week, what kind of a message does that send? On the William Gholston penalty for unnecessary roughness, the Rams OL held on to Gholston’s foot after the play was whistled dead and he kept holding on until literally Gholston had to kick the guy to release his foot. Gholston barley kicked the guy. As usual the referees never see what happens first, before they see a player kicking someone. After watching what the Rams were doing to Winston, more power to you, William.
December 21st, 2015 at 6:44 pm
“It’s not just Jameis,” linebacker Lavonte David said after praising the rookie quarterback. “You have Kwon (Alexander), Jude (Adjei-Barimah), Ali (Marpet) and Donovan (Smith) and you got the rookie receivers stepping up in a big way. Even Mike Evans is only in his second year. We have a lot of young guys with a lot of potential.”