Mental Makeover
May 22nd, 2019
Big change in a week.
If Bucs cornerback Vernon Hargreaves was trying to hide in shame, he had a funny way of trying.
Yesterday, Hargreaves was on the field practicing like so many other healthy Bucs in underwear football. And Hargreaves stuck out.
Wearing black long sleeves under his red practice jersey, and wearing black socks, Hargreaves added fluorescent yellow gloves and the same color shoes. He looked like he could be directing traffic around a road construction site at night.
Why would Hargreaves be hiding in shame? Well, last week Bucco Bruce Arians suggested Hargreaves wasn’t mentally ready to practice yet he was working out on the sidelines of the GlazerDome. In full view of the local pen and mic club.
Yesterday? Arians said Hargreaves is no headcase.
Here is Arians’ full quote last Tuesday when asked about why Hargreaves was not practicing.
“He’s got to get his mind right to practice.”
Yesterday, Arians disputed there was any mental issue with Hargreaves.
“He’s never been a problem mentally,” Arians said. “It’s just getting his body right and knowing that you’re not always going to be 100 percent.”
Now what is Arians trying to say here? Well, Hargreaves has a nasty history of being injured. That’s not good for a guy trying to hang on to a starting job. As the old Bill Parcells saying goes, “Your best ability is availability.”
Could it be that Arians is trying to toughen up Hargreaves? That he still has to learn the difference between being hurt and being injured?
Remember who Arians used to work for, Bear Bryant. That guy had a far different concept of what was hurt and what was injured than most dudes who hang out at Hooters.
May 22nd, 2019 at 5:46 am
Based on Zach’s play-by-play, it sounds like Vernon was covering Mike Evans like stink on sh!t. No small feet. Get healthy, VH3!
May 22nd, 2019 at 6:08 am
Entire 2016 draft is a bust & licht is still a gm?
May 22nd, 2019 at 6:23 am
@Duthsty
Give it a break. Be a bit more creative with your posts. Tap just a little more of your inner-substance. This continued knock on Licht is just lazy…and uninteresting.
You can do better. Try again. Thanks in advance.
May 22nd, 2019 at 7:24 am
@joe you must be a Democrat. Trying to make something out of nothing. Boring stuff
May 22nd, 2019 at 7:31 am
@passthebuc
#impeachjoe ???
😂
May 22nd, 2019 at 7:47 am
Really amazing. That some people even though we had a bad coach in Smitty still judge a player because they were coached wrong. Now you got a good coach and somebody who’s knows what he’s doing then maybe these players will start to shine again. When you have somebody teaching garbage you’re going to get garbage. If the players don’t work out under this current regime. Then yes they should be canned. But some of the blame has to fall on Smith who was teaching garbage and had no clue what the hell he was doing
May 22nd, 2019 at 7:55 am
Passthebuc … Lest we forget, this is underwear football. Joe’s following every crumb he can find, and there aren’t many this time of year. And Todd, you’re on a roll … two-for-two?
The original topic (‘Mental Makeover’) is intriguing, especially knowing Bucco Bruce’s, shall we say, upbringing. The Bear certainly knew how to toughen guys up. But BA also coached for Marty Schottenheimer at Kansas City who was no pushover himself. And BA probably learned a little about defense from the Chief’s DC at the time … Bill Cowher, who brought him to Pittsburg when he became HC there. Might’ve even learned a little more about defense from the Steelers DC at the time, some guy named Dick LeBeau. The list goes on … and on.
Bottom line though is that Arians knows much more than a little something about BOTH offense AND defense. And he knows what it takes to toughen up a team on BOTH sides of the ball. Media & fans get lulled into this ‘Quarterback Whisperer’ persona, but Coach Arians is a LOT more than that … as this Bucs team is just starting to find out.
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:23 am
changing the culture indeed….
i bet BA saw alot of what we saw in this team which were mentally weak players…..
BA getting these players to become mentally tough…..love it!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:33 am
If vh3bust makes opening day roster this defense will be historically bad once again…. you can’t coach or fix fragile,short, slow or stupid…
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:34 am
Waiting for TC and PS before I make any “oh my God VH3 is our #1!” remarks.
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:41 am
#endthedrought
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:48 am
Slow and small
#jasoncantbuildaroster
May 22nd, 2019 at 9:52 am
He looked pretty good last time before he got injured.
Get healthy for the season, this is just underwear football.
May 22nd, 2019 at 10:19 am
Dustyroadterd. You must have Alzheimer’s. You forget that almost every player has not developed under the prior coaches? Sad but true. That lands on the owners shoulders. Where still digging out of the hole Lovie dug. Im not going to bash any of the players here. Lichts on his last chance and BA is the reason.
May 22nd, 2019 at 10:44 am
80
digging out the lovie hole?…..thats BS….
we went 9-7 right after lovie was canned….lol….
lovie built a foundation(mike, winston,d.smith,marpet)….
dirk put us in a hole the first time we went 5-11 and made the hole bigger by keeping smitty and going 5-11 again…..
BA is trying to dig us out the dirk and smitty hole with players not being developed and a losing culture being tolerated…
GO BUCS!!!!!
May 22nd, 2019 at 11:52 am
lol passthebuc if you’ve spent enough time around here you’d know that’s definitely not the case.
May 22nd, 2019 at 12:42 pm
Bad character lovie didn’t build anything but his and other friends and family retirement accounts… lovie destroyed the lives of more coordinators than any other head coach in NFL history
May 22nd, 2019 at 1:05 pm
Finally starting to see things I like with Arians.
May 22nd, 2019 at 1:50 pm
Why would you sign this guy to an option year? He’s not even that good when he’s healthy. JL must be feeding BA BS, he was a draft bust.
May 22nd, 2019 at 2:44 pm
Hargreaves is a fashionista–always got an over the top hair style and in your face workout clothes–IDK just hope he can get some good play going this year
May 22nd, 2019 at 5:10 pm
Between Bruce comments last week and those comments yesterday. It sounds to me like Vernon showed up for OTAs last week complaining he was too injured to practice.
May 23rd, 2019 at 4:07 am
Jason Lichtenstein is worst GM in NFL. Thanks 🙏