Sticks up for linemen.

We are in the middle of underwear football season. It’s both bad and good.

In underwear football, the only piece of equipment other than cleats players wear is helmets. It is as close to flag football as you can get without the flags.

Each year, Joe gets questions from fans eager for information about defenders and offensive linemen in underwear football and how a certain player is practicing. There is really no way to tell because there is no hitting.

In a way, Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians believes underwear football is unfair for linemen on both sides of the ball. Arians explained coaches can get a lot of out underwear football so long as the players are skill position players.

Linemen? Forget it.

“The big guys, it is a determent to put them out there,” Arians said after the second rookie minicamp practice Saturday. “It is not fair to them because they can’t use their physicality and that’s how they play the game.

“The rest of them, it’s a real good judge on how athletic they are, how smart they are, how fast they can learn and maintain it from a walk-through to a practice to the next day and to the next day.”

Arians also continued his campaign to make folks aware how spread offenses in college actually hurt offensive linemen with their transition and learning curve into the NFL. Joe will have more about that later.

With NFL coaches grumbling about lack of padded practices, Joe wonders if the NFL is going to try to push through more padded practices in negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement. The current pact ends after next season.