Barbecues Didn’t Matter In 2014, And Dinners Don’t In 2022
December 1st, 2022
Much has been blubbered online over the past couple of days about the alleged importance of Devin White and Lavonte David organizing a dinner this week for the defense to bond and air grievances.
Sort of an early Festivus celebration.
First, let Joe remind everyone that the Bucs had a players-only meeting in October after the undermanned Steelers embarrassed them in Pittsburgh. Did that help?
Second, allow Joe to deliver a small history lesson. After the Bucs traded for Pro Bowl guard Logan Mankins in August of the miserable 2014 season, Mankins said the fact he couldn’t organize a bonding barbecue in Tampa with his fellow linemen held the unit back.
Joe couldn’t swallow that because people a lot poorer and less busy than Mankins manage to have poolside barbecues in Tampa It was a ludicrous comment and certainly had nothing to do with the play of what might have been the worst offensive line in team history.
Fast-forward to today and Todd Bowles was asked about the defense’s dinner, and thankfully Bowles didn’t put much stock in it and noted that games are won through “execution” on the field.
Bowles was asked if perhaps the offense should have a group dinner, too, and Bowles didn’t take the bait. He said the the group spends a lot of time together in the team cafeteria.
December bonding isn’t what’s going to help the Bucs this season. The roster’s Super Bowl core is still around and unity is not what’s hurting the team. What the Bucs need what represents radical change to the offensive playcalling and coaches willing to have a gameday hunger that matches what they expect from players.
December 1st, 2022 at 2:44 pm
D having a meeting on giving up too…..seasons over since Licht AND Glazers dont care to fix the obvious!
Lets work on the draft….lose the rest please!!! We need good draft positions (but it wont matter if the two clowns, Turd and byyyyyrooooon arent off the staff)
December 1st, 2022 at 2:45 pm
Stop saying “execution”! Pure nonsense! Good coaching is setting your players up to succeed. If we are 12 weeks into the season and we still aren’t “executing”, it’s 100% on the game plan that it cannot be successfully executed. FIRE BYRON.
December 1st, 2022 at 2:46 pm
The name Bowles gives me nausea now. What he’s done to this promising season is disgusting.
Until he’s fired this is what you’re going to see.
An uninspired rutterless group with no identity.
It’s honestly sickening to me what transpired in Cleveland. He has no business whatsoever being a head coach. Thanks for NOTHI NG Todd.
December 1st, 2022 at 2:51 pm
Players only meetings.. dinners. All a sign of a poorly operated and coached team.
December 1st, 2022 at 2:55 pm
Player’s meetings are akin to sanctioned mutiny.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:05 pm
Weren’t many “players only meetings” when Bruce ran the ship. That should tell u all u need to know about how the players feel about TB & BL.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:05 pm
If Bowlzo does it again on Monday Night Brady will do the AB shuffle out the door.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:09 pm
3 players only meetings and now a dinner
The coaching staff is ineffective at their jobs
Sure the players, this and that, but at the end of the day it’s coaching on game day
December 1st, 2022 at 3:10 pm
D-Rok nailed it.
The players don’t trust the coaches.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:14 pm
The Glazers need to have a dinner with Todd Bowles.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:23 pm
I’ve never heard of a good team having a players only meeting. Something has to be desperately wrong. You name the issue, this group has it. I’m also not aware of a players only meeting solving anything. This whole thing smells from top to bottom
December 1st, 2022 at 3:26 pm
We don’t risk it, so we have no biscuit
December 1st, 2022 at 3:35 pm
Here is what amazes me in my retirement. How little time I have. LOL
Sometimes though it does seem difficult to find time for friends. I’m sure it has mostly to do with my selfishness about how I spend my time now that I can clearly see the end.
My point is that I do not have a fraction of the time demands on a modern NFL star athlete. So I do understand Mankins lament but perhaps he was longing for the good ole days when guys were connected so tightly to social media. When there was far more time for GENUINE human interaction perhaps guys were closer. I do not know! I’ve never been rich or famous but as I confessed in my old age I am now selfish re my time.
Bottom line is it isn’t as easy to be close of the field as it might seem. It does require desire and effort. If the guys are not on the same page perhaps the desire IS too weak to make the effort worthwhile.
It’s all speculation at this point which is a lot more fun than reviewing the Bucs onfield 2022 performance!!!!
December 1st, 2022 at 3:46 pm
D-Rok … ‘Player’s meetings are akin to sanctioned mutiny.’
That’s awesome D-Rok. ‘Sanctioned mutiny’ … I love it.
That’s even better than Joe’s line about ‘Devin White and Lavonte David organizing a dinner this week for the defense to bond and air grievances’. If you have to buy your fellow players dinner to ‘AIR GRIEVANCES’ then something’s seriously wrong. A sandwich? OK. But dinner? My idea of a nice dinner doesn’t include listening to others piss & moan.
December 1st, 2022 at 3:47 pm
StPete … I agree with you about retirement. I often ask myself how I ever found time to work.
December 1st, 2022 at 4:15 pm
You can tell by their execution that they don’t practice worth a damn.
December 1st, 2022 at 4:20 pm
D-ROME
A last supper of sorts….
December 1st, 2022 at 4:42 pm
“Grievances.” Unhappiness. Whining. This doesn’t happen on good, well-coached teams that are unified and motivated towards a common purpose.
This locker room is already lost beyond the point of salvation, and it has also led to “quiet quitting” by too many individuals. All it takes is a little here and there to derail a season. Witness Evans, your superstar great, “watching the life go out of us”, quitting on plays, getting handled by rookie cornerbacks.
The kind of bad atmosphere that should never be allowed to fester. That should be eradicated before a season even begins.
December 1st, 2022 at 4:55 pm
Ye of big hopes and much faith. I do think..The Saints are gonna whip us. Its not our year to shine. Accept it and move on. Those 2 pt loses to the Pack and Steelers are the key to the season. Saints Defense is still very tough, As you will soon see.
December 1st, 2022 at 5:00 pm
DR and guys,
When a group sequesters themselves from their bosses/coaches to ‘air grievances,’ it is usually for 2 possible reasons:
1) There is a bad apple in the group who needs peer pressure to be corrected. I’ve heard/seen of instances in the Army like this, aka “blanket party.”
2) They want a venue free from prying coach’s ears to discuss amongst themselves how bad their coaches are.
In my experience, either this will be just “bitch and moan” session only, or they group will decide THEY have to step up and lead, DESPITE the coaches.
In either scenario, these meetings are NOT good and rarely lead to positive change.
It’s a sure sign the coaches have lost the players, in my humble opinion.
December 1st, 2022 at 7:11 pm
the slimies are always a tough game & with disarray within the Bucs; it could be ugly monday nite.. Given ME problems last wk with a rookie CB & Lattimore –who is playing–ME will not have a god evening…..
December 1st, 2022 at 7:15 pm
I heard Latti-Less was out? What’d I miss?
December 1st, 2022 at 7:36 pm
Where did Monday Night Football go? To Pay TV and I don’t care and will not pay….
December 1st, 2022 at 7:51 pm
Brian Flores or Eric Bienemy.
December 2nd, 2022 at 2:51 am
Snow cone trucks in August didn’t help either. The problem is that BA covered for a multitude of Byron’s sins. Don’t see how that gets fixed in December
December 2nd, 2022 at 3:32 am
Players getting together telling each other how great they are is not gonna cut it at this point. Todd maybe a coaching staff hoe down?