Joe recognizes this isn’t really a Bucs post. However, it is interesting and it does give Joe a chance to post a picture of one of his favorite women of all time to start the week. That would be the lovely Carmella Garcia.

As readers here know, Joe scours the globe for all things Buccaneers. Back in 2008, Joe joined the media throng at the C.I.T.S. to write a feature story on Jeff Garcia for his hometown newspaper, the Gilroy Dispatch. At the time, the lively Bobby Garcia, Jeff’s football coach dad, was churning out a weekly blog in which he routinely revealed inner Bucs secrets and occasionally blasted Chucky.

This was truly great stuff, and Joe got a lot of mileage and attention out of delivering Bobby Garcia’s words from the tiny daily newspaper in California’s garlic farm country.

Joe went back to the Gilroy Dispatch this weekend to see if there was any news of Garcia joining the Omaha franchise of the UFL, where Jeff Jagodzinski is the new head coach.

What Joe found was a story about Garcia jumping into the UFL starting on Thursday, plus good ol’ Bobby Garcia spilling some news about the the Vikings interested in Garcia possibly taking over for Brett Favre. (Quite ironic considering Chucky fantasized of Favre taking over for Garcia in 2008.) And the elder Garcia said the Saints were calling his son, too.

Garcia played in one game for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009, and has been adamant about continuing his career. Rumors circulated that Garcia might return to the Eagles to back up first-year starter Kevin Kolb and his father, Bobby, a longtime football coach in Gilroy, confirmed that the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints had expressed interest.

But Garcia decided to take the snap in hand, rather than wait for an NFL option.

“Minnesota had called him and said ‘if (Brett) Favre doesn’t play are you ready to go?,'” Bobby Garcia said. “But, you know what? Favre is going to play.

“I said, ‘(the Nighthawks) really want you and are willing to make you one of the marquee players in the league.'”

Bobby Garcia, who said that the Nighthawks have already sold more season tickets than the entire league did last season, added that Jeff will report to camp next Thursday.

When Joe first heard of Garcia heading to the UFL, Joe figured Garcia must have had some serious sniffs from NFL teams and wanted to train and be seen versus waiting by the phone.

Joe can’t fathom any other reason why a guy who’s made $30+ million in his career would head to Omaha when he could be hot-tubbing it with Carmella in California.

Garcia and Carmella are never returning to Tampa, but if the Bucs had to win a game or two with Josh Freeman down, Joe still thinks Garcia’s probably a better option in that situation that Josh Johnson.