Joe was reading a story about Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s injury in the St. Petersburg Times typed by Rick Stroud which, given the state of mind of the reader, seems to point a thumb finger at Bucs left tackle Donald Penn getting burned by Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali, which led to Freeman’s injury.

It was Hali’s helmet that Freeman hit in his follow through which fractured the tip of his thumb.

Freeman will miss the remainder of the preseason but is expected to play in the regular-season opener against the Browns on Sept. 12.

Penn was critical of his performance.

“I didn’t play very well,” Penn said. “I need to go watch film and see my mistakes and fix them and see what (Hali) saw that made him play different. He played different than he did against Atlanta (in the preseason opener). I need to make sure I’m not setting up wrong.”

Joe can’t pin the blame of Penn, though Penn seems to be beating himself up over the incident.

Look, this is football. Things like this happen. If not for Penn last year totally shutting down some of the best defensive ends in the NFL, it’s entirely likely Bucs quarterbacks would have had broken ribs, or worse, than a fractured tip of the thumb.

It’s debatable that Hali “beat” Penn. Hali put a move on Penn to get to the inside but Penn threw Hali’s arse to the ground. Here’s the key: While Hali may have “beat” Penn with an inside move, did he lay a hit on Freeman? No.

Joe hopes Penn doesn’t go nuts about this. Football is a physical game. Injuries happen. Thanks to guys like Penn, the chances of Bucs quarterbacks getting hammered are far less.