Bolts, Rays Taking Spotlight From Josh Freeman?
May 7th, 2011
Now Joe just isn’t a beer-soaked, NFL Network-addicted Bucs fan, no sir. Joe is a well-rounded individual.
There are other things Joe enjoys, such as the Rays and the Lightning. Joe is confident you read his musings after each game on JoeRaysFan.com.
Wednesday night, Joe swilled adult beverages while entertaining business clients and local media bigshots at the Ice Palace and thoroughly enjoyed the Bolts sweeping the Crapitals from the NHL postseason.
While Joe is also a baseball and hockey kinda guy, Joe’s a football man first and foremost.
So is the Tampa Bay area. Now Joe has in the recent past received missives from fans about why he isn’t writing about Josh Freeman and other Bucs working out. Simply put, Freeman doesn’t want people to know where and when they are working out, so Joe is not privy to when and where the workouts will be held beforehand.
This same question also got to Pasco County resident and NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas typing for Disney’s hammer-and-sickle outfit in Conneticut.
Matt in Camden, N.J., wrote to ask why we’ve made such a big deal about Drew Brees organizing workouts with the Saints while there has been only casual mention about Josh Freeman and some of the Buccaneers working out together in Tampa.
Pat Yasinskas: Excellent question, so let me explain the difference. Brees assembled roughly 40 Saints at Tulane University and opened the first day to the media. It was a large-scale event, magnified by the fact that the Saints truly are the only thing that matters in New Orleans. (I know the Hornets are there, but they exist in the hefty shadow of the Saints.) Freeman’s been doing things a little more quietly and not on nearly as large a scale, and I salute him for going about his business quietly. Freeman’s gone out to the University of South Florida and worked out with some receivers and a few running backs. He’s also gone down to a private training facility with some teammates near Bradenton. The Tampa Bay media’s been kind of tied up with NHL’s Lightning and MLB’s Rays, so Freeman’s workouts haven’t been a huge local story. Some members of the Panthers and Falcons also are working out in smaller groups. But like the Bucs, they’re not getting as much attention because they didn’t bring in most of the roster and open up a whole session to the media.
Let’s not get carried away. It’s not like if Freeman decided — like Brees did in New Orleans — to issue a public proclamation that he would hold an open workout that the local pen and mic club would be so devoid of resources thanks to the Bolts postseason run and the Rays winning ways that no TV, radio or 19th century news delivery service could cover it. That’s just nonsense and Pat should know better than that since he once was a Bucs beat reporter for the Tampa Tribune.
Would Freeman’s workout be top priority compared to a Rays game or a Bolts postseason story? Of course not, but it wouldn’t be ignored.
Freeman is as big of a sports celebrity in this town as Dirtbag Longoria, Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier. With all the people packing the Ice Palace for Bolts games and as many people in this area that watch Rays games (on TV), football in general and the Bucs in particular still rule this town.
To suggest Freeman holding a public workout with teammates during the lockout would not get coverage due to the Bolts playoff run and the Rays success is short-sighted at best.
May 7th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
I like the fact that Free doesn’t feel the need to grand stand for the media like New Orleans golden boy does personally.
May 7th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Good, no need at this time to have a spotlight on what the Bucs are or aren’t doing with or without Freeman’s leadership.
The Lightning and the Rays deserve the spotlight at this time.
Frankly the press needs to stay away from the Bucs players right now…this includes you Joe 😉
May 7th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
I understand his need for privacy in these workouts but can any journalist find out exactly who is attending and doing what? Thats not too much to ask. All we heard is a bunch of players on offense, thats not good enough.
What is the D doing while this is going on, sitting at home eating cheetos? I hope not. Where are our leaders on D? This is sad.
May 7th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
freeman should be the biggest thing in tampa and as far as the workouts go just trust in freeman hes a leader and he knows how to rally the troops
May 7th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Joe – Love the news gathering aspect of your site. Great to have all this Bucs information in one place, especially for those of us no longer living in the area. But Yasinkas did not say – or even suggest – what you attribute to him. Yasinkas specifically notes that Freeman did not open up his workouts to the media and cites that fact as one of two (the other being that Freeman did not invite the whole roster) as to why the workouts have not gotten coverage in the TB media. He in no way says or implies that if Freeman did a Brees-style workout that it would not be covered by the TB media. His comment about the medias focus on the Lightning and Rays only explains why the workouts, as currently structured, have not been a “local story.” Keep the focus on news gathering (and the impressive original content) rather than axe-grinding against ESPN and those that do not have the NFL network.
May 7th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Pat…Yastinkass
May 7th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I respect the fact that nothing much has been said. We all know Freeman’s work ethic is unparalleled. You ever meet a successful person that brags about it everyday? Me neither…. I guarantee the Bucs are going about their business unders Josh’s lead. No need to mention it, they’re just doing what’s expected. We’ll be just as prepared as any team (if not better.)
May 7th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Oh look, PFT did Thomas and eric a favor and gave them their excuse for any Bucs success in 2011: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/07/bucs-will-have-up-to-six-games-against-rookie-quarterbacks/
I can’t imagine what they’ll say if we don’t at least win 10 games again.
May 7th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
9-1 against losing teams
1-5 against winning teams.
Sorry but the stats don’t lie.
May 7th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Go Bolts!!!
May 7th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
our strength of schedule was not the weekest last season, infact it was middle of the road. and it wasnt like all the ‘winning teams’ we played blew us out. the thing we can be proud of is, we were consistent we didnt get blown out by the browns (like the patriots did) and we didnt lose to nfc west teams like other teams in our division did, we played at a consistent level, and that level was pretty high.
May 7th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
i think the point he was trying to make (yasinakiss) was that while the media isnt out of resources to cover the bucs the current schedule of other sports has pushed what would have been a mediocre story to a no story… which i think is reasonable.
May 7th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Is it me, or does it seem like every time Yasinskas writes something, it becomes less and less interesting and relevant.
May 7th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Joe, I do not follow Rays or baseball, may I know why you have the nick name “dirtbag” for Evan Longoria?
May 7th, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Joe here,
@Eric in DC — Don’t agree with your take and stand behind what’s written here. Yasinskas is on another planet by even suggesting that anything Bucs might not be covered because the media is too busy. Downright silly.
@Jonny – Dirtbag is Longoria’s real nickname, from the official nickname of his college team.
May 7th, 2011 at 9:27 pm
So what happened to JoeBoltsFan?
May 7th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Jerry,
You really think the ONE & DONE Falcons are such a superior team?
Did you WATCH our two games against Atlanta??
We were competitive in all but 2 games this year. Home games against Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Funny how Freeman and Co. have more respect from the rest of the league than they get from some of their own supposed “fans”….
May 8th, 2011 at 2:10 am
@ Johnny, Long Beach State Dirtbags that would be.
@Hire Greg Olsen, I too believe that we should of won both games. Youthful Blount hit the wrong hole in the game in Atlanta.
And, I could of swore I saw at least two blocks in the back and some other poor officiating down the stretch of the throw back game.
Right now I’m pretty ecstatic. Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals, another great draft by the Buc’s, and the Ray’s are tied for first in the east. Wahoo!
May 8th, 2011 at 8:30 am
@AllendaleTimmy
“And, I could of swore I saw at least two blocks in the back and some other poor officiating down the stretch of the throw back game.”
Exactly.
From my post:
http://boards.620wdae.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1268467698&postcount=34
“…a lot of bad stuff happened on that play: #33 fought through a double-team but couldn’t make the tackle, #23 missed his chance to make the tackle shortly thereafter, #18 was blocked in the back and missed the tackle; then, and only then, did #85 make a categorically poor effort to bring down the ballcarrier. After that, #37 shows good pursuit to the sideline, but then he runs into a Falcons player, one who doesn’t even have the ball! Then #57 misses the tackle, and since #31 had been getting held for the previous 10 yards, he missed on his opportunity, and to top it all off, #81 gets blocked in the back as he’s attempting to make the tackle!!!”
May 8th, 2011 at 8:42 am
Use player names you tool.
May 8th, 2011 at 9:03 am
What happened to JOEBOLTSFAN.COM????
May 8th, 2011 at 9:09 am
JOE, not related to this post, with all the hype last year about blount punching that boise state players, I found this on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZduAMyLIXoM&feature=related
wondering if anyone had seen/heard of this?!??
could be one of the reasons why the titans cut him..?
May 8th, 2011 at 10:48 am
What also did not get much mention is the fact that Brees actually paid the players to be there. They werent there out of loyalty to the team or Brees. The question remains if Saints management is funneling money to Brees for these workouts.
May 8th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Old news James. Fisher said that punch in practice had nothing to due with the Titans trying to sneak Blount on to the practice squad
May 8th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Are U F*****g kidding me James Pearls? I thinking you’re looking Yasinkas’ blog.
May 8th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
piratics post makes me wanna do a big #2
May 8th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
@ WeGotDefense 🙂 & derek:
http://boards.620wdae.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1268393693&postcount=13
Specifically, this part: “Bottom Line: I’m not gonna modify my posts for those who feel that jersey numbers are an obscure reference.”
May 8th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
ok then? btw #48 is andrew economos and he seems like a nice enough guy on twitter but how can anyone call themselves a real fan if you dont even know your long snappers name 🙂
May 8th, 2011 at 11:59 pm
@ derek:
What are you talking about? I KNOW that #48 is indeed our long-snapper.
…Oh…I get it…you only read a portion of that post. That reference was presented to let you know that when I post, I use jersey numbers, not names, even though I know them.
This effort at assisting you obviously did not help. If only you had comprehended this post, specifically, the line that’s two quotes above the previously quoted section, you would have seen: “Last names are EXACTLY what I’m looking to avoid, and you’ve just shown why!”
To further prove it:
http://boards.620wdae.com/search?searchid=12734146&showas=post&userid=1656771
You’ll notice that I’ve always posted this way.
p.s. If we were all in a room together, I would have no qualms in wagering that my knowledge of this roster (names, numbers, positions, player history, etc.) is greater than yours. Granted, I have no idea how well YOU know the roster, but I am fully confident in MY knowledge of this roster.
May 9th, 2011 at 1:29 am
im not getting into a match about who knows players better because any true fan should know past and present pretty well. this all started because I was jk about doing a #2 about your post so I dunno why your going on about this and as far as im concerned call a player 48,economos,ec or whatever you want so enough with that old wdae post,etc. I should have just been smart and never replied again like wegotdefense did its a losing battle any way you look at it and a fight not worth fightning to begin with
May 9th, 2011 at 6:43 am
@ derek
First, you make an infantile comment regarding my post. I call you on it, and all you could come up with was “I was jk”. The fact of the matter is that you were NOT “just kidding”; your intent was to ridicule.
Next, you call me out as not being a “real fan” for not knowing a players’ name! This assumption on your part was completely unfounded and decidedly incorrect, and still you attempted to cast doubt on my knowledge of this roster! If sarcasm was your intent, it failed by a wide margin.
You “dunno” why I’m going on about this? I’m not surprised, so let me explain it to you: You made a decided effort to humor yourself at my expense. If my post was displeasing to your taste or beyond your comprehension, then just ignore it or try to figure it out, but don’t be a schmuck.
You then post “as far as im [sic] concerned call a player…whatever you want…”.
If only you had done yourself the favor of thinking (and posting) in this reasonable manner in the first place, you wouldn’t be getting slapped around right now. But no, you had to be cute, and now, by your own admission, you want this to be over and done with. This is typically adolescent behavior.
“I should have just been smart and never replied again…its [sic] a losing battle any way you look at it and a fight not worth fighting to begin with”
You’re right, you SHOULD have just left it alone, because this IS nothing but a losing battle for you.
p.s. Do yourself (and the world) a favor:
Learn how to put a sentence together.
Capitalization and punctuation are essential to effective written communication.
When people post as you do, it becomes an incredibly tedious chore to even attempt to decipher any type of cogent thought while it is mixed up in a jumble of non sequiturs, run-on sentences, excessive informality, and sentence fragments. It’s also a complete embarrassment.
May 9th, 2011 at 3:39 pm
lol ok man whatever you say