Might Freeman Dream Of Playing For Chiefs?
August 11th, 2011
A chill of fear ran through Joe while checking out a story on Josh Freeman in the Kansas City Star today. Just reading about Freeman’s boyhood dream of playing for the Chiefs was enough have Joe running to Mugs Grill & Bar for a few cold ones.
The Star talked to Freeman yesterday about visiting Arrowhead Stadium for the first time as a professional.
“It should be a lot of fun,” Freeman said. “Growing up a huge Chiefs fan, I went to a lot of games there through the years.”
As a wide-eyed youngster, he was captivated by the Chiefs’ quarterbacks starting with Joe Montana and continuing to Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon and Trent Green before Freeman took his game to Kansas State.
“When you’re a little kid, that’s what you dream about … the Chiefs were the team I always dreamt of playing for,” he said.
Freeman grew up in Missouri and to Joe’s knowledge his parents still live there. Freeman has even called himself “a momma’s boy” and said he chose Kansas State to be close to home, despite offers from “every conference.”
Might No. 5 ever think of jumping ship when his five-year $36 million Bucs contract ends after the 2013 season? Scary thought.
Joe can only imagine the massive contract coming Freeman’s way.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Joe, do not worry too much. I am sure Manning dreamed of being a Saint as a kid. Marino probably dreamed of playing for the Steelers. I am sure the Bucs will be wrapping him up before his contract is up.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Even bradshaw, he loves the Saints and always has, but he stuck around the Steelers.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Almost every football player in the NFL is from somewhere else, grew up a fan of some other team and has family in another state. Come on now…there’s no need to drum up scare tactics out of the blue. Not only will Freeman never even see the fifth year of his contract, he likely won’t even see the fourth. I bet Dominik extends him before the season is over. He’s safe & sound right here in Tampa.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Josh Freeman isn’t going anywhere. Every coach would lode their jobs. Heck, a move like that would be the final straw for many fans. If Freeman leaves, for whatever reason, Tampa might lose the entire Buc’s team. I don’t think the Glazers want that.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
You better lock him up for HUGE money before 2013. Otherwise, if he is as good as he appears, some financially committed owners like Bob Krafy (if Brady is done), Jerry Jones etc will throw major dough at him. The Glazers are pissed that he is playing so well and having night terrors over the money Freeman will deserve.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
Someone remind McBuc what year Free Agency started…
Terry Bradshaw hated Pittsburgh…
August 11th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
It will be fascinating to see this unfold. The longer the Bucs wait, the better the odds of Raheem and Olson moving on and Freeman thereby getting more interested in being a free agent.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
The only sure way to keep a franchise QB in the stable, is to prove to him you are committed to building a winning team around him! Young QBs want CHAMPIONSHIPS to prove their dominance. He may love Kansas City, but I bet he’d love a couple SuperBowl rings more!
That’s my biggest beef right now. Josh proved last year that he’s ready to lead this team into the playoffs. We didn’t improve the team at all, and probably went backward a step, losing Ruud and Caddy. And don’t say Draft picks- everybody drafts players, and everyone says their rookies will be the best! Hope I’m wrong, but looks like we didn’t do much to get Better. And with a franchise QB- that’s just another wasted year that we could have made a stab at!
August 11th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
FGO…LOL, you are correct sir! I got a bit excited, and remember I was just a kid back then.
Capt Tim…That is your opinion, Sapp says that this is a play-off team, that is his opinion and I share it. Freeman sees them building an offense around him, and putting together a young defense. if the plan works most of the team will be around the same age, growing together and hopefully winning rings. I am sure freeman thinks this is a play off team as well.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:43 pm
I expect a 8-10 year 100 million contract towards the end of the season as long as he plays great the first half of the season.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
He might have ended up hating Chicago too? Bradshaw would have been a Bear, had that coin flip came up differently!
August 11th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
Thomas you started off with such a nice post …. and then BAM! it all went to hell at the end.
Freeman will be getting top 5 money very soon…. in Tampa.
Bet on it.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I also believe it’s a playoff team. They will be better just due to experience.
But Mark Dominck and Raheem Morris have stated that ” when this team is ready to make a playoff run, we will become active in free agency, like before, to fill any gaps.”
Obviously they don’t share our opinion that the team is playoff ready now. Guess this must be a rebuilding year again
Or we are being cheap
August 11th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Capt.Tim
Sorry, but you are completely wrong. They improve ALOT by being a year older at most positions. When you have rookies at the skill position and a QB younger than them and a very young O-LIne and defense……… the improvement comes by being a year older and developed more. Having the same coordinators and system in place another year.
They APPEAR to have talented rookies ready to contribute… but we shall see. I agree there, that is an unknown.
If some players from last year take a step backwards or don’t show improvement, then that is an issue as well.
We’ll find out, but to say they did not improve is ignorant. You do not know, just like I don’t until they hit the field.
One thing we can all be thankful for is they aren’t crazy spending on free agents just for the sake of spending and making a headline…. well at least those of us with any common sense are glad for that.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
Capt Tim, you need to start sipping some brandy again. Really, it just ain’t that bad. We’ll be fine, I promise.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
if being stupid was painfull thomas would be in a world of hurt!!!!!
August 11th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
smh @ Thomas2.2
you bitch when the Bucs “overpaid” Joseph, Black, etc. but yet you think they won’t shell out for Freeman? Go take a long walk down a short pier.
August 11th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
or they dont think there are any wholes that havent beeen filled by drafting except for the mistake at punter. that is an option too.
they COULD, HONESTLY validly believe that any free agent they bring in would not be an improvement (IN THEIR SYSTEM) and they would have to change their system and cfreate other wholes just to get that person to fit right
August 11th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
Yes Dan, and they did say “loud and clear” the punter was a Mistake, taking full ownership of it. Notice how they haven’t said any of their other players are a mistake. I think they have full confidence in these young players and even more in their coaching staff.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Free agency is NOT the only way to improve Capt. Thomas. Are you saying the Rams and Lions didn’t improve last year by drafting Bradford and Suh? The draft is the best way to improve your team; free agency should be used to fill big holes on your roster, which we don’t have many of. You guys were banging the drum for Nnamdi, yet we have a bunch of young guys like Myron and E.J. that need a chance to prove themselves. you guys wanted a vet linemen to “mentor” our young guys, yet we have a freaking ex player (a good one at that) as their position coach!
We had no punter, and we signed a good one, then people complained! (Yes I know we overpaid for him, but who really cares, it’s a great pick up regardless). These people make the Bucs fan base look so bad, when I know we’re a good one.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Dan beat me to it Capt Tim. Now please come back from Team Thomas, it just is not right! maybe if you start typing like a pirate agin or something.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
@Joe
No offense Joe, but what a reach for a story line. At a time when there is so much football to be talked about it’s hard to understand why you would even attempt to connect such far reaching dots to make a story. By the recent overload of your site I’m quite sure you don’t need to drive more readers with this garbage. I 98% of the time find your site informative and entertaining. I guess this is part of the 2% I find worthless.
I am quite sure every player in the league has dreamed of playing for a favorite team along the way. I truly doubt any base their football business decisions on those childhood thoughts.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
I would have loved to have Nnamdi and what’s to say that the Bucs didn’t make a serious play for him, but that he ended up choosing Phili. It may not have been a money issue after all but a great sales pitch by the Eagles. They are definitely trying to buy a Lombardi trophy, but no way in hell this will work. They may get to the playoffs but I don’t see a run. Vick has been a choker for years. The Bucs owned Vick his whole time in ATL. There was and is one player I wanted the Bucs to package a trade for and that is Patrick Willis. I doubt they could have got him, but I think JJ and picks may have done
August 11th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Joe here,
@1BUCFAN — First, give Joe a break with the “no offense” garbage. You’re intent was to offend. … Freeman just shared his childhood love for the Chiefs with his hometown paper. Joe shared his instant reaction reading that. These are not “far reaching dots to make a story.” These were Joe’s thoughts.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Well I hope the rest of the Bucs don’t mention their childhood dreams, you may panic right out of your office chair with the thought of the whole team leaving.
August 11th, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Sell Man U and give him the proceeds.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Stroud, royals and jp all just disagreed with this philosophy to not add free agents or vets via trade.
Also, this automatic improvement the next year argumengt is bogus. Ask mike clayton, and many other ROY’s whose careers pinnacled in year 1.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Give him MANU.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
The Chiefs are a very attractive org for many reasons. They are owned by the Hunt’s not the Glazers for one. They have an excellent head coach And they are stocking talent. Didnt they make the playoffs?
August 11th, 2011 at 6:17 pm
1BUCFAN – you don’t have to worry about Ahmad Black or Mason Foster!
In all seriousness, I don’t see anything wrong on Joe’s part. The headline reads “might dream of playing for” not “wants out of Tampa ASAP so he can make a beeline for Kansas City.” Relax, Breathe.
It’s relevant because he’s playing against his hometown team, was quoted as saying he’s a childhood fan, and hey it’s a slow Bucs news day with the team traveling.
Besides, Freeman has stated publicly MULTIPLE times that he wants to play his whole career here in Tampa. Quit attacking Joe or others just for the sake of starting a fight, when everyone on here knows damn well Freeman won’t be going anywhere ever. EVER.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Thomas, I would take your argument seriously if you would have evoked the points of Kansas City Bar-b-que, the atmosphere of arrowhead stadium, the ability to purchase old english 40’s, and the preponderance of fountains within the city limits.
But you didnt. So you lose! Thanks for playing! Goodbye!
August 11th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
The Bucs took care of Freeman before he was even drafted with Winslow and have continued to not only build around him, but support him with every chance that they get. They’ll continue to take care of him. He’s not going anywhere until he’s 40.
I just got goosebumps thinking about him being with us for another decade and a half….
August 11th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Btw, Thomas is just an immature prick that strives for reactions. Maybe if we ignore him, he’ll go away.
August 11th, 2011 at 6:56 pm
The whole idea is dumb. There is no way in hell the Glazers let their only franchise qb leave. If they think they have empty seats now, there would be a mutiny and they would be forced to sell the team. Not going to happen. Everyone can shut their yaps on how cheap the Glazers are after they
have Freeman under contract for 10 years.
August 11th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
If Freeman vastly improves on last year, and the Bucs want to lock him up for 10 years, we are looking at a $150 million contract. Probably $45-$50 million guaranteed and a $30+ million signing bonus. I don’t know if the Glazers would make such a long commitment(but I don’t think $15 million/yr is out of the question) It would be the first in Bucs history. Of course, Josh Freeman is a first in Bucs history so this is all new territory.
August 11th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Freeman is going to be a Buc for life. No way the Glazers will lunch on resigning him…. Re-Sign him ASAP (maybe get him at a discount to do it sooner).
Look out NFL, Freeman is legite, the D is on the upswing, and the NFC South is the best conference in football.
August 11th, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Thomas you make interesting points about the Chiefs being an attractive team, so much so that I think you should just go ahead and switch allegiances to them.
August 11th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
All I have read all week is how much the Chiefs fans love their Pro Bowl QB Matt Cassel. Not sure why they would dump him. I like Freeman alot better but their stats last year were similar. Freeman has the rushing option that Kassel does not and definitely the 4th quarter comeback ability but its not like the Chiefs are desperate at quarterback. If Cassel drops way off then i might get worried. I am going to finally have faith in the Glazers and say they lockup Freeman for life with a mega deal.
August 11th, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Joe is just getting you folks all
worked up over nothing.
Amazing how many bites he got.
August 11th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Yeah and Tom Brady loved the 49ers as a kid and still plays in New England. All players want to start their own legacy. Joe just wanted a reason to go have a gold one at Muggs & Juggs
August 11th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
“The cheifs are a very attractive org for many reasons” bwaahahahaha oh that’s good! Thanks 2.2 I needed that.
August 12th, 2011 at 12:38 am
I seriously have to question this theory that the Bucs haven’t gotten any better this off-season. It seems some fans believe that not signing any FAs (other than a punter) away from other teams means we haven’t improved. But I’d like to look deeper at that and see if it’s true.
The common thought is that we can’t include any drafted players, as every team has a draft and every team expects to be better because of those draft choices. However, not every team drafts well. Not saying we drafted better than the Falcons or Saints, but I don’t think we did any worse, so we may not be better than them after the draft, but we haven’t lost ground.
The other common thought is that re-signing your own free agents doesn’t count as getting better, but rather as staying the same. So, we can count out our own signings of Davin Joseph, Quincy Black, etc., but that also means that Atlanta re-signing Clabo, etc. doesn’t count either, and the same with the Saints.
Now, to the meat of the issue. The Bucs only signed Koenen away from division rival Atlanta. Maybe not a huge move, but it does take away from them. But, using the above format, the ONLY player the Falcons signed to get better from another team was Ray Edwards, whom we now know had off-season surgery and isn’t 100% healthy. The Saints had a few more signings. The biggest being Darren Sproles, who they brought in to replace the departing Reggie Bush. At best, that’s a wash. Other than that, there are many average players that aren’t really improvements and one possible improvement in Aubrayo Franklin. So, where’s the improvement in the Falcons and Saints???
Now, using that information, the Saints and Falcons may have improved minimally through free agency at best, and the Bucs maybe even a bit less. However, the Saints and Falcons also have more players on their rosters that are older and on the decline of their careers. The Saints have 5 players that I see on their roster with 10+ years in the league and many more at 8-9. The Falcons have 8 at 10+, and a few at 7-9 years. The Bucs have only one player (Barber) with 10+ and only 4 at 7-9 years. Everyone else is extremely young. Now, all those young guys won’t improve, they aren’t all on the rise. But we have more players on our roster with the potential to rise than either of those two teams, and much fewer players on the decline of their careers.
So, even though another year of experience doesn’t equate to a better team on it’s own, when you consider the other teams in our division have more players on the decline while we have more players with the potential to be on the rise, even if all of them don’t pan out, we can still out-pace both the Falcons and Saints in numbers alone. Add to that the fact that we have beaten the Saints the past couple years, and last year we were about two feet away from beating the Falcons twice (one foot on fourth and one for Blount, and one foot from Weems going out of bounds on the kick return) and you can see we’re already pretty close to both those teams. It wouldn’t take much to turn this franchise from 3rd in the division and out of the playoffs due to tie breakers to being the division champ, playoff bound and who knows after that.
So, for all of you saying we didn’t get any better, please look at the bigger picture and realize that sometimes we can get better by not doing anything drastic.
August 12th, 2011 at 12:40 am
Sorry for the rant, but I’m just sick of fans berating this team because they didn’t sign any big name guys or didn’t re-sign Ruud or Caddy. Hey, I’m gonna miss having Caddy around, the loss of Ruud may create a temporary weakness, but that doesn’t eliminate us from improvement or from the playoffs.
August 12th, 2011 at 12:52 am
Bam Bam I’ve been saying that. This is the only NFL team hosted site you can go and cop a squat on the team and no one hands it to you. People judge me for defending my Bucs while Thomas and Capt TIM slam everything or spin it into negativity. Frankly I’m tired of them and we all should make them uncomfortable around here.
August 12th, 2011 at 1:07 am
@BamBamBuc
No need to be sorry for the rant….
….I only read the first and last few lines…
…..and I doubt anyone else read it at all.
That said, most fans I know are happy with
the current plan.
August 12th, 2011 at 6:06 am
@Capt. Tim,
Probably about half of our team is going into years 2, 3 ,or 4. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t those the years where players tend to have the most improvement? So to say we haven’t improved our team is a very inaccurate statement, in my opinion. You don’t think Mike Will is going to be better? Rejus? Freeman? Blount? Talib (your boy)? GMC (Thomas’s boy)? Biggers? Briscoe? I can go on and on. All those guys should be considerably better this year, and last year was good enough to get us 10 wins (shut up Thomas, I know 3rd place, lol). Who of those guys would you want to replace with free agents, thus stunting their growth? I can only see MLB as a possibility. You’ve said it yourself many times, MLB isn’t that important in our system, right? Obviously that is not true, but losing an average MLB is not going to kill us. Seriously, we are talking about Barrett freaking Ruud, not Ray Lewis. The talent is there on our team, perhaps more than ever (at least on offense). I really believe the key to our season is going to be on our defensive line. If we stop allowing QB’s to text their friends while in the pocket, we will be very good. Stop hanging out with Thomas and Eric, and get back to the Captain we all know and love.
August 12th, 2011 at 7:44 am
Thanks BamBamBuc, great job as usual.
I think the number 1 improvement for this team will be experience alone, addressing weakness such as DE which the Bucs appear to have done well in the Draft points to further improvement.
August 12th, 2011 at 9:22 am
BamBam, you nailed it…Hawaiian, you are right, we need the Capt back. he m,ay have to make himself walk that plank he always refering to if the Bucs start winning right away.
GO BUCS!!!!!!!!!
August 13th, 2011 at 9:49 am
The BUCS WILL win the NFC South title this year. No doubt about it.