The QB Blast: No Special Treatment
April 19th, 2012
- Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company,America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
Before his first draft adds new faces to the Buccaneers, Greg Schiano is getting a good look this week at his veteran roster with the first minicamp of the team he inherited from Raheem Morris.
The Bucs recently cut ties with who I think was the poster boy for what went wrong last season. Not the only one to be sure, but it was a significant statement to the team.
Why was Tanard Jackson the apex of the problem? Even though publicly they welcomed him back with open arms, human nature makes for serious resentment. They let him take a year off (a league banishment of his own making) and then let him walk back in and enter the starting lineup immediately with barely a single practice under his belt. Not only that, they doubled his salary within a couple of weeks.
Don’t you think the other 52 guys on the roster that went through training camp would have liked their salary doubled? Jackson didn’t sweat a drop with his team during training camp or the first five weeks of the season, but with a winning record accomplished with the players already in the locker room, he moved right back into the starting lineup without earning it back. Coincidentally, they didn’t win another game after his contract extension.
In team sports, coaches preach competition and earning your position through blood, sweat and tears. Dissention comes when players are treated differently in the area of workload. Raheem Morris watched and learned to treat players differently during his years with Jon Gruden, who I think lost his team’s ear as well, just not as impressively as last year.
Allowing players to have individual practice schedules, including pre-determined days off each and every week, causes the other players that carry their extra practice load to get a little jaded and builds resentment in the locker room. It also undermines so many of the coach’s sermons on hard work and players earning their playing time, and players start tuning them out.
In the great football movie about race relations and a state championship run in Remember The Titans, the star linebacker confronts his friend and kicks him off the team for not blocking for a black teammate. This unites the team as the players see that certain players will not get special treatment. The scene became the driving factor for them coming together as one and winning the state title.
Based on last year’s performance, Schiano would probably like to wipe the entire roster clean and start again, but he is limited in just how many changes he can actually make in a single year, so it may be up to players like Josh Freeman to stand up to a couple of guys and tell them that they need to practice like the rest of the team and that their body language and attitudes of last season are unacceptable moving forward and won’t be tolerated.
Getting this part of the team squared away will be the biggest reason the Bucs go from worst to first — eventually.
April 19th, 2012 at 10:11 am
@Bucbelever – Your comment has been deleted as it adds nothing and is mean-spirited. Change or your attitude or head to another Bucs website. –Joe
April 19th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Great read. I read several articles sometimes on the same topics on multiple sites. But this article definitely provides more insight of just how bad team chemistry was last year.
Most people know there was a lot of favoritism among players, but the point made regarding Tanard coming in mid season, after failing multiple drug test, becoming an immediate starter, then on top of that receiving a hell of a pay raise?? I’m glad Schiano realize the underlining issue here, and I’m definitely glad he’s gone.
April 19th, 2012 at 10:53 am
I’m glad someone with some credentials finally said this. I have been hurting my wife’s ears about this since last year. Awesome read.
April 19th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Nice knowing you Mr. Brizcoe …
April 19th, 2012 at 11:00 am
You look like a bunch of fifth grade sissies after a cat fight! You got anger, that’s good you’re gonna need it, you got aggression that’s even better you’re gonna need that, too. But any little two year old child can throw a fit! Football is about controlling that anger, harnessing that aggression into a team effort to achieve perfection!
April 19th, 2012 at 11:07 am
freeman dont need to stand up to no one….. he need to get back on track and be held accountable for forcing passes making bad decisions and holding on to the ball entirely too long…. We get caught up and blaming everyone around him… but if he is the leader of our team he has to be held responsible for gettting the ppl around him in the right places… just like manning, brady, brees etc….. some, not all but some of the responsibility falls on our franchise guy…..
April 19th, 2012 at 11:07 am
great “Remember the Titans” reference.
Legendary movie
April 19th, 2012 at 11:13 am
This is a nice article about the soldier.
April 19th, 2012 at 11:31 am
After seeing Coach Schiano’s last two press conferences he seems to be in full control and knows exactly where he wants to go with the team.
Very Dungy like in his purpose and you can tell he is highly confident while realistic.
He also has a lot of suble hints he conveys. For example he was asked about McCoy’s comments about being a “gap destroyer” in this system. he sort of smirked and stated the scheme wont matter its up to the player to destroy gaps.
Not to keen on braging it doesn’t seem, unlike the dream.
The guy has the look of a winner IMO. May take awhile but if Rock does his GM duties correctly, its all gonna be real good at some point IMO.
April 19th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Tampa2,
Freeman wasn’t (usually) responsible for the team getting down by 14 points in the first 2 minutes of the game. He also wasn’t responsible for WR’s & TE’s running into each other like the three stooges. The system was flawed which in turn forced Freeman to take way too many chances in his attempt to get us back in the game. This along with poor support from his offensive teamates led to Freeman’s bad year. Once he gets back to basics and protects the ball; he’ll be back to his 2010 form.
April 19th, 2012 at 11:49 am
As to Freeman Schiano was clear he believes the guy can be great, but he has by no means arrived. Going to be a lot more to it than flipping the switch back to 2010. Remember that was against very weak opponents. and before DC’s had a lot of film on him.
I also like his statement that he has stopped looking at last year and evaluating Free from this time forward.
April 19th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Great article, and great point. Anyone who has ever worked for a boss that shows unwarranted favoritism will recognize the truth of it. If Tanard had come back and had a stellar, momentum changing season, perhaps the pay raise COULD be justified. He didn’t, it wasn’t, and letting him go was the right thing to do.
April 19th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
@QB Blast, I like the article. I thought it was on point.
April 19th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
🙂 Joe.
Short memories, on comments, all around. “Bucbelevr”, not Bucbelever….has actually been contributive, objective, and has added plenty to previous posts.
If a forum, for Bucs fans, which is what JBF is designed to be, allows for open commentary, “free speech” in this great city of Tampa, of which Bucbelevr was born and raised–hopefully Joe was ACTUALLY born here too–then “Joe” should feel rest assured in all opinions that ALL Bucs fans on this site have provided, throughout.
Bucs’ analysts, in the player insights…….sure could be, Derrick Brooks, Mike Alstott–now coach of Northside, thankyou Mike–, Warrick Dunn, Shelton Quarles, and absolutely Warren Sapp…..
From a born/raised TRUE Floridian here, a forum…..for all Bucs’ fans, to post, to comment, is not “Joe’s”…..it is Bucs’ fans to discuss, opinionate, add, and make better what the Tampa Bay community can ask of their professional football team, with their elective, discretionary dollars. “Bucbelevr” has actually been, quite balanced, rational, fair….like Thomas 2.2, SensibleBuc….everyone, on JBF.
See folks…..it’s about the forum, and without the public…………????
April 19th, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Joe here,
@Bucbelevr- Joe here,
1) This is not a forum or message board. Feel free to click on the message boards link above if you want to start your own takes. This site is a friendly dicatorship run by Joe and free speech has limits, rules include not attacking Joe without good reason, not lying about Joe, not intentionally taking things way off topic or personal in the comments section. Second, Joe is not a Tampa native and has written about that many times.
April 19th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
@admin….
Nice Joe 🙂 Consider me gone. Not a Tampa native, classy. “Friendly dictatorship”….you said it, lot to be proud of. No one, has glorified you, nor taken personal shots at “Joe”. THIS isn’t about “Joe”.
“Friendly dictatorship”, …..from a guy not born in Tampa.
A lot, to be proud of. Not to worry, “Joe”. After all, in that light, JBF “stands” for alot. Amounts to alot.
No worries, all taken care of.
April 19th, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Joe here,
@bucbelevr – Joe is responsible for all content on these pages, even comments. Therefore, Joe has no choice but to have rules in place and not have an open “forum.” Joe does not have the time to invest in policing comments and doesn’t want to get sued and wants to keep some fun order to it all. … As for not being born in Tampa, Joe’s not sure how that makes him less of a Bucs fan. Some of Joe’s friends, Tampa natives, were Dolphins fans before the Bucs arrived and still held those allegiances for many years. Embracing fans from all angles is part of being a Bucs fan.
April 19th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I was hatched and raised here in Tampa and could care less if Joe, a class act by the way, is from here or not!!????
Keep up the great work and site Joe! There is no equal when it comes to total Buc information!
April 19th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Holy comma splices.
As a Tampa native, go the hell away with your misguided condescension. All Bucs fans, regardless of current location or birthplace, have an equal voice.
April 19th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Joe if your responsible for everything on your site, how do you let capt dim post here every day, his takes are so dumb he makes you and all buc fans look dumb. Joe do the right thing, so that we are no longer lumped together with that buffoon.lmao
April 19th, 2012 at 7:06 pm
Thomas is a treasure. Kind of like that crazy uncle you see on Thanksgiving who rarely takes his meds.
April 20th, 2012 at 6:10 am
I’m not a Tampa native nor do I live here. I have been a Bucs fan since before before the Bucco Bruce logo and creamsicle jersies were announced.
I fully appreciate Thomas 2.2 and chuckle when he schools some commenters. Like previously, he mentioned that he had read an article on GMC being one of the biggest busts in the last seven drafts.
He was attacked and belittled for making stuff up. He waited just long enough to savor the moment, and then came back and posted the link confirming his opinion. That tactic is called a “Honey Pot”, and people actually fell for it.
Crazy uncle, indeed!
April 20th, 2012 at 7:15 am
i was talking about tim, thomas is fine
April 20th, 2012 at 7:32 am
@tampa2ali,
Josh Freeman will be alright. Look what he had to work with last year. An O-coordinator that ran the Benn-around every other play, and players that had their own agenda, not the teams. Not to mention the amatuer coach that never had a clue.
April 20th, 2012 at 9:05 am
You actually think Thomas did some-“honey pot”-thing on purpose??? TOO FUNNY!
Glad he has one follower that enjoys his nonsense.