As a 24-7 Bucs fan, Joe already has stopped savoring Matt Garza’s masterpiece last night and moved his attention to bust-in-waiting quarterback Josh Freeman’s contract.

He doesn’t have one.

And training camp starts in just seven days.

Joe can’t help but remember advice given to Freeman live on the radio by Steve Duemig, the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, during a interview the two conducted on 620 WDAE-AM, The Sports Animal, several weeks ago.

Duemig reminded Freeeman that he was in charge of his contract negotiations, not his agent.

Obviously, Freeman, a hard-working and apparently classy young man, is chomping at the bit to start training camp with his new teammates next Saturday and compete for the starting QB job up for grabs. His agent, superagent Tom Condon, may have other ideas.

The always-thrifty Bucs may not be in a hurry to get the deal done and could try and squeeze the eager QB. After all, Mark Dominik prefers Freeman sit on the bench a while anyway.

It’ll be an interesting chess game. Condon wants the biggest check. Dominik wants the smallest check. And Freeman’s stuck in the middle wanting to win the starting job, even though it may already be decided that he’s a clipboard holder for 2009.

The question of Freeman’s contract was posed to Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskas in his NFC South chat yesterday on BSPN.com.

Q. How close are the Bucs to signing Josh Freeman?

Pat Yasinskas (2:14 PM)

Hang loose on that one. There’s been almost no movement in the first round. It’ll heat up next week and I think Freeman will go right down to the wire.

Some think Joe hates Josh Freeman. Nothing could be further from the truth. Joe hopes his contract gets done before camp. Just don’t ask Joe to bet on it.