Calling Out Swaggy
August 30th, 2017
Practice habits mocked.
A week or so ago, Bucs receiver DeSean Jackson put out on Instagram an outline of a skit Bucs rookies were going to perform.
Included were O.J. Howard doing an impersonation of America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, going all Southern Baptist preacher before a game, Riley Bullough doing an impersonation of linebackers coach Mark Duffner, and the rookies as a whole calling out practice-hating, kicker-heckling, tree-grinding defensive tackle Swaggy Baker.
The rap on Baker not being a practice player has been in the public eye since he was signed by Tampa Bay. And apparently, there is a high degree of accuracy in the claim.
In the rookie skit featured on “Hard Knocks” last night, one rookie playing a coach asked another rookie wearing Swaggy’s No. 90 if he was “practicing today?”
The actor playing Swaggy responded, “Nah, coach. I’m on break every week.”
The Bucs auditorium, full of players, erupted in laughter. Except one. That was Swaggy. As his teammates howled, Swaggy yells, “Hey, f@ck ya’ all!”
Does the truth hurt?
Later in the skit, a slideshow presentation was offered of what appeared to represent the five ugliest guys in the NFL. No. 1, was Swaggy with the title, “Not So Swaggy.”
Swaggy’s response? He flipped the auditorium the bird.
August 30th, 2017 at 12:43 am
Yeah I’m hoping he isn’t another flop. But from all signs even the rookies are calling him lazy.
August 30th, 2017 at 12:52 am
For the sake of the team, I’m hoping this is one in a long line of incorrect assumptions/ predictions from the Joe’s so far this off-season.
Personally I’m going to withhold judgement on Chris Baker until we have seen some meaningful snaps from in a Real game. Not practice or preseason.
All I know so far is that the tape of him from last year in D.C. was good. Damn Good. Tape in which he showed some real nastiness, which is a presence our line very much needs.
August 30th, 2017 at 12:58 am
The fact the Bucs rookies mocked Swaggy always sitting out practice — and the entire team erupted with laughter — should tell you that this isn’t just some wild fabrication of Joe’s imagination.
It was broadcast on HBO for the world to see.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:22 am
Joe….baker was laughing with them…i don’t think the mock made Chris take it to heart..he was all in on the joke they made…this story is irrelevant …but nothing against you joe…you have more insight than anyone else in tampa….hood read joe
August 30th, 2017 at 1:40 am
I don’t deny that the event occured Joe. I question it’s relevance to whether or not Chris Baker will be a good Nose Tackle for this team. Which in the end is all that should matter.
August 30th, 2017 at 2:25 am
I loved it! He’s freaking hilarious at times though. But I like his mouth. He’ll be getting in some heads come game time…and im sure he’ll be able to back it up!
We’re talking practice and preseason. Redskin fans didnt like it that he left….wonder why?
August 30th, 2017 at 2:53 am
Baker was laughing with them.
Stop the campaign.
Baker isnt a dedicated Practice guy.
Everyone knows- including Coaches and Warhop, who were laughing right along.
HBO loves Baker, they have given him more camera time than anyone.
Before He heckled the Jacksonville fans- they showed him Blowing up the Jville line.
The Team seems to love his humor.
I think hes funny. And if he can blow up Olines next to McCoy, we will all love him
Practice be damned
August 30th, 2017 at 2:54 am
“including Coaches Koetter and Warhop”
August 30th, 2017 at 3:11 am
Agreed Blake. I HOPE it’s just his attitude and he plays great, but definitely getting leery after seeing his practice habits. Our d line needs to play better than last year for sustained success.
August 30th, 2017 at 4:39 am
I don’t care if he practices or not so long as he can play and knows what he’s doing. I’ll leave it up to coaches to figure it out – but his actual on-field production has been good and should be a nice upgrade over McDonald. As for those saying he might be a bust – he’s getting like $5-mil a year… Evan Smith is making $4.5-mil a year. Baker isn’t getting paid anything close to big time money and thus isn’t a big time risk and thus he can’t be a big time bust.
August 30th, 2017 at 6:48 am
Even with no practice he’s arguably the second best lineman on the squad. Find ball, get ball, not too hard
August 30th, 2017 at 8:16 am
Practice like you play…Baker is a waste
August 30th, 2017 at 9:43 am
Baker is a bust so far
August 30th, 2017 at 9:53 am
We all have to hope he’s the Alan Iverson of the Bucs.
August 30th, 2017 at 10:12 am
This smear campaign that the joes has put on is getting redundant. It was a joke. Why are u not writing about how OJ Howard was mocking JW3 pre game speeches? Because it was obviously a joke. Just as joe dirt was mocking Mark Dufner, clearly he has lost all the respect of his lber room. Why are those instances any different than Baker? Baker has had Veterans days and was dealing with an injury. Why not attack mike Evans? He had a Veterans Day, he must be lazy too right?
FAKE NEWS
August 30th, 2017 at 10:15 am
If joes is soo adamant that baker is a lazy bum why don’t one of u ask him about it at his next presser? Don’t be keyboard warriors. Ask the tough questions.
August 30th, 2017 at 11:31 am
Already hearing the excuses. Some old Bucs fans happy to put up mediocrity.
August 30th, 2017 at 12:18 pm
Mike Evans Goat
– agreed, lol.
Might find Baker not as lazy as hes accused of being!
August 30th, 2017 at 12:34 pm
By the way, might want to check out Bakers Utube highlights.
Thats more disruption than our Dline ( minus McCoy) has accomplished in their life.
Why dont you two go campaign against some of our more useless D-linemen.
Plenty to choose from.
Swaggy may actually improve that line
August 30th, 2017 at 1:00 pm
Yo, anyone else catch that dingus Skip Bayless majorly dissing Coach Koetter this morning? Claims that he thinks that the current coaching staff is going to hold this team back. And that Koetter is to tough on Jameis.
I guess this dude doesn’t realize that Jameis has specifically asked Koetter to coach him up harder.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:05 pm
nobody suggested joe of making it up. joe suggested it would\could infect the team. sounds like the team understands what they should be about
August 30th, 2017 at 1:07 pm
Some of you are blind.
Baker did not laugh at them at first. At first he was mad over it. And then he covered it up by laughing.
Sheesh, it’s right there on the video. I guess some people only see what fits their views.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
@Capt.Tim
I hope you are right about Baker. I really do.
But he has done nothing to prove himself on this team thus far, so you have to understand people being concerned.
And the highlights?
Most of the good ones are from 2015. He’s had one good year out of 8 years. Highlights are always his best plays. But they never show the majority of his plays…which are subpar.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:14 pm
Not sure why everyone is defending this guy. The rap on him when he came here, before he ever stepped foot through the door, was that he didn’t like to practice. How is it surprising that that’s exactly how it’s playing out? Why would you say that it’s a smear campaign when that was what was said about him before getting here and all of the evidence has pointed toward it being the case? Come on guys, you’re better than this. Just a couple more weeks til there’s real football. I know it’s been a long offseason, but you’re better than bickering about this silliness.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:16 pm
pick6 Says
“Nobody suggested joe of making it up. joe suggested it would\could infect the team. sounds like the team understands what they should be about”
Only problem it IS causing issues. Did you watch the latest Hard Knocks?
Dirk Koetter had to jump all over Jameis Winston for goofing around like Baker. Dirk was mad as heck.
It’s on the video for Episode 4.
August 30th, 2017 at 1:54 pm
@bonzai, the guys have been “goofing off” throughout hard knocks. it’s made for some of the best footage. practice is a grind but there are clearly some quiet moments and the guys have fun. Teammates were not teeing off on swaggy because he is a joker. he got called out for not working as hard as most of the other guys
Sure Jameis got caught not paying attention when he should have, but he would be the first to tell you that’s on him and not Chris Baker. I have a hard time believing that it is evidence of a self-directed guy like Jameis buying into a lower standard of preparation because of Chris Baker’s choices
August 30th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
personally, i think the rookies openly & repeatedly mocking a practice-averse 30 year old veteran says more about where the culture of the team stands than said 30 year old vet feeling free to take reps and days off and pull various stunts. a team that doesn’t intimidate hard working rookies into tip toeing around a highly paid vet who is dogging it in practice is showing respect for the right things.
August 30th, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Being he is not in best shape , he maybe saving energy for gameday , I hope !!
August 30th, 2017 at 2:33 pm
Remember JW3 last year in the bears game talking about all the bears fans leaving? Then he said my bad focus on the field. Is that Chris Bakers fault as well? This is literally a smear campaign run by the joes. They had their heart set on Calais Campbell and he cost too much. I don’t recall a single positive article on Chris Baker since he was signed. Only negative bullspit
August 30th, 2017 at 2:48 pm
McCoy called him Fat on HBO. And he just laughs and talks Sh.. Perhaps Baker is a game Player? McCoy has said Baker can bring it when he wants to. We shall see. Sapp talked tons of smack too. But Sapp earned that right. Sapp would laugh and joke..10 seconds later, knock an O linemen flat on his butt and..sack the QB. So far Koetter has been silent about Baker. can’t wait.
August 30th, 2017 at 3:00 pm
Pick 6
Great point about the culture.
To those accusing Joe of an agenda…just SMH. I think the Joe’s are just fans who have turned their passion into a living. All this crap about them piling on Doug or Baker or whomever is ludicrous. They go out of their way to be transparent.
I’ve read them disparage the play of a guy and add that he’s one of the nicest guys on the team.
I certainly do not always agree with Joe or anybody…but I’ve never found them to be out to get anybody. What is their motivation? As fans they may express opinions that do not sit well with all…but I think they are HONEST opinions not drive by some ulterior motive. In fact their conflict of interest would be in their money making site and yet I see them being straight forward…I can’t believe it’s comfortable for them with Buc brass when they read “Den of Depression”.
They’ve already announced how much grief they received for not being huge Rudy fans orginally.
What is with all this manure about Joe being out to get anybody? Is Joe not entitled to his opinion the same as the rest of us? If we disagree fine…but why always come up with this crap about Joe “being out to get somebody”.
Well except for Rachel Watson of course.
August 30th, 2017 at 4:08 pm
St Pete
I’m not one to come at the Joes on some bullspit. But it has gotten a little out of hand with the Chris baker articles. Am I wrong? Somebody (I think it might have been joe) on a thread yesterday said that stats can be twisted to prove a point. Well that’s exactly what is going on here, just with hard knocks and hear say instead of stats. Joe promotes Bucs uncensored, and bucs uncensored promotes calling out bullspit when u see it from the “Evil Bucs Media”. I’m just reserving my right to call bullspit.
August 30th, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Every skin fan told me he was lazzzzzzzy.
Does jason do any background research on guys?
Asj talk to him for 1 minute and you aren’t taking him.
You have to get Indians to track Indians
Athletic ability is on half the story
August 30th, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Blake_bucsfan – I didn’t hear Skip on Dirk, but I will say I HATE the idea that you have a young gunslinging QB the only thing Dirk seems to care about is turning the ball over. You literally could have just kept Mike Glennon here if that’s all that mattered. Jameis needs to play and be allowed to play and with that will come mistakes. Now if Dirk yells at Jameis, I don’t care, Gruden would have done the same thing – but the issue I have with Dirk is last year, during the Broncos game, Dirk threw a hissy fit and gave up trying in the game, including punting from like the Broncos like 39 yard line or something late in the game- then post game Dirk just whined that we weren’t going to get the first down anyways. That stuff I can’t stand. Dirk was an excellent OC in 2015 but last year, as an offensive play caller, he was awful – he was ultra conservative, he ran the same plays over and over in the same situations, he was Mike Shula level bad. Even with that the team got to 9-7 because of some great defensive play – but the team would have been in the playoffs if Dirk did his job better.
The blind praising of Dirk so far is baffling to me, he lost us the Rams game by not understanding how time outs work, he quit in the Broncos game and he basically shutdown Jameis the moment the team got any lead of any amount. I’m expecting a ton more out of Dirk this year and I’m writing off last year as a transition year, going from the booth to the sideline – but he was a HC in college so I don’t know. Also last year we didn’t have the weapons – Dirk has that now and hopefully he remembers what made him great in 2015, and that wasn’t giving up on the team or calling every 1st down as an obvious run up the middle for the first 3 quarters of every game.
August 30th, 2017 at 9:01 pm
LOLOL!!
Awesome! Howard feel so important. Joe took his suggestion!
Don’t forget “photo-bombing” as he dared to photo-bomb Americas QB Jameis Winston.
August 31st, 2017 at 12:24 am
Swaggy: “nah! i only need 1 rep a practice” LOL