Fighter for footballs.

Very abbreviated practice today in the final day of minicamp. So sadly, Joe’s report is short as well. Remember: this is underwear football. Think flag football without the flags. No hitting of any sort.

* Pretty cool drill for linebackers in positional work. It’s nothing new, but it does give you sort of an idea how athletic if not quick the linebackers are. A Bucs assistant would throw a ball long and high and the linebackers would have to chase it down, often trying to catch over-the-shoulder balls. Backup Ladarius Hamilton of North Texas is fast as heck and he caught up with a pass. So too did Jason Pierre-Paul, who is simply just a damn good athlete. While Joe Tryon did not catch an attempt Joe saw, Tryon did impress with his mobility. Later when Tryon couldn’t hang on to a ball he caught up with, you could hear JPP heckling him. Not in a mean way.

* After Tryon couldn’t catch up with the pass Joe witnessed, he seemed to limp slightly getting back to his position group. Later in practice on 11-on-11, Joe saw Tryon come off the field with others and it looked like Tryon was favoring a leg. Maybe it’s just the way he walks? Tryon had a knee procedure recently.

* On the same field where linebackers are working, but on the far end, O.J. Howard is working with a trainer who has Howard going through running drills, including running in space.

* This was a very abbreviated practice. It was about an hour with maybe the first 20-30 minutes comprised of position groups in drills. Much of the 11-on-11 was on the far end of the field, some 100-120 yards away from reporters with a wall of players standing in-between. Camille Kostek could have been performing a pole dance flaunting one of her self-designed collections of swimwear attire and Joe wouldn’t have known it.

* Finally, 7-on-7. Park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking, tequila-shooting, smartphone-phobic, waffle-grilling, trophy-throwing, roller-coaster-scared, numbers-rules-peeved, Bucs-Super-Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady had a pass tipped at the line that still found Mike Evans down the left side — wide-arse open. Evans tried two or three moves to try to shake Antoine Winfield, to no avail.

* On a pass to foot-rubbing, car-littering Rob Gronkowski maybe 20 yards along the right sideline from Brady, Chris Wilcox and Gronk wrestled and fought for the ball. No catch as the ball hit the ground.

* Brady throws to Scotty Miller in the right flat and Miller was immediately swarmed by defenders.

* On a short pass over the middle from Brady to Gronk, it appeared Lavonte David had a pick but somehow Gronk pulled the ball out of David’s hands. You could hear David holler in disgust after the play.

And that, friends, is the last practice report Joe has until July 24, when the Bucs next gather as a team on a practice field.