Joe’s put this off for too long.

During the Cardinals-Bucs broadcast on Sunday, the announcers said that one of Earnest Graham’s close relatives — Joe’s 99 percent sure it was his mother — is gravely ill and he had been dealing with that.

Graham was not practicing today at Tropicana Field, per TBO.com. And while Graham has been nursing a hamstring injury, Joe hopes he’s not out dealing with more pressing family concerns.

Joe wants to send his best wishes to Graham and his family.

Graham has always been very accomodating of Joe and Graham may be the most active in charitable activities among all Buccaneers. Graham spends his share of time helping in the Tampa Bay area, and around Fort Myers where he grew up. They even named a street for him down there after a resident unknown to Graham peititioned the city to make it happen.

Joe just wants to shoot his best wishes to Graham.

Joe’s been concerned about the secrecy surrounding Brian Price’s hip/pelvis injury that got Price placed on injured reserve and ended his rookie season.

From Joe’s experience, thin information released publicly usually means a serious problem.

So Joe was pleased to hear Buccaneers Radio Network host TJ Rives interviewed today and say that Price wanted to play and was pushing Bucs officials to get on the field. Rives made the comment during the Fabulous Sports Babe Show on 1040 AM.

Rives went on to say the Bucs shut him down and he hadn’t heard of any long term concern.

This obviously sets back Price’s development; he needs the reps. But Joe’s glad to hear somewhat positive news about Price.

Aside from Joe pining for Rachel Watson, Joe so looks forward to Thursday when Joe can gawk at the gorgeous Jenny Dell and hear her babble about football in a BSPN video.

So imagine Joe’s sheer horror this morning when he clicked on the BSPN link to await Jenny’s features when Jon Anik appears. To quote Tony Bruno, “This is an outrage!”

But Joe is dedicated to bring Bucs fans Bucs news. So now, you can listen to watch Anik spout statistical mumbojumbo.

Joe remembers the days of Father Dungy, when fans at the CITS drank twice as many (or more) beers than the Bucs made first downs.

It was neanderthal football. Sid Luckman rolled in his grave. It was nearly irresponsible football, asking the great Bucs defense to both shut out the opposing team, and try to score points.

Bucs linebacker Barrett Ruud knows there is a lot of pressure on the Bucs defense. So he could breath a sigh of relief when he saw what could be a glimpse of the future when the Bucs offense opened it up against Arizona, so documents Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

With quarterback Josh Freeman’s penchant for staging fourth-quarter rallies and a quick-strike capability emerging on offense, a sense of contentment has begun to grow among the players on defense.

“It’s comforting,” Ruud said of the offense’s newfound ability to score regularly and carry its share of the responsibility for winning. “It’s something I haven’t had in a while.”

Joe has written this before, but he was more than geeked over what the offense looked like, and may look like at Atlanta Sunday. The addition of LeGarrette Blount has completely opened up the offense now that defenses actually have to concern themselves with a run.

The Bucs offense, with Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn and Kellen Winslow, really has a chance to blow up like we’ve never seen before.

Bring on Sunday!

Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, the guy who predicted the Bucs would be completely putrid, has devoted an entire video to the state of the Bucs.

Joe suspects this will annoy many Bucs fans.

Roddy White fired some smack at Aqib Talib, as Joe wrote earlier, and the Falcons wide receiver also went after Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman.

Chris Harry of Fanhouse.com delivered the news.

“Their coach is digging them a big hole, saying that stuff, man,” Falcons wideout Roddy White told FanHouse. “Best team in NFC? C’mon. They lost to New Orleans — bad. And they still have to play us. It looks like they got a pretty good quarterback down there, but he ain’t no Matt Ryan. The defense is creating turnovers and all that. That’s cool. But we feel as though we’re going to be ready and prepared.”

That’s not bulletin board material for the Bucs locker room. It’s freakin’ wallpaper.

White’s not just running his mouth, he’s going after arguably the Bucs’ primary leaders.

Yes, the Falcons are an excellent team, probably better than the Bucs. But Atlanta also squandered a 24-3 halftime lead at home to Cincinnati in their last game. And the Bucs played them down to the final seconds in Atlanta last year.

The Bucs are surely capable of shutting up White, even if they struggle to stop the run.

Rick Stroud of the St. Pete Times penned a story today about the roots and growth of the relationship between Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman.

Many Bucs fans have heard all about that before, but Joe found one nugget at the end of the story particularly intriguing. Morris explained some of his motivation to head from the Bucs to Kansas State, where he met Freeman.

When Morris left the Bucs for Kansas State, he was an assistant defensive backs coach on a staff that included defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, linebackers coach Joe Barry and defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin.

“At that time, Monte was the only one who had ever called his own plays,” Morris said. “I wanted to call my own plays, which is why I went to Kansas State. Everybody thought it was a great opportunity for me.”

Clearly a very smart career move for Raheem and probably a bit risky at the time leaving the Bucs for the college ranks.

Coffee-slurping, popcorn-shoveling, oatmeal-loving Peter King discusses the race to the playoffs in the NFC in this Sports Illustrated video.

It seems Tampa Tribune reporter eye-RAH! Kaufman might not have taken Roddy White’s comments yesterday as a slap at Aqib Talib, but that’s surely the way Joe read them.

Some don’t think Joe doesn’t know what an insult is, but that’s another story.

White says he’d rather be covered by Talib than Ronde Barber, in part because Barber “watches film.” Here’s the quote Kaufman captured:

White sounds like a man eager to take on the challenge of facing Talib.

“On the other side of the ball, you have a guy (Barber) who’s made (five) Pro Bowls,” White told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Talib hasn’t made any. I’d rather go against Talib than the guy who watches film and is real crafty and knows that if the inside receiver goes to the flat, then he’s going to jump the inside route.”

Funny how White thinks Talib doesn”t seem to know how to jump an inside route. Yeah, right. Keep thinking that, Roddy.

Talib surely has given up some big plays, but he’s known around the Bucs for his attention to detail.

Why White wanted to throw some darts at Talib is unclear. But it looks like the trash talk between these two started yesterday.

“Oh, Joe. I love when you tell it like it is.”

St. Pete Times columnist Tom Jones wants you to know that ESPN personality Trey Wingo meant no disrespect to Raheem Morris when Wingo called the Buccaneers “Radio Raheem’s company” during a SportsCenter highlight on Sunday.

And Jones is so bent on making sure Wingo comes off as nothing more than a playful ESPN talking head, Jones devoted a whole column at TampaBay.com to explaining why Joe is an irresponsible moron for writing that Wingo’s comment was an insult of Morris.

Now Joe has to step out of character for a moment, since Jones personally went after the “Joe” who wrote the post. That would be me, Steve Isbitts, one of the two guys known as “Joe” around these here pages.

Forgetting about all the incorrect assumptions Jones makes in his piece (will get to a big one later), the big problem is Jones is unwilling to assign any responsibility to Wingo for how his audience might have interpreted “Radio Raheem’s company.”

Who died and left Tom Jones insult-determiner-and-chief?

A comment is not insulting until Tom Jones says it is? Please.

It was the take in the original JoeBucsFan.com post here that Wingo’s line was an insult of Raheem Morris and was a comment “born from the color of Morris’ skin.”

Jones and Wingo think that was inflammatory and borderline calling Wingo a racist. (Yes, I talked to Wingo today).

Frankly, I wasn’t calling Wingo a racist at all; just keeping it real. I firmly believe Wingo doesn’t drop the one-liner if Morris isn’t a black man, hence the reason the comment was “born from the color of Morris’ skin.”

Bucs fans would be kidding themselves if they thought that those who called Sabby Piscitelli “the next John Lynch” last year didn’t make that comment, in part, because Piscitelli is white.

Does that mean someone who made that comment is racist? No. But the comment is “born from the color” of Piscitelli’s skin. …(No word on whether Lynch was insulted.)

Call me crazy, but it seems clear that it’s insulting to nickname the Bucs head coach for either the profanity-spewing Radio Raheem character in the 1989 film “Do The Right Thing,” or for the mentally challenged, football-loving Radio in the 2003 movie “Radio.”

It’s hardly a leap to think Raheem Morris and the Bucs organization finds it insulting. But hey, Tom Jones didn’t bother to get a comment from Raheem or the Bucs for his story. … Guess it doesn’t matter when you’re the judge and jury on what is or is not an insult.

Wingo told me, and Jones, he was referencing the 1989 film character, which is fine and dandy. But the problem is that ESPN’s target demographic, viewers 18 to 35, are far more likely to connect the nickname “Radio” to the 2003 film Radio, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. playing the mentally challenged young man who loved football — versus the old Spike Lee flick that had nothing to do with football.

The call here is that Wingo was totally irresponsible in floating “Radio Raheem’s company” when he should have known it could have been widely misinterpreted by his core audience.

And don’t think for a minute that Wingo doesn’t know the target demographic at ESPN. The whole industry does.

Jones went on to say that a prominent national figure like Wingo surely wouldn’t read local Bucs message boards and know that some commenters have been insultingly calling Raheem Morris “Radio” since he got the Bucs job. …That might hold water if ProFootballTalk.com didn’t write a story about it last year and if ESPN didn’t have a massive staff to screen this kind of stuff.

Regardless, Wingo is responsible for thoroughly knowing the implications of what comes out of his mouth. His ignorance shouldn’t have any bearing on whether or not the comment is an insult.

Jones goes on to blast me as a second-rate journalist for not calling Trey Wingo to get his take. As I told Jones, what was in Wingo’s head is not relevant. The comment is what’s relevant.

Hurling an insult does not require intent. …None of us even know if Wingo wrote the line or was just reading it off a teleprompter.

Finally, Jones closes his attack piece on me with the following nonsense:

Finally, I’m guessing Isbitts is surprised that his post, written on a local blog, caused such a ruckus, and perhaps that’s the lesson here for all of us. Whatever is written on the Internet is not necessarily written into a vacuum. People might actually read it and you better be aware of your words whether you’re writing for a national Web site, a newspaper or hometown blog, or the comments sections of any of them.

This is so out in left field that Joe has asked Jones to edit/delete/correct it.

The reality is JoeBucsFan.com fully expected this to become a national story immediately. So the clueless-local-blog-owner take offered by Jones is baseless and incorrect.

JoeBucsFan.com is partners with BigLeadSports.com, owner of the wildly popular TheBigLead.com. When a story is posted here of national interest, it is immediately sent to that site for consideration. And as readers of ProFootballTalk.com know, numerous posts here are picked up by that NBC Sports property.

There’s also a little something called Google alert that millions of businesses and people use to track things on the Internet. Jones seems unaware of such modern and widely used technology.

The minute “Trey Wingo” was posted here, it was known by this writer that Wingo, his agent and ESPN’s public relations team would be all over it.

So for Jones to say that “I’m guessing Isbitts is surprised that his post, written on a local blog, caused such a ruckus,” is completely wrong. In fact, the opposite is true.

It’s pretty sad that Jones had to sum up his spin-filled work with a complete pile of nonsense.

Yes, that’s an insult.

This news nearly had Joe fall out of his chair.

Just a few minutes ago, WDAE-AM 620 radio personality Derrick Brooks broke the news that the Bucs put in a claim for free agent linebacker Shawne Merriman, who wound up with the Buffalo Bills.

No, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a misprint and Joe is sober.

Wow. The team that eschewed free agents the past two years was going to go after the biggest defensive free agent fish currently out of water/work. Wow.

So what’s this tell Joe? A few things.

1) If shows that Bucs general manager Mark Dominik has come to the conclusion that the Bucs inside rush defense is a sieve and needs help.

2) Probably the most important thing this tells Joe is that Dominik, like Joe, believes the Bucs are in the midst of a playoff race.

Dominik, amid being crucified by many Bucs fans while he doggedly pursued rebuilding the Bucs through the draft, had long said amid the arrows and stones tossed his way, that when it came time for the Bucs to plug holes with a free agent, he would do so.

No one, and Joe’s going to take a bit of liberty here, including Dominik, expected the Bucs rebuilding to bear fruit so quickly. Seeing that the Bucs have a very real shot at a playoff berth in a weak NFC, and the Bucs woefully inept in recent games at stopping the run, this tells Joe that Dominik has fast-forwarded his philosophy of when the Bucs will go outside the organization to boost the roster.

Joe’s not doing cartwheels over the prospect of Jeff Faine rushing to return to start on Sunday in Atlanta.

Do the Bucs really miss him right now? Jeremy Zuttah is hardly Sean Mahan out there.

Joe would rather see Faine get another week healthier before the Bucs break up the starting offensive line that performed so well in Arizona. Per the Bucs Twitter feed, Faine will hit the practice field today.

C Jeff Faine (quad) said he is going to test it out on the prac field today (it’s a slowed-down practice) and hopes he can return this week.

Joe’s hoping Faine feels great. But Joe would prefer to see last Sunday’s O-line rewarded with another start.

Congrats to Aqib Talib for being named NFL Defensive Player of the Week! Another huge game like he had on Sunday and a Pro Bowl is probably in his near future.

You can show your Talib love by sporting his game jersey all over town.

Click here to win one of four Talib jerseys to be given away by Joe’s friends at Ed Morse. First drawing is Nov. 30.

“The Professor,” John Clayton, discusses the ramifications of Brian Price being placed on the injured reserve list in this BSPN video.

When you’re the best team in the NFC, you better believe your defensive line is doing some great things.

Monday evening, a caller into The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620, was critical of Kyle Moore’s play and the Bucs head coach fired back with a rant on the great things happening along the Bucs’ defensive line.

“I keep hearing the criticism for the D-line. But what I’m seeing from a coaching standpoint from the coach’s booth is I see Gerald McCoy get five tackles and a tackle for a loss. I hear about him getting pancaked. They’re not watching the same tape I’m watching. He’s causing disruption along with Roy Miller up in there getting four tackles [Sunday] and a tackle for a loss,” Morris said. “Stylez White coming up big [Sunday] with a sack and a forced fumble, two tackles for a loss and a big-time tackle in the flat on a third down stop. I’m seeing these guys, you know, start to be productive.

“You can’t lead the NFL in interceptions if your D-line is not working. So I think it’s all working together. I really mean it, and don’t take it the wrong way, but stats are for losers. You gotta go out there and play as a unit, as a team and find ways to win football games. And that’s what they’re doing.”

Now Joe thinks this “stats are for losers” line from Raheem is getting a little ridiculous if the head coach is going to quote numbers of tackles and interceptions to a fan and then tell the guy “stats are for losers.”

Make up your mind, Raheem.

For Joe, stats are not for losers in many cases. Frankly, they’re a good way to evaluate aspects of a football team. From looking at success rates in the red zone, numbers on 3rd-and-short, or dozens of other stats, they’re relevant.

Plus, Raheem is always talking about the importance of self-evaluation.  And stats surely play into that. Heck, Greg Olson was out there flapping weeks ago about how Josh Freeman needs to up his completion rate a few percentage points.

And every player on the Bucs knows his stats are so very critical when it comes time for a contract. There are so many other examples.

Of course, Joe gets that the wins and losses are all that matter, which is the message of the “stats are for losers” line.

Joe suggests Raheem switch to saying “success is not measured by stats.” Or perhaps, “this isn’t Gary Shelton’s fantasy football team.”

Yesterday, Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman appeared on the “Jim Rome Is Burning” show on BSPN. Below is the video of Freeman’s appearance.

Joe is bringing his readers a treat this morning. Sadly, no, it’s not news of Joe’s never-ending quest to lure Rachel Watson into his lair. Rather, it’s a rare video sighting of noted Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly.

In this TBO video, Fennelly has a sitdown with his colleague eye-RAH! Kaufman, to discuss the prospects of the Bucs making it to the postseason.

Please watch the video and by all means break down Fennelly’s analysis.

Joe was drunk with joy (and other liquids) following the Bucs thrilling win over the Cardinals Sunday. Part of that was Joe had to calm down he was so frightened.

No, this Steelers fan was not knocking on Joe’s door looking for a treat. Joe was frightened beyond words that the Bucs gave up 305 yards passing to the likes of Max Hall and Derek Anderson of all people, and coughed up a 17-point lead.

Winning cures all ills but Joe is having a hard time getting that memory scrubbed from his brain. It seems this nasty image also left an impression upon Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620.

Justin, who hosts the award-winning “Blitz” on Saturday afternoons, has gone of record suggesting the Bucs defense is not much different under Raheem Morris than it was under the heinous Jim Bates Experiment.

Sunday’s showing seemed to reinforce Justin’s thoughts of the Bucs defense, so he wrote in his weekly “What I Learned” column.

1. I learned that no lead is safe in a game involving the Buccaneers. We’ve seen the Bucs have to come back in the 4th quarter in 4 of their 5 wins this year including Sunday’s game in Arizona. The Bucs offense has shown the ability to score when needed most, but what about the Bucs defense? Raheem said the defense played phenomenal on Sunday, but other than 2 interceptions thrown right to defenders returned for TDs, what was so phenomenal about it? The defense blew a 17 point lead in the 2nd half and gave up 28 points to an offense led by Max Hall and Derek Anderson. Yuck! I know that “stats are for losers”, but giving up 400 total yards to the Cardinals and still having one of the worst ranked defenses against the teams they’ve played is cause for concern. Hey, at least they’re running the “Tampa 2” which is better suited for these players!

Watching the immortal Anderson rally from a 17-point deficit, when the Bucs should have stomped on the Cardinals’ collective throats, was so unnerving to Joe he broke out in hives.

This is why Joe wrote earlier in the week that with LeGarrette Blount in the game, defenses have to play the run more honestly which means the Bucs should — and can — absolutely turn the offense loose.

All of us witnessed this Sunday. It can be done.

The way the Bucs defense has been playing lately, the Bucs are going to have to win shootouts to get to the playoffs.

Why would an anchor on that alleged news show SportsCenter call Bucs head coach Raheem Morris “Radio Raheem?”

More specifically, it was sounds like anchor Trey Wingo, a noted ESPN personality, referring to the Buccaneers as “Radio Raheem’s company” during a highlight shown on ESPN following Sunday’s Bucs-Cardinals game. Here’s the video evidence, courtesy of BucStop.com.

Radio has a been a Bucs message board nickname of Morris floated by haters of the head coach since he got the job last year. Radio is the movie title and the nickname of the main character in the 2003 film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. The actor played the role of Radio, a mentally challenged young black man mistreated by the local high school football team but later embraced by team coaches and worked with the team.

Calling Morris “Radio Raheem” is an insult, for sure, no doubt born from the color of Morris’ skin. There’s a chance this “Radio Raheem” is a reference to the profanity spewing young black male character murdered in New York City in the movie Do The Right Thing. But that movie had nothing to do with football.

Regardless, the Bucs are 5-2 and there is no reason for some BSPN clown like Wingo to be calling the coach “Radio Raheem.”

So where does this go from here? Joe, who loathes BSPN, vows to call the Stalinist Mouse outfit tomorrow for a response, although Joe expects to get nothing.

Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs’ brass use their muscle to ruffle some feathers in Bristol.

Rookie Brian Price missed some minicamp time because of college commitments, had hamstring issues through the preseason and played a part-time role through three games before going down with some sort of mysterious pelvis injury.

Now Price is done for the season, the Bucs announced this afternoon, placed on injured reserve.

Joe’s always leery of injuries that team’s don’t detail. The Bucs haven’t offered many specifics since Price starting sitting out. Hopefully, this is more precautionary than anything else.

Joe can’t say this is a huge loss for the Bucs this season, given Price has missed four games and only had three tackles. But surely this is a setback for his development and the Bucs’ ability to assess what they have along the line.

Ryan Sims getting more reps in a contract year might not be the worst thing in the world. Former Bucs defensive end Steve White, on his blog’s weekly Bull Rush column, has had some positive things to say about Sims.

No word yet on how the Bucs might replace Price.

Today on “The Opening Drive,” co-hosts Peter King and Bob Papa welcomed Atlanta coach Mike Smith for his weekly Tuesday morning appearance, heard exclusively on Sirius NFL Radio. It soon turned into a Bucs lovefest between coffee-slurping, oatmeal-loving, popcorn-shoveling King and Smith.

In particular, the two raved about Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams.

Peter King: He’s smart on the field, he runs great routes, he’s a very good boundary receiver in that he can get his feet down well. He has been manna from heaven for the Bucs. He will be a good player for them for a long time. Mike, I am telling you that the third practice of Bucs training camp he was their starting receiver.

Mike Smith: He should be. He has the skills you are looking for in a wide receiver. [Josh] Freeman has other weapons too. [Arrelious] Benn is another guy who has good size. They have got some guys there. Raheem is doing a good job with the defense. I like those two rookie tackles they drafted early.

Ronde Barber has been playing forever and Talib, he has unbelievable skills. They are doing some good things there and it shows. I told the players that you get what you earn and we both share a 5-2 record.

King: I think Raheem was smart in this, saying he’s the best team in the NFC because he’s saying to his team, “No one believes in us” and the reason for that is smart alecks like me are saying, “Hey, you played two good teams and you lost by 25.” Until they beat a good team, I’m not going to believe [the Bucs are a playoff team]. I think what they are doing is fantastic from what I thought they would be before the season. I thought they would be awful. But to believe they are a good team they have to win games like against the Falcons in Atlanta which is a very good team. Then you will get respect, even in your own market.

Smith: Peter, they are a very dangerous team. I don’t think you can compare teams just based on the scoreboard from one week to the next. I know they are a 5-2 team and they lead the division, the NFC South. What you can say other than that is that they are a young team and playing to win a game. There is such a fine line in the NFL.

Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net is wound up over the Bucs win against the Cardinals and he admits he’s drinking from a half-full glass this week.