NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski, The Commish of WDAE-AM 620, is back today with his award-winning sometimes Saturday show, The Blitz, thanks to the good radio gods of the Clear Channel family.

Pawlowski gets behind the microphone at 1 p.m. and drives The Sports Animal bus up to 3 p.m. Joe is confident Justin will bring more talk of the Bucs potentially franching Barrett Ruud, buzz about Complete Game James Shields’ solid night last night, SRod’s strong appearance as a leadoff hitter and perhaps that Russian with the wild name the Bolts drafted in the first round.

Oh, and there’s always college football news, too!

Those chained to a computer can listen online at 620wdae.com.

Recently, ProFootballWeekly.com had a list of breakthrough offensive players for 2011 and Bucs wide receiver Arrelious Benn was among them.

Now it’s time for the defense. These same analysts brainstormed and for the Bucs on defense, the breakout player for 2011 will be second-year defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

It took a while for McCoy to figure things out as a rookie and understand exactly how his coaches wanted him to play, but he was coming on strong before a biceps tear ended his season in Week 14. He is said to be fully recovered from surgery to repair the tear and seems determined to build off what he started late in ’10. McCoy told PFW in February that he wasn’t satisfied with how his rookie year went from a personal or team standpoint. He has dropped some weight this offseason and has impressed teammates with his intensity in workouts. It’s clear McCoy wants to get better, and some evaluators believed he was the best prospect in the 2010 draft. The Bucs will surround him with better pieces on the defensive line this season — they spent their top two draft picks on DEs Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers — and McCoy figures to become a more disruptive player at the three-technique spot.

Yeah, it took a while for GMC to figure things out because of his dopey coach. When GMC, publicly frustrated, decided to tune out Todd Wash is when GMC started making progress, significantly so.

Now, without the menace of Wash and with Warren Sapp’s own hand-picked defensive line coach Keith Millard, Joe believes the ProFootballWeekly.com gang is correct. Don’t be shocked if GMC blows up this year, which will give commenter Thomas 2.2 a severe, prolonged case of irritable bowel syndrome.

Joe just had to laugh at this, not that he agrees or disagrees with it.

Short of troubled Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib, there is no Bucs player that draws anger and ire out of Bucs fans like Barrett Ruud, while NFL insiders heap praise on the linebacker at the same time.

The laudatory chorus of kudos continued on the Man’s Channel, the NFL Network, when former Bucs great and future Hall of Famer Warren Sapp joined former NFLer Brian Baldinger to discuss the most valuable defensive players available on the free agent market for players with four or more years of service.

When discussing his top five players, Baldinger rated Ruud No. 3, behind only cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins.

“He’s the quarterback of the Bucs defense,” Baldinger said.

Joe just chuckles. It’s near impossible to find an NFL insider who thinks Ruud is the feminine product so many Bucs fans believe him to be. But if Joe were to ask the average Bucs fan on the street about Ruud, the curse words would flow like ice cold beer from a bottle on a hot Friday afternoon.

Speaking of a cold beer on a hot Friday afternoon, Joe hears his siren song.

The mountain of cash the Bucs would have to spend to reach the salary cap floor mandated by a new labor agreement is just fiction/fantasy at this point, as the asinine lockout continues. But more and more it looks like Mark Dominik will be under pressure to dish out huge checks.

That would be interesting and unprecedented pressure for the general manager considering the Bucs don’t exactly have much cash committed for 2011 player salaries.

NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas, of BSPN.com, tapped into his team of statistical gremlins and coughed up figures yesterday. Yasinskas writes that numbers floating around the rumor mill say the Bucs might have to spend $50 million+ more in 2011 to meet league rules.

So let’s take a look at some salary-cap figures as we look forward to free agency. Some of the reports about the possible deal have pegged that 2011 salary cap right about $120 million.

In terms of money already committed toward a 2011 cap (rookie contracts aren’t a factor yet because teams haven’t even been allowed to negotiate with draft picks), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the lowest figure in the league. They’re sitting at $63.8 million. In recent years, the Bucs spent well below the cap and had the league’s lowest payroll in the uncapped 2010 season.

Joe’s intrigued by the potential pressure on Dominik. What if Davin Joseph or Barrett Ruud leave town? That’s means one less guy the Bucs might have paid big money won’t be around. What if guys who could command mid-level free agent money, like Cadillac Williams and Jeremy Trueblood, opt to move on?

What if there’s a rookie salary scale? That means less money for the draft picks.

As Joe reported the other day, ProFootballTalk.com creator and guru Mike Florio says the Bucs won’t dive into free agency and will opt to pour money into seemingly creative contract extensions for young players by midseason to meet new spending demands.

Talk about massive incentive for a young team if Dominik goes that route. Imagine it’s October and everyone knows Dominik is sitting on a pile of cash he’ll all but have to soon spend on current players.

The lovely and talented Sarah Tyson peppers Joe with questions about Aqib Talib’s future.

Yes, it’s another edition of the sometimes award-winning, rarely predictable JoeBucsFan TV.

Just 37 days.

If only the NFLPA or the NFL owners can hold out 37 more days, this nonsense about the Bucs playing the Bears in London won’t happen. That’s the deadline the NFL has given all parties.

Should the lockout remain in place on Aug. 1, the Bucs will host the Bears Oct. 23.

Joe cannot find any Bucs fan who is in favor of the Bucs playing in England, short of the Bucs fans in the Tampa Bay or Orlando area that want other people to spend their money so he/she can watch the game at home under a sellout.

Well, one can add Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher to those disgruntled Bucs fans who are irritated about this home game overseas.

Appearing with Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman on WMVP-AM in Chicago, Urlacher went off on playing the Bucs in London rather than The CITS.

[Muffled laugh] “No, I’m not excited to go to London,” Urlacher said. Traveling to Tampa “is a good trip, it’s fun. [The Bucs] are less excited about this than we are. It takes away a home game for them. They are tough at home. Plus it will be hot. I don’t understand why they do that. I am not excited to go to London, I will say that.”

Joe understands how the NFL owners want to grow the game, but damn, grow the game where there is some interest or appreciation like Germany or Mexico or Canada. You don’t see that used car salesman Bud Bad Hair Selig try to play baseball games in London, do you?

Yeah, Wembley Stadium is sold out for this each year but the vast number of fans in the stands are American expatriates who come from throughout Europe for the game and fans who fly in from the states as part of a vacation.

England is the country for bad food and kickball. Just give it up.

The boring world of asinine lockout chatter, which has been uplifting fans with much needed hope lately, has turned to alleged player-owner discussions of a rookie salary cap.

Essentially, the discussion centers around rookies no longer scoring tens of millions of guaranteed money before playing a down of NFL football. (Gerald McCoy was granted about $40 million guaranteed in his first contract.) Rookies would have to earn their way to beastly money after possibly two or three years of service.

In Joe’s eyes it makes a world of sense.

However, Bucs 2011 first-round pick Adrian Clayborn doesn’t seem to be on board. But at least he sees the humor and irony in him likely entering the league a year too late. Clayborn, an impressive, fun Twitterer, chimed in on Twitter last night.

@AJaClay – think its funny vets like the rookie wage scale. of course you do…NOW!

The NBA long ago realized that churning out massive guaranteed contracts to rookies was foolish and unnecessary. It’s not a tough concept to grasp.

Joe would love to see a scenario in which NFL teams can better reward and keep their accomplished players.

Joe can only imagine how giddy Chucky would be to have such a policy in the NFL. With all that extra money to sign ancient veterans, the guy might never sleep in the offseason.

One of Joe’s favorite Sunday pregame rituals is checking out BucStop.com. Getting lost in the videos there is a great way to get pumped up for all things Bucs.

In fact, Joe knows of no better way to get fired up for a road game, other than waking up to Bucs cheerleaders knocking on Joe’s door demanding to dance in his living room and sit on his lap during the game.

Joe’s friend THE OPTIMIST is the curator and creator over at BucStop.com, and he’s looking for writing help. All the information is here. There is no pay other than the promise of fame. Good luck to those who dare.

Donald Penn may not be Jenny Craig when it comes to diet advice, but the Bucs’ stud left tackle doesn’t hesitate to teach young offensive linemen the ropes.

Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show today on WDAE-AM 620, Bucs guard James Lee said his time backing up Penn in previous seasons got him on track to jump in and make everyone forget about Jeremy Trueblood in 2010.

“Being behind Donald Penn for the first two years, he kind of prepped me,” Lee said. “I learned a lot from him. My situation is somewhat that we were in the same situation. He told me just, ‘Every week you have to prepare like you’re going to start. You never know. Something may happen Saturday night or Sunday morning.’ … If you do [start], hey, that’s the bonus. But, you know, it’s all in the preparation. Each week I prepare to start. It so happened in that [Rams] game I didn’t start but I ended up going in. It’s just a blessing. And Donald, he helped me prepare for that moment.”

Hearing this got Joe thinking about when Penn explained to Joe that he sacrificed his game for the sake of covering for Ted Larsen, when he was thrust into the Bucs’ starting lineup last year.

Joe’s hopes Penn can run his consecutive game streak to 76 this season. Joe trembles thinking of what might happen if Penn went down.

For Bucs fans outside the Tampa Bay area who were pained watching Bucs home games last year — it has to be those outside the Tampa Bay area since all of last season’s Bucs games were blacked out in the Tampa Bay and Orlando TV markets — many began pointing fingers at the proletariat in the region for not coughing up cash to go to games, irresponsibly dismissing how the area is hurting so terribly financially.

But cool cat Bob Papa has a different take: the rich are too soft.

This morning with his co-host Ross Tucker on “The Opening Drive,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, the subject of Bucs home games on TV came up.

Tucker was waxing poetic about how its a jewel watching NFL games on HD at home except the Bucs, which he claimed had the feel of high school football from The CITS.

“It’s great to watch NFL games on the couch, relax, fire up the HD, and then you turn on a Bucs game with all the empty seats, it’s like you are watching a Class C state championship.”

Papa had an interesting take: The empty seats in the background are, in part, people with money are too soft.

“Stadiums are so nice that you get a hint of bad weather [Papa whistles], people are gone,’ Papa said. “Why are you going to the seats? The stadiums are so nice, people are staying in the club section [lounge] where they have microbrews and the air conditioning and the instant replays.”

Joe thinks Papa hit an absolute nail on the head. When watching football games on TV from The CITS, the background is rarely if ever the upper deck, it’s the club seats, the most expensive seats. If it’s hot outside, soft money people are more inclined to retreat to the air conditioned club lounge where they sip cocktails and talk about stock dividends and the flowers the servants planted in the backyard while watching the game on HD screens the size of a Sam’s Club.

Shoot, two years ago Joe and one of Joe’s best friends had club seats for the Outback Bowl when Auburn and Northwestern played a classic, offensive shootout that went into overtime. It was horrible weather. Cold, rainy. Joe would much rather roast in the sun in the 90s than be cold much less cold and wet. So as great of a game that Outback Bowl was, Joe and his friend retreated to the club lounge and watched the game on TV.

So when Bucs fans (outside the area) gripe about the sterile viewing atmosphere a Bucs game may have on TV if a game is not sold out, don’t mock the blue collar Bucs fan. Mock the rich!

Hey Rays fans in Tampa, take advantage of the the $9.95 roundtrip luxury bus to Tropicana Field all through July!

Wake the heck up! Gas is nearly $4.00 a gallon. Parking is expensive. This is a stunning freaking deal!

It’s the No Excuses Tour to Tropicana Field, which takes Rays fans via luxury bus from Lee Roy Selmon’s restaurants in New Tampa and South Tampa to home Rays games. And you can bring your own food and beer, and travel in style courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation.

It’s only $9.95 per person, and the chauffeured bus is sticking around for select postgame concerts.

Visit NoExcusesTour.com to get ALL the details and buy tickets.
And don’t forget to watch the No Excuses Tour video below:

Rather than sign off on the $15 million or $20 million of guaranteed money (much more non-guranteed) it might cost to re-sign Barrett Ruud, one Bucs beat writer says the Bucs will strongly consider slapping the franchise tag on Ruud at the end of the lockout.

That would put a roughly $10 million, one-year 2011 windfall the middle linebacker’s pocket and make him a free agent in 2012.

Speaking on 1040 AM yesterday, Stephen Holder of the St. Pete Times says franchising Ruud could be a best-of-both-worlds scenario for the Bucs.

“This is going to be a consideration. Because if you think about it, if they are in fact convinced they need Barrett Ruud on their football team, but maybe they’re not convinced they’re willing to give him a contract of five years and X millions of dollars.  Maybe they’re not convinced of that but they want him on the football team. Well the way you do it is you tag him with the franchise tag,” Holder said. “It’s a guaranteed contract for [just] this year for him. He may not like it, but it’s certainly a big boost [financially] from where he was. So it kind of gives you the best of both worlds.

“So that’s one scenario where I could see the Bucs doing it. … Linebacker is a franchise [player contract] number is pretty manageable number. … You’re not talking about crazy, crazy money. And so I just think something like that could appeal to the Bucs. And you franchise tag Barrett Ruud, you keep him on your team, and that way you don’t have to worry about the guys you have waiting in the wings can fill his shoes. Regardless of how people feel about him, he is valuable to the team.” 

Joe’s not buying the franchise tag for Ruud. After six seasons, Joe thinks the Bucs are completely sure of what they want to do with Ruud and know what kind of long term deal they want to put in front of him — or whether they’re prepared to let him walk.

The guy doesn’t miss games. There’s a ton of film on him. And the Bucs know he’s in his prime — good or bad depending on your perspective. Joe’s confident Mark Dominik has a number, and if Ruud doesn’t like it the door will hit him in the ass.

There was a lot to like last year with the Bucs turning around a woeful three-win season and beating the reigning Super Bowl champs on their home turr and then scoreboard watching, hoping to make the playoffs via a tiebreaker.

One thing Joe liked so much was the play of wide receiver Arrelious Benn. Soon after running back LeGarrette Blount began to rumble through opposing defenses, Benn began to shine.

It sickened Joe when Benn went down with a knee injury against Seattle in Week 16.

By all accounts, it seems Benn’s knee is fine and he’s ready to roll this season — if there is a season.

Greg Gabriel of NationalFootballPost.com seems to be high on Benn as well. He has a list of breakout second-year players this season and lists Benn among those.

Arrelious Benn – Tampa Bay

Benn was drafted to be the big-play wide receiver that the Bucs desperately needed. Tampa Bay got big production from a rookie receiver, but it wasn’t Benn — it was fourth- round pick Mike Williams. Benn has great physical tools with both size and speed but was raw and undisciplined coming out of college. Having had a year to learn the offense, he should be more comfortable in the Tampa scheme. If he plays to his potential this year, Tampa is going to have one of the better receiver combos in the NFC South.

Joe totally agrees. Benn was on the verge of blowing up as it was last season. So this all makes sense.

The key element is if Benn’s knee can hold up.

When Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber’s twin, former Giants running back and NBC broadcaster Tiki Barber, recently announced he was returning to football, many pundits pointed to the Bucs as a landing spot as he would be reunited with Ronde Barber.

That nearly happened four years ago.

Barber left the Giants after much hyped tryouts to be a big shot reporter for FOX News and NBC, with NBC winning the tryouts. Barber was handed a plum gig with NBC but apparently didn’t succeed as his face time continued to diminish until his contract was not renewed.

Interestingly, his media career, short-lived as it may have been, nearly never got off the ground.

In a contentious interview today with WFAN-AM personality Mike Francesa, Tiki Barber’s agent, Mark Lepselter, who sat in on Barber’s interview with Francesa, let it slip that “in October of 2007,” he and Tiki Barber sat in a meeting with Chucky and Bruce Almighty where the Bucs dynamic duo tried to convince Tiki to ditch his gig working for the peacock network and instead play for the Bucs.

How much different today would the Bucs have been had Barber been lured to Tampa Bay? Would he still be on the Bucs roster? Would Cadillac Williams be on the roster… or LeGarrette Blount?

In a way, this doesn’t surprise Joe at all. Chucky and Bruce Almighty never met a retired NFL player they didn’t fall in love with whether it was Tiki Barber or Jake Plummer.

Joe wonders if those two characters ever tried to sign Jim Brown?

The lovely and talented Sarah Tyson returns to the infamous JoeBucsFan TV studio to interview a very large draft guru who makes a strong case against Barrett Ruud getting a fat contract from the Bucs.

Must-watch television!

Yearning for uplifiting news about the possible demise of the asinine lockout, Joe was glued to The Steve Duemig Show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, as “The Big Dog” interviewed Mike Florio, the curator and creator of ProFootballTalk.com and arguably the nation’s premier lockout guru/reporter.

Florio stood behind his prediction that lockout would be history by June 30. But, more interestingly, Florio spoke passionately about how he believes that regardless of how much cash the Bucs would be required to spend under a sparkling new salary cap, the Bucs won’t spend the bulk of it during the upcoming (hopefully) free agency period.

Florio made a case that Team Glazer hasn’t shown interest in doling out signing bonuses in recent years, only guaranteed salary, and Florio doesn’t expect that to change during a potential July free agency period.

Instead, Florio said he sees a scenario in which Team Glazer watches its emerging young stars, such as Mike Williams and Josh Freeman, play half of the 2011 season and then make a call on extending/restructuring the contracts of various young players in order to meet the team’s required cash outlay.

Of course, Joe knows so much will come down to whether the Bucs are able to retain their current free agents.

If Bucs like Davin Joseph, Barrett Ruud, Quincy Black and Cadillac Williams are wearing new jerseys, for example, it’s going to be hard to not pay market prices to replace one or more of those guys.

Joe so hungers for this asinine lockout to be over that even Rachel Watson has taken a back seat in Joe’s lust. Joe’s trying his best not to get excited — remember when Judge Nelson’s decision was supposed to be bulletproof? — as anything can happen.

As a result, the Soviets of sports are actually having to produce some probing, intelligent work for a change rather than slurping Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, the Cowboys, the Patriots, Rex Ryan and the grossly overrated NFC East.

The four-letter has come out with a “rising assistants” list and has Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson at No. 7.

Secret weapon: In two years, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have developed quarterback Josh Freeman into one of the better starters in the league. The man largely responsible is offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who navigated a disastrous 2009 preseason — coach Raheem Morris promoted him in the middle of training camp after firing Jeff Jagodzinski — and NFL teams often seek out coaches with success developing young quarterbacks.

“I think Olson deserves a ton of credit for developing Freeman so quickly,” said NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas. “Freeman threw for 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in his first full season as a starter and carried an incredibly young team to a 10-6 record. I also think people need to look at what Olson did last year with rookie running back LeGarrette Blount and rookie receiver Mike Williams. He helped make them into instant stars.”

While Joe isn’t about to knock Olson for the solid job he has done, let’s be honest, he’s getting the kudos not so much for Mike Williams or LeGarrette Blount but for Josh Freeman.

And aside from Freeman exploding in his second year in the NFL and first full season as a starter, what else was different with Freeman in his second year from his first? He had a quarterback coach.

Joe remembers interviewing Peter King at the Super Bowl Media Day at Miami a year ago and King raved about Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s hire of Alex Van Pelt as the Bucs quarterback coach.

Joe honestly doesn’t know if Van Pelt should get credit for Freeman’s advances or Olson or a combination of the two.

What Joe is getting at is that if the Bucs offense has another solid season and if the Bucs make any kind of a playoff run, it’s a good bet Olson just may be a head coach somewhere else in 2012.

Provided Van Pelt stays with the Bucs, it would temper the loss of Olson leaving.

All this buzz of the lockout’s potential demise has Joe cracking a cold beer a little early today. Sure, nothing is close to a done deal, but Joe doesn’t need much to draw him to a frosty beverage.

As Joe touched on earlier, the end of the lockout means free agency is imminent, with apparently four-year vets and older players getting into the free-agency game.

That got Joe thinking of departed Bucs special teams coach Rich Bisaccia’s words to eye-RAH Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune back in January, when Bisaccia parted ways with the Bucs to head to San Diego. He mentioned three current Bucs — all soon-to-be free agents — by name.

“I’m proud of our body of work in Tampa over the years,” Bisaccia said. “I will definitely miss the players, guys like Maurice Stovall, Adam Hayward and Micheal Spurlock. To me, coaching is based on relationships and I’m proud of the relationships we built in Tampa Bay. Looking back, I’ve been touched by a lot of people in Tampa and the fans here have been great.”

Now the Chargers heinous special teams cost them a Super Bowl run last year. Bisaccia was brought in to fix that, and it’s safe to assume the team will give him some latitude to bring in at least a player or two he thinks will get the job done.

So who does he want from the Bucs?

Joe sure hopes it’s Stovall, who the Bucs have little use for anyway and whose special teams screwup all but cost the Bucs the December home game against Atlanta.

Spurlock, as Joe has written previously, would be a tough loss for the Bucs. He’s one of the better kick returner in the league and has shown a knack for catching huge passes.

Spurlock ranked seventh in the NFL among kickoff returners with more than 20 opportunities, and he was one of 16 guys in the NFL to return a kick for a touchdown. He also caught 17 balls (14.7 yards per catch) and two touchdowns.

If Bisaccia quickly snags Hayward, perhaps that makes Barrett Ruud more desirable to the Bucs?

Oh, the excitement of free agency. Joe can’t wait.

Joe is bracing with all his will not to get excited. But the word from multiple sources out of Chicago where NFL owners are meeting suggest the free world may be on the verge of ending this asinine NFL lockout.

Without going into the boring details only an accountant would love, Don Banks of SI.com Twittered there was “no significant dissent” upon owners to proceed on the latest proposal to the NFLPA.

Adam Schefter also Twittered that under the new proposal, all players with at least four years service in the NFL whose contract has expired would become unrestricted free agents.

That, my friends, would include both Bucs offensive tackle Davin Joseph and Bucs middle linebacker Barrett Ruud.

In other words, both players would be free to go wherever they so wish.

So if this deal goes through (if there is a God), we will soon learn if Ruud truly is as PO’ed at Bucs management as some believe he is for not reupping his contract previously.

Update: Per Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, he Twittered that if this deal goes through, the Bucs would have 11 unrestricted free agents including Quincy Black, Jeremy Trueblood, Stylez White and Cadillac Williams.

When Team Glazer jettisoned Chucky and Bruce Almighty after the 2008 collapse, when the season went from looking like a division title lock to watching the playoffs at home, one of casualties was defensive end Kevin Carter.

One of the smartest, most eloquent guys on an NFL roster, Carter had a pretty good year with the Bucs. But the overhaul of the Bucs roster by not-yet rock star general manager Mark Dominik ended Carter’s career in Tampa.

Recently, Carter sat down with ProFootballFocus for an interview and discussed why he decided to retire after the Bucs didn’t pick up his contract after the 2008 season.

I know it was some time ago, but I want to try and take you back. From your last season in the NFL, we have stats from back in 2008 on your individual games. That season with the Bucs, we ranked you as the 13th best 4-3 DE in the NFL at +15.3. With such a solid season in’08, why hang up the cleats?

You know what? There are so many reasons why I decided to walk away from the game. You never want to leave the game, but anybody will tell you if you have to leave the game … you want to do it on your own terms. Every time you walk back into that locker room, there’s a chance you take that you will NOT leave the game on your own terms.

People leave the game for many different reasons. Some times no one wants your services. Some times you just don’t have it any more. Some times you want to play on a certain team and they don’t want you and maybe you have to go somewhere else to play and it’s just not worth your time, or you can’t make the money you want to make.

For me personally, when I took a look at it I had a couple of offers from some really good teams. I could have gone to Carolina. I took a trip up to the Patriots and sat down with Coach Belichick. That was a situation that was a match made in heaven. It was a dream come true for me. I had always wanted to play for Belichick and this opportunity lay right in front of me. I really wanted it, but I always told myself that if I don’t have the same fire walking back into the locker room after the season then that’s my indication that I don’t need to play anymore.

I was in a situation where the Bucs decided to go younger, so I couldn’t play there anymore. I had to take my show on the road. I had opportunities on the road at different places, but it wasn’t worth it to me anymore. I didn’t have the same fire and I didn’t want to go after it the same way. If you don’t have the same fire going into the locker room, that’s when you get hurt. For 14 years, I felt the same way. The one time I felt differently, I walked away.

I left the game on my own terms. I left the game healthy, wealthy, and blessed. Should I have played a couple more years? My agent thinks so. He thinks I probably should have played a little more, but I’m satisfied and thankful.

Carter was one of Joe’s favorite NFL players because the guy was so smart and such a good guy. If you think about it, what Carter did takes stones. Tiki Barber is now realizing (other than the fact he’s broke) that he retired too early.

Once you are out of the game, chances are you will never be able to return. You live one life. It’s understandable why many NFLers hang on because when Father Time says you are done, you are done.

Josh Freeman has the ultimate work ethic. He’s the Bucs’ standout, unquestioned leader at 23 years old. But internally, is he riddled with anger?

NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas engaged in an intimate chat last week with his local Disney comrades on 1040 AM. Yasinskas explained that in talking to Freeman’s longtime private quarterback coach he learned Freeman is a man driven to humble those who doubted him in 2009.

“He carries a chip on his shoulder about not being the No. 1 quarterback drafted, about being talked about as a third-round guy initially and a lot of people saying when he did get drafted that he wasn’t going to be any good,” Yaskinskas said. “All that stuff motivates Josh more than I even realized … .” 

Now Joe heard this and immediately starting thinking about the Bucs taking on the Lions and quarterback Matthew Stafford — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft — on opening day at the C.I.T.S. Assuming Stafford isn’t hurt again, one would have to believe Freeman is salivating at the chance to annhilate the Lions and Stafford.

Freeman didn’t get that chance when the Bucs lost to Detroit in December. It was Drew Stanton, an injured Stanton no less, who carved up the Bucs while the incomparable Maurice Morris torched them on the ground.

Joe hopes that damn loss was as painful for the Bucs as it was for Joe.

There’s a lot to like about the Bucs as currently assembled. Of course, there’s Josh Freeman, the second-year wideouts, and there’s LeGarrette Blount. Defensively, there’s the young talent of the front four and in the secondary there’s ageless Ronde Barber.

But popular sports radio personality Adam Schein believes there is another Buccaneer that deserves props. That would be tight end Kellen Winslow. In a column on FoxSports.com, Schein describes NFL players that “sizzle” and “fizzle.”

Schein has Winslow listed under sizzle.

Because of the motorcycle accident, the rants playing at the “U” and his rips on everything pertaining to Cleveland, you don’t necessarily think of Winslow as a leader. It’s time he gets proper credit.

In our talk with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman, he described a tight end who wanted nothing more than to be present and active in getting teammates involved for offseason work. Winslow has two homes, one in Tampa and one in California. Freeman says that Winslow rearranged schedules to be involved with Freeman’s workouts. I love it. That’s the perfect attitude.

Indeed. Joe was stunned to learn that Winslow, who usually works out in his home in San Diego during the offseason, flew cross-country to be with Freeman.

That’s not just a leader but a solid, dedicated teammate. Joe’s impressed.