Joe got caught.

WFTS-TV reporter Sean Daly, left, shares a laugh with (formerly) Big Nasty as the two were about to air a live interview.

Bucs players come over to the stands to mingle and sign autographs for the fans just prior to the first day of training camp.

Linebacker Dekoda Watson by way of Florida State.

Rookie defensive tackle Brian Price who had a huge first day of training camp.

Derrick Ward runs past defenders in a drill.

"JOE! Where have you been? Come here you hunk of man!"

For some odd reason, Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man" springs to mind for Joe when he looks at his photo.

As Joe wrote earlier, Brian Price clearly was getting extra attention from Raheem The Dream at today’s morning practice.

And Joe was watching as defensive line coach Todd Wash leaned on Price a little bit and made him go through an extra rep on a sled drill.

Price later busted up a run play that had Raheem The Dream ready to chest bump, and the rookie looked quick.

It seems the Bucs coaches and players took notice, too, per the recent Twitter musings of eye-RAH! Kaufman, of The Tampa Tribune.

Ira: Rookie DT Brian Price says he still isn’t fully over his hamstring problems, but he certainly impressed teammates and coaches Saturday.

Joe winces at the thought of Price battling a hamstring injury on Aug. 1. The Bucs need him or Gerald McCoy to have a strong season if they want to progress on defense. That’s a tough chore for any rookie, and the hammy won’t make it easier.

Everything about training camp on the field is fun for Joe. It’s all football. All the glorious nuances of the game.

But, admittedly, Joe gets a little more fired up to see the Bucs line up 11-on-11 and throw the ball in full pads, rather than watching Barrett Ruud today in an intense coaching session with new linbackers coach Joe Baker, in which the two were demonstrating/discussing (disagreeing?) on technique.

So the fun picked up a notch late when Mike Williams, who had already made a couple of impressive athletic catches earlier in the day, lined up one-on-one with Ronde Barber in the flat.

It was pretty — for Williams.

Williams juked Barber and got wide open (the crowd oooohed), but Williams dropped the pass, which was slightly underthrown by Josh Freeman.

Fun stuff.

Joe was quite impressed with Arrelious Benn. The dude is strong. Joe know understands all that gay-sounding talk about his impressive lower body by Bucs coaches after the draft. Benn clearly is a guy who will be tough to bring down after the catch at the NFL level.

Benn didn’t have any drops – that Joe witnessed – and had what would have been a long-gainer on an out route, courtesy of a foolish gamble in man coverage by cornerback Derrick Roberson.

As for the other receivers, Sammie Stroughter had a bad drop, which he agonized over for a while. Terrance Nunn showed some sure hands, as did Micheal Spurlock, who seems to be just that little extra focused than others to make the team.

Reggie Brown didn’t stand out for Joe — good or bad. Although he apparently has befriended Michael Clayton, which can’t help his odds of making the team.

On a side note, Aqib Talib displays such incredible hands and body control in secondary drills, sometimes Joe wonders whether he should have been a receiver.

The Mad Twitterer and Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times talk about how Bucs general manager Mark Dominik, in a span of a few hours,  may have dispelled the notion by some fans that Team Glazer is cheap.

Careful, Peanut, don't drop the little girl. JoeBucsFan.com photo by Kyra Hallett.

Now Joe loves the electrifying play of Clifton Smith the return guy. Undrafted, he started his career fumbling like a madman, but he stuck with it (and Chucky stuck with him) and turned it around.

However, Clifton Smith the running back has always been a fumbler in his limited touches. It is what it is.

At training camp today, twice Smith put the ball on the ground working with the offense.

Now both fumbles were ruled to have occurred after the plays were dead, but both were pretty darn close. The first time the ground likely caused the fumble, and the other time he was stripped (allegedly after the whistle) and rookie defensive end Erik Lorig scooped it up and took off.

Joe knows these were not officially fumbles, but for a guy like Smith with a history of coughing up the ball, it did nothing to soothe Joe’s concerns about Smith getting involved in the offense.

The Bucs weren’t tackling this morning. Oh, they were battling hard at the line of scrimmage and in coverage with their pads on, no question about it.

But there was just that goofy-looking fake tackling after the play went past the line, as is done during spring practices in shorts.

Joe should have known that some fans would not be aware of such a practice. And there were several.

Joe particularly got a kick out of one guy who routinely was angrily screaming at players to “wrap up, c’mon, wrap up.” Poor guy probably went home thinking the Bucs will have the worst defense in the history of football.

But that guy got Joe thinking. Perhaps the Bucs should have had Sabby The Goat be the only guy on defense approved to tackle this morning?

The noise buzz around training camp from the various media types Joe mingles with was that quarterback Jevan Snead will be cut to make room for Gerald McCoy on the Bucs roster.

Yes, McCoy, or any player, is not officially rostered until he has a contract.

Why anyone was even talking about Snead was because he was nowhere to be seen on the practice field. Only Josh Freeman, Josh Johnson and Rudy Carpenter were wearing the orange “quarterback jersey.”

Snead, an undrafted rookie free agent, was a ridiculous longshot to make the team, especially after Raheem The Dream expressed his deep affection for Carpenter back in June.

Blocking icon Michael Clayton was doing his typical training camp best this morning.

He was looking fit. He was running hard. And he was catching the ball.

Why the blocking icon even had the crowd roaring when he made a great adjustment in the air to catch a Josh Johnson bomb with cornerback Brandon Anderson all over him (not exactly Talib, but still a great play).

Unbelievable! The blocking icon came to play. He was working on some special teams drills, as well, which caught Joe’s eye.

Joe got at good laugh when a Bucs fan standing next to Joe was visibly offended by the sight of Clayton on the field, “Clayton. Clayton would drop his pads, if he had to carry them.”

Joe’s back from the absolutely packed house training camp where the Bucs cheerleaders were exceptionally active, frisky, bubbly, bouncy, extraordinarily sweaty and working the crowd in a huge way.

Pictures are forthcoming.

Of course, it also was great to see the Bucs make the Donald Penn and Gerald McCoy signings official, so reported the St. Pete Times, home of The Mad Twitterer.

Sleepless general manager Mark Dominik announced that the Bucs have signed left tackle Donald Penn and reached an agreement with first-round pick Gerald McCoy.

Penn, who arrived in Tampa on the red-eye from Los Angeles Saturday morning, signed a 6-year deal believed to be worth $48-million and includes nearly $20-million guaranteed. He joined his teammates at practice Saturday 15 minutes after the announcement.

Penn was at camp and spent a lot of time working away from his teammates one-on-one with the Bucs conditioning coach. Penn looked quite fit in a now-I’m-only-a-chubby-325-pounds kind of way. Penn was with his teammates later in practice but did not appear to participate in any contact work.

Speaking on 620 WDAE-AM after practice, Raheem The Dream said he was eager to find out how soon he could get McCoy on the field.

Clearly, Raheem The Dream was a bit obsessed with Brian Price today, getting in his face a couple of times for good and bad. And Price drew Raheem The Dream to a near chest bump when Price got great penetration and busted up a run play quickly in the backfield.

“Nice job, B.P.” was screamed by the head coach at full volume.

Price looks very quick, through Joe’s eyes, and Price also seemed to be feeling the heat (as in weather) more than most.

Ahhh, the joys of training camp presented with eye candy, courtesy of the local folks at ABC.

One of Joe’s longtime commenters, a fellow who goes by the moniker of “Mr. Lucky,” has to be a happy man today.

Because football is here.

Mr. Lucky, roughly two weeks ago, began posting a comment that was nothing more than a countdown to the start of training camp. Mr. Lucky is not a Rays fan nor does he monitor baseball in general. Mr. Lucky would rail on other sports and demand Joe and others talk football.

Mr. Lucky is one of the reasons Joe exists: to satisfy the hardcore, pewter-and-red bleeding Bucs fans who need — no, demand! — Bucs news daily /365.

While Joe has never been a training camp freak (reminds him too much of two-a-days in high school amid the southern Illinois cornfields in weather hotter and equally humid as Florida, being so sore and beat up he could barely walk), Joe will be out at One Buc Palace. Expect some photos and other goodies later.

But Joe rejoices today. To wit, respected, intelligent sports radio hosts will no longer:

* Prattle about this LUH-bron James character. Joe just wants to take a crowbar to people trying to cram down the non-basketball association down Joe’s throat in the middle of baseball season!

* International kickball.

Finally, Joe’s senses will no longer be assaulted when trying to listen to sports radio when Sirius NFL Radio is in commercial.

We have been liberated today, folks.

It’s football, glorious football, until February!

Enjoy.

With Donald Penn apparently returning to the Bucs with a new contract much sooner than anyone expected, The Mad Twitterer and good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times discuss the political and social ramifications of Penn inking a new deal.

Yeah, Joe has mentioned this already, but he wasn’t totally forthcoming.

Of course, Joe will be at One Buc Palace today (and Sunday) for the start of Bucs training camp. If  you can’t make it out there, you will want to be at your computer.

Armed with his blackberry, Joe will be Twittering like a madman.

Later Saturday, Joe will bring you loads of pictures and posts about what he witnessed at training camp. So stick with Joe. He’s doing the dirty work for you!

(Part of that dirty work will be ogling Bucs cheerleaders up close such as the example to your right.)

Joe believes it’s safe to write that Bucs general manager Mark Dominik was not at the Rays stirring win over the Yankmees tonight. Dude has been a busy guy.

First, the Donald Penn nightmare is over. And if NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora is to be believed, Bucs first round pick Gerald McCoy will be on the practice fields of One Buc Palace Saturday.

In a live interview late Friday night on NFL Network with the fetching Michelle Beisner, La Canfora talked about Sam Bradford’s crazy contract when Beisner asked La Canfora for an update on second overall pick Ndamukong Suh and third overall pick GMC.

Referring to GMC, La Canfora said, “I’d be shocked if McCoy is not [at Bucs training camp] Saturday.”

GMC has always said that he wanted to wait for his Oklahoma teammate Bradford to sign first before he inked a deal with the Bucs. Now that Bradford is signed, sealed and delivered, lets see how quick Dominik can get GMC to One Buc Palace.

The Glazers are spending money. The Glazers are spending money. The Glazers are spending money.

Joe’s doing his Paul Revere act here to announce that the Bucs will be signing Donald Penn to a long term deal. Krispy Kremes, orange soda and trans-fat laden food for everyone.

And Joe is smiling inside and laughing at all those Bucs fans and observers who thought Penn had no leverage. Hahahaha. 

Penn had plenty of leverage, it seems. Jason LaCanfora, of NFL.com, is reporting the Bucs and Penn will sign a deal on Saturday.

The sides have come to terms on the major issues of a deal, but they’re still working out some language, according to the source. Both Penn and his agent, Rocky Arcineaux, were en route to Tampa on Friday night, and they will meet with Bucs officials Saturday, when the lineman is scheduled to sign the deal.

How bout that Team Glazer! Way to go. Way to do the right thing. No wonder Raheem The Dream isn’t nervous.

Kidding aside, Penn earned this money. He’s an excellent football player. Hopefully, he can become truly great in a Bucs uniform.

Man, Joe is fired up for training camp.

And Joe is fired up to have Raheem The Dream back in front of the microphone. What a treasure he is, so darn entertaining. (Joe will have more gems from Raheem The Dream’s afternoon news conference later.)

First off, Raheem The Dream took a question from a reporter who asked about the prospect of Demar Dotson or James Lee as his starting left tackle, “Are you nervous at all?”

Here’s Raheem The Dream’s unedited response:

“Nervous is not a word that I would normally use to describe anything that I do. But, you know, you look at that side, no matter what, no matter who’s over there, that’s the hot corner, that’s third base, that’s a great place to look if you’re a defensive coach looking at your offense. Your quarterback’s blind side. How well he’s protected. You know, how great those cutoff blocks are. How big that man is out there. He’s probably the premier rusher on that football team. That’s always a nice place to start to see the initial get off. That’s always a nice place to start when you’re reporting a story. That’s always a nice place to start usually when you’re trying to figure out how well the offense is going to do that day. So I’ll be watching that side. Just like normal. I’ll have my eye over there. We have got a brand new player there that played there for the whole OTA days. The beauty of it is he got all the reps. The beauty of it it won’t be a lack of knowledge. It won’t be a lack of experience in practice. And we look forward to watching him grow and do all that stuff.”

For those who need a translation (or a bottle of aspirin), the head coach said left tackle is extraordinarily critical and he’s extremely well aware that Dotson and Lee have no experience.

The call-it-as-he-sees-it Bucs beat writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Tom Balog, notes that the flurry of first-round pick signings today doesn’t mean Gerald McCoy will be wearing his big boy pads this weekend at Bucs training camp.

McCoy, the third overall pick, is not signed. His money people are apparently squabbling over contract length, per Balog.

Berry, the No.5 overall pick taken two spots below McCoy, signed with the Chiefs for $34 million guaranteed, as part of a five-year deal that makes him the highest paid safety in league history.

 Knowing how the Glazers do business, and how McCoy’s agents expect to push the envelope beyond the guaranteed amount that Berry will be get, it could be days or weeks, before McCoy is in the fold. McCoy’s agents and Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik are fighting over how many years the contract should be, with Dominik wanting to lock up McCoy for six years, while the agents try to limit the deal to five years.

Balog goes to talk tough when it comes to Team Glazer willingness to spend money on Donald Penn. It’s an interesting read.

Joe sincerely hopes McCoy is ready to go by Monday at the latest.

Helmet-wielding, cabbie-pouncing Aqib Talib is a man the Bucs hope and pray is on the right path, so writes Tampa Tribune uber columnist Martin Fennelly.

Fennelly talked to Talib, Ronde Barber and Mark Dominik, and penned a column that left readers with the feeling that nobody is quite certain Talib can avoid another outburst that could derail his promising career.

But Talib says he now understands that to be the man, you need to act like one. He has visited with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Talib had to pay out after the incident with the cabbie. Maybe it helped.

“Sometimes you got to get your head beat against a wall, take money out of your pocket, go see the NFL boss,” Talib said. “That’ll make you wonder ‘What the hell am I doing?’ My father and brother keep telling me ‘Don’t (mess) this up,’ you got what you wanted since you were 5 years old.”

Now Joe knows journalists pick and choose what angles and quotes they want to use in a story, but Joe found it interesting that Fennelly didn’t quote Talib being remorseful or even imply as such. Odd.

Talib is a true Pro Bowl talent, who’s barely a half-notch below the upper echelon in the NFL. The guy’s ready to be a stud.

Joe sincerely hopes Talib never forgets that he could land in jail if he screws up before his court-ordered anger management classes are completed. 

Stay cool, Talib.   

Longtime player personnel executive and now superanalyst for NFL.com and NFL Network Mike Lombardi has identified three should-happen trades that would benefit all NFL teams involved.

No. 3 on his list is the Bucs moving Donald Penn to Dallas for the Cowboys’ 2011 first round pick and their new starting left tackle, Doug Free, who is slated to take over for Flozell Adams this season.

The Cowboys have an outstanding team — a Super Bowl-caliber team — with some slight concerns at left tackle. Penn would solve those problems by giving Dallas a blue-chipper at one of the game’s most important positions. Penn could be the missing piece for the Cowboys to reach the Super Bowl in 2011. They can easily extend his contract by giving him a deal in line with D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s recent extension with the Jets.

The Bucs would gain a first-round pick next year and would still have a potential solid starter to help them protect Freeman’s blind side this season. They can sell this trade to their fan base by saying this was a concept deal. Trade a proven asset that was not going to re-sign to a proven contending team and invest in the future.

The Bucs save money, build for the future with a draft asset, and Dallas get its missing piece. For the Cowboys, trading for Penn is a luxury they can afford.

There’s quite a bit more to Lombardi’s story, in which he questions Mark Dominik’s power and ability. Ouch!

Interestingly, Joe proposed a Penn-to-Dallas trade before the NFL Draft – one of very few hypothetical trades Joe publishes – and many commenters in that thread called Joe a circus buffoon for even thinking of such a thing. …Hmmm.

If you read Lombardi’s full take, which is that the Bucs don’t want to pay Penn so they might as well get good value for him, it’s hard to argue with his reasoning.

While it's great that Raheem the Dream has affection of his players, at the end of the day, it's really a non-factor. It's about wins and losses.

Joe was in a conversation this morning with a highly respected Bucs beat writer discussing why some Bucs fans have the torches lit for Raheem the Dream.

Said reporter Joe spoke with claimed that the Raheem the Dream haters are wrong on many levels and one aspect they overlook is how the players love Raheem the Dream.

Joe replied that, in Joe’s eyes, this should be a non-factor and Joe puts zero weight in such a crutch/excuse.

Case in point: Joe isn’t sure he has to remind fans the Bucs lost 13 games last year. If, as this reporter suggests, the team quit on Raheem the Dream or there was a mutiny, what would be the result, the Bucs would have lost 14 games instead?

Now in a perfect world, it’s fantastic the players have so much respect for Raheem the Dream. Joe’s not saying this is a negative in any way. Of course it’s a positive, noble if not coveted trait. But what matters most are results.

Joe doesn’t notice many warm and fuzzies from players who toiled for Tuna Parcells or Bill Belicheat. Joe noticed on the NFL Network’s broadcasts of America’s Game series that to this day Larry Csonka talks about what an ass Don Shula was to play for.

Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll were so at odds that Bradshaw nearly wilted under Noll’s boot.

From what Joe can tell, players despised George Halas; Mike Ditka rarely says anything kind about his former coach. It’s well known that Vince Lombardi treated players like dogs.

That’s not to say players must loathe their coaches in order to win. While Bill Walsh was a taskmaster and accepted no mistakes, he treated his players with a great deal of respect and it seems the players respected Walsh just as much.

Joe knows of no insubordination with Joe Gibbs, though Joe Theismann and Gibbs were, for a period, at odds before kissing and making up and thus, winning a Super Bowl together. Kenny Stabler and Phil Villipiano would throw themselves under a moving truck for John Madden the way they speak of their old coach.

For every example of a team liking its coach and winning, Joe can also find an example of a team winning despite possessing a vile hatred of the coach.

So Joe doesn’t count the Bucs liking Raheem the Dream as a positive or a negative. In fact Joe believes it’s a wash.

No matter how much players like or hate a coach, at the end of the day, it’s if you win or lose.

Joe came across an interesting nugget while surfing the net, rounding up Bucs news last night.

It seems former Bucs receiver the White Tiger, Joey Galloway, is in the news, and for all the right reasons. Per Rick Maese of the Washington Post, who covers the Redskins for a living, Galloway began Redskins training camp as the team’s No. 1 receiver, so Maese twittered Thursday, via TheRedZone.com.

Yes, that Joey Galloway, 39-year-old wide receiver Joey Galloway who failed at his last stop with the Patriots and has caught a total of twenty passes in the last two years.

Yeah, the White Tiger is 39, but he’d still be starting if he was with the Bucs. Joe wonders what that high school offensive line coach would have done with the White Tiger if he was still around?