Michael Vick isn’t the only NFL player who has dog problems. So too does Facestomper Albert Haynesworth. If various reports are to be believed, the Bucs threw more money at Facestomper than Redskins tyrant and failed amusement park owner Danny Snyder.

Seems Facestomper had a restraining order slapped on him recently because, among other things, he refused to pay his dog’s medical bills, so writes Teresa Walker of the Associated Press via the Washington Post.

Stephanie Haynesworth said in the motion filed Sept. 17 that Haynesworth recently threatened to stop paying temporary support that began in June. The motion alleges he said he wouldn’t pay his daughter’s monthly tuition and a $4,000 veterinary bill that he authorized for the family dog.

Also on Wednesday, Facestomper said he didn’t sign with the Bucs because this area is too nice, per Vacation Man of BSPN.com.

“I like water, I like boats and I like sun,” Facestomper said.  “Coming to Tampa, there was a whole lot there. I have a whole offseason. If I went to Tampa, it would have been too much of a mix.”

Bad enough that Facestomper is way overpaid and is having trouble staying healthy and possibly might miss this Sunday’s game with the Bucs. Throw in the fact that he won’t pay for his dog’s medical bills, and Joe is beyond happy the Bucs lost their bid to acquire him.

Lost in the sewage that has been the Bucs’ first three games has been the play of possibly the best Bucs player thus far early in the season: offensive tackle Donald Penn.

Consider that Penn had to play two of his first three games against Dallass and the New York Giants and their two stud players, DeMarcus Ware and Osi Umenyiora.

In the season opener against Dallass, Ware, the outside linebacker/defensive end was held to a grand total of four tackles and no assists. Ware didn’t register a sack.

Fast forward two weeks later against the Giants. Umenyiora was seen and not heard. He had a grand total of zero tackles, zero assists, zero sacks.

In both games, some may suggest Penn played over his head.

Joe believes three games into the season, Penn has been the Bucs best player.

Chucky appeared with “The Blitz” co-hosts Adam Schein and Rich Gannon on Sirius NFL Radio earlier today to drop a couple of mini bombshells and to lobby for the Dallass gig (that isn’t open yet) with a radio version of a French kiss to Tony Romo.

Hey, Romo likes blondes, so maybe…

First, Chucky all but threw his former comrade in arms, Bruce Almighty, under the bus.

Quick background: One of Joe’s very first posts on this site was catching Bruce Almighty in a fib where Bruce Almighty claimed the Bucs were not in serious negotiations in trading for Brett Favre.

Well, today, Chucky confirmed Bruce Almighty was full of it.

When Schein asked Chucky if he thought the Bucs were about to consummate a deal to acquire Farve in the summer of 2008, Chucky didn’t hold back.

“I sure did,” Chucky said. “We thought he was coming to Tampa and if he did, I might still be coaching.”

When Schein asked Chucky about Romo, Chucky couldn’t contain his excitement.

“I have a staff, we go through the tapes here in Tampa… Romo is a lightning rod for some reason. When he didn’t play I don’t think they scored a touchdown in a game.

(Joe’s note: Brad Johnson disagrees).

Chucky went on to laud the record of the Cowboys when Romo starts and you would have thought Chucky was talking about Romo’s latest piece of eye candy, a former Miss Missouri.

Gannon then asked Chucky about the Bucs and Josh Johnson, who Chucky drafted last year. Chucky didn’t take the bait on the Bucs but he did talk lovingly about Johnson.

“I am not an expert on Tampa, obviously,” Chucky said. “I wish them the best. It’s a new scheme and they had a change in an offensive coordinator and a quarterback, hey, that is tough on any team.

“But Johnson, I like a lot about him. He is very athletic. He played for Jim Harbaugh at San Diego before he went to Stanford so he knows a lot about the west coast offense. He’s a smart guy, a hard-working guy, maybe the hardest I’ve ever had at that position. There’s tremendous upside with his ability.

“He’ll be ready to go and I’ll be excited to see how he does.”

Chucky also downplayed any talk of him coaching as early as next year. He was asked by Schein why he leans toward being a cheerleader on Monday Night Football.

“Look, I just got fired. I want to hang onto this job as long as I can,” Chucky joked. “I don’t like to criticize. I want to be enthusiastic and positive.”

Joe is sure Ronde Barber can appreciate that.

Joe’s going to start looking ahead to the Bucs’ next opponent, the equally putrid Washington Redskins.

(Whoops, sorry Ronde. Joe didn’t mean to be negative. We both know Joe is the culprit for both the Bucs and Redskins having combined for an 1-5 record so far this year. Joe apologizes).

When a team starts out as bad as both the Bucs and Redskins have, it’s easy to understand how the natives will grow so restless, that there would be talk about unloading the coach.

Joe’s already heard (and read comments on this very site) that Raheem the Dream should be removed. Joe thinks that’s horribly premature. Raheem the Dream has only coached three games for goodness sakes. Even Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune wrote recently that Raheem the Dream is safe through the end of the 2010 season. So let’s not even go there.

The man who coaches the Bucs’ equally hapless opponent this week, Jim Zorn of the Redskins, does not have the same luxury. He works for a sawed off tyrant with a necktie too tight (Danny Snyder) who changes coaches nearly as often as he changes underwear.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post details some of the district’s outcries for Zorn’s head, one of which comes from former Redskins stud Brian Mitchell.

“They have a coach, a head coach who is very low key. He gives the little funny talks and he says things and he’s honest. Can he get his damn team to play football? I don’t think so.”

If the Redskins lose in successive weeks to the horrid Lions and then the Bucs to go 1-3 to start the season, Joe cannot imagine Zorn keeping his job longer than it takes to clean out the trash after Sunday’s game at FedEx Field.

Sure, firing Zorn would be like firing three coaches (head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach). But when has logic ever stopped Snyder? At the rate his Redskins are going, Zorn might have better luck running one of Snyder’s bankrupt amusement parks or maybe one of  Snyder’s one-lung radio stations. 

Unless the Redskins perform a miracle and somehow get into the playoffs, Joe believes that Zorn is a dead man walking.

Joe continues to try and think like a Glazer.

That means Joe tries to look at the Bucs sometimes through the minds of the currently frugal ownership group that wants the most bang for its buck from the Buccaneers.

Joe thinks the Glazers look at the winless Mark Dominik-Raheem The Dream regime and see mistake after costly mistake. These would be the Glazers’ (not Joe’s) Big 4 blunders:

1) The Glazers ponied up a $2.5 million signing bonus for Luke McCown, only to have him get traded in the preseason after sucking up loads of practice and exhibition game reps that could have gone to well-paid first round draft pick Josh Freeman. Raheem The Dream then settled on $2 million Byron Leftwich as starting QB. Leftwich will now ride out his final three months in a Bucs uniform on the bench.

2) The Bucs are paying their lone big offseason free agent signing on defense, linebacker Angelo Crowell, his full salary for the 2009 season. It’s estimated at about $2 million-plus. He came to the Bucs injured after having missed the entire 2008 season with an injury. He finally got on the field for the Bucs in the preseason and promptly went down with a season-ending injury.

3)  Gaines Adams is collecting a fat paycheck from the Glazers for the 2009 season. After two seasons of subpar play, Adams was allowed to return. Clearly there were red flags about him all over the place after his first two years in pewter and red. But Raheem The Dream and Dominik determined he was worth his massive No. 4 overall pick contract to come back for another try this year.

4) Former offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinksi was hired with fanfare and fired before the season. It seems he’s on the Glazer’s payroll while he relaxes at home. In the process, expensive Josh Freeman might have less time with quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, who was named the new offensive coordinator. This whole scenario didn’t put a feather in the new regime’s cap.

On the flip side, Joe is struggling to figure out what the Glazers might be happy about. Sticking by fan favorite Cadillac Williams? Maybe they like Roy Miller? Perhaps they see value in cutting Derrick Brooks’ big contract and giving Geno Hayes a shot to shine? Does Josh Freeman arouse them?

But surely the Glazers can’t be overly impressed by the value they’re getting so far from big money offseason signings Michael Clayton and Kellen Winslow.

Joe believes the Glazers need to be significantly impressed over the remainder of the season for Raheem The Dream and Dominik to keep their jobs.

There’s plenty of time for that to happen, and Joe is surely rooting for the Bucs to take major strides in the coming weeks.

Inactive with a hamstring injury against the Giants, Earnest Graham says he’s 100 percent ready to play on Sunday in Washington.

“I’m fine. Actually thought I’d be ready for last week, but it didn’t really ease up for me at the end of the week. So I did some running [Monday] and I feel good. I feel I’ll be ready to go for this week,” said Graham speaking on 1010 AM on Tuesday. “Not a pull, just a tweak to my hamstring. I just wanted to make sure it didn’t turn into a four week [injury]. …I could play tomorrow.”

Graham, a longtime fan of Luke McCown, said he is excited by all that new starting quarterback Josh Johnson can do with his feet on the field.

But Graham offered a dose of realism about Johnson that no doubt the Redskins’ defensive coordinator will take to heart, “He has to be tested as a football player.”

It appears Giants fans at a local bar had some words for Bucs defensive end Kyle Moore

Poor Kyle Moore, the Bucs’ promising rookie defensive end has been banged up since preseason and has yet to make his NFL regular season debut.

Now he’s taking his lumps from beer-swilling fans. Hopefully, Caybrew drinkers.

Moore had relatively minor knee surgery last week and was not permitted on the sidelines during the Bucs-Giants game. So he headed out to a local watering hole to watch the game. Moore explains on his blog.

I wanted to be at the game and on the sidelines, or to even to watch it from the stands, but they told me not to risk it with the chance of someone bumping into it or having some other problem occur that might cause further injury or prevent it from healing properly. So I went to bar instead to watch the game and I had to talk smack the whole time with the other patrons that were there watching the game.

Joe can only imagine what kind of drunken bombs were hurled at the Buccaneer in the house during that game. Joe hopes they came from Giants fan, not the hometown faithful.

The good news, Moore reports, is that he should be back in three weeks. Post-surgery swelling in his knee was minimal.

The Bucs could use some fresh blood on the defensive line, and it’s the perfect time for Tampa Bay to find out if they have a player in their fourth-round pick.

There’s no secret that the Jacksonville Jaguars have been having problems selling tickets. Just look at photos of that empty bowl at any given home Jags game.

Maybe in an act of desperation, or maybe in an attempt to put his toe in the water to test a possible move, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver has told Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel that he hopes to have his Jags play regular season games in Orlando.

“There’s certainly the possibility that we would play some out-of-market games,” Weaver said. “If it happened, Orlando would be the best option and most reasonable location.

“In the past, we have reached out to try and cultivate that market and haven’t had as much success as we would have liked. We probably need to do a better job. That’s a given. We are looking at a long-term strategy and thinking out of the box on how we can build a fan base in Orlando.”

Interesting that the Jags are so desperate for fans, they are moving in on the Bucs backyard.

Remember that until this summer, the Bucs coveted the Orlando market, 90 miles from the CITS, so much they held training camp there. Joe wonders what the NFL has to say about this? This would be like the Chicago Bears playing games in Madison, Wisc. or the Cleveland Browns playing home games in Ann Arbor (is a whore), Mich.

Also, Joe wonders what the NFL thinks of playing regular season games in the trash heap that the Citrus Bowl is. That place is such a pit, Joe needs a tetanus shot before he goes to games there.

And that’s not counting the weapons Joe needs to bring along to protect himself from the warzone that the Citrus Bowl is located in.

 By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

I’m not here to pile on the Bucs.

I played on teams that finished 6-10 and 3-13 and know the pain and misery that brings. Those years were under Hugh Culverhouse without a salary cap and that was supposed to even things up a little bit.

Unfortunately, the current Bucs will compete with those teams unless they improve significantly, and I don’t think that is on the horizon, although starting Josh Johnson gives them new hope.

This team is undisciplined in all phases right now. Raheem Morris’ interviews and press conferences are growing more rambling, incoherent and contradictory. 

Jeff Jagodzinski, the offensive coordinator, was fired for not being detail-oriented enough. What are we to make of the rest of the coaching staff after Sunday’s performance? The Giants game was the third straight with a complete lack of attention to any detail whatsoever.

Maybe “Jags” got the best deal of the year, getting out before he could take the blame for this debacle.

Now the Bucs turn to Johnson (a less experienced version of Luke McCown) as their starter after three games and hearing Raheem explain the reasoning behind the change was just sad.

We wanted to hope for the best for this team and for this coach, but the QB choice this preseason wasn’t a hard one and he messed that up.

I think this first Josh may be a better long-term choice than the one eventually coming somewhere later this season, but that is a much tougher one to see in my crystal ball.

Seems as though former Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia can’t find a job. The Bucs didn’t want him for whatever reason; the horrid Raiders and senile Al Davis didn’t want him; now the Eagles need to make room for dog-loving Michael Vick and have shown Garcia the door.

Joe’s not totally lobbying for the Bucs to sign Garcia but Joe couldn’t resist an opportunity to bring his loyal readers Carmella.

Though Joe has not read nor heard of Kellen Winslow’s knee bothering him too much, it seems apparent that Winslow is having some issues with his knee.

Winslow participated in a chat on NFL.com this afternoon and dropped a hint his knee is barking.

kieran bracken, cork ireland 02:29 PM ET
hey kev whats up are you looking forward to coming to london in october.

Kellen Winslow, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I really am. It’s going to be exciting to see what it’s like playing over there and playing in front of those fans. Neither me or my wife have been there before, and she’s going to go shopping and spend all our money! It’s going to be fun. I hate traveling, and I’ll be icing my knee during the flight, but really I’m still looking forward to it.

Why would Winslow even mention icing down his knee after a game unless it’s either a common occurrence or he is having issues with his knee and knows it will be hurting?

Joe hopes it’s the former and not the latter.

In a question-and-answer session with Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, a reader apparently wanting to be a coach suggested that with Josh Johnson at quarterback, the Bucs might be wise to try a hurry-up offense.

Cummings dropped a hint that’s exactly what the Bucs may be doing shortly.

Q: Time is getting somewhat desperate. (The) timing couldn’t be worse with the trip coming up to a Washington team still shaken from a big upset by the Lions.

I think (offensive coordinator Greg) Olson should work on offensive tempo, they showed some signs of life with Josh Johnson in the game and the tempo raised. I think it at least bears investigating when putting together this week’s game plan. Maybe come out with a hurry-up mentality. At the worst, it could shake up this weeks’ opponent.
Olin Doby, Tampa

A: You ought to think about becoming a coach or general manager. Looks like you were on the same wavelength as Raheem and Mark Dominik.
— Roy Cummings

While this would make sense on paper, Joe was under the impression that Raheem the Dream wanted a violent, run-oriented offense? Has the offensive line crumbled this badly?

By Harry King

My two cents: This Bucs team — and season — is a mess. Sort of like my ex-wives. … This Raheem Morris speaks double-talk almost like Foster Brooks near midnight. … Pretty soon, this Morris will be the NFL version of James Watt, a misunderstood man and a good friend.

The Bucs offense Sunday was as impotent as Connie Chung. … Mine That Bird could produce better than what the Bucs offense did Sunday; I collected my fair share of winnings from him when I was at Churchill Downs with my pal Tony Curtis.

While munching on a BLT at Clifton’s with Rich Little, he mentioned to me that Gaines Adams couldn’t bag groceries at Whole Foods much less quarterbacks. … I don’t know this Josh Johnson from Levi Johnson, father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild, who will be my guest live Thursday! Wow, what I’d do to have a mother-in-law like that; this Johnson kid blew it. My producers keep saying, “MILF,” whenever I mention Sarah Palin. Is that some kind of Alaskian thing?

One hopes Michael Clayton’s wife doesn’t hand him anything of value. … Derrick Ward had two yards rushing. Somewhere, Bernie Madoff smiles, that son of a bitch. … Is Ward that shook up about that Kardashian girl getting married? I know my dear friend Elizabeth Taylor did that to a lot of men back in my day.

Bad enough the Bucs had the third-worst offensive output in team history two days ago. Given some of the steaming pile of mule dung teams that wore those Tang uniforms, that’s a chilling thought.

Seemingly moments after stomping his feet that any changes wouldn’t start with replacing Byron Leftwich, Raheem the Dream replaced Byron Leftwich.

That last move may have ended the honeymoon between Raheem the Dream and fans. Or at least the fourth estate.

The honeymoon seems to be over if Martin Fennelly’s latest missive is accurate. The Tampa Tribune humorist seemed to have taken a swipe at Raheem the Dream, suggesting maybe others are wondering whether Raheem the Dream is up to the task of rebuilding the Bucs.

Nothing surprises us anymore at One Knee-Jerk Place.

Raheem Morris and his team of experts spent more than 2.3 million meaningless man hours trying to decide between Byron Leftwich and Luke McCown. Cut to Monday.

“We’ll be going to Josh Johnson,” The Raheemster said.

The Bucs already are tired of Lefty’s leftovers. And they think Josh Freeman isn’t ready. We’re not so sure about the head coach, either.

A second-year player who just a couple of months ago was the fourth-string quarterback is now running the show. Freeman, the inevitable starter, moves up to No. 2.

Leave Leftwich, take the cannolis.

If Fennelly begins taking potshots at you, it’s safe to assume the training wheels have been removed from the Raheem the Dream lovemobile.

Adam Schefter of BSPN weighs in on the demotion of Bucs quarterback Byron Leftwich.

There were a lot of things to point fingers at for the Bucs on Sunday. But the following may have been the worst:

The Bucs failed to convert a third down. Just miserable.

This little fact was not lost on Michael Lombardi of NFL.com.

Two teams failed to convert a third down Sunday — the 49ers and the Buccaneers. The 49ers almost won their game, but the Buccaneers game was basically over at the half. The Buccaneers only had five first downs for the entire game. New Orleans gets that on one drive.

Imagine what the score would have been had the Bucs opponent Sunday been a team that likes to light up the scoreboard? Oh, Joe doesn’t know, a team like, say, New Orleans?

Joe often wonders what goes on inside the fancy offices at One Buc Palace, the ones occupied by the Glazer Boys.

As a reporter, Joe would be pleased to provide here the Glazers’ comments about their team, or call them up for a chat, but they keep their opinions locked up tighter than the company safe during free agency.

So Joe is left to speculate. And Joe believes the Glazers are freaking out at the prospect of the Bucs potentially scoring the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. That would be their worst nightmare.

Imagine the Glazers being presssured into laying out a massive signing bonus for the top pick, and/or potentially setting the league’s new rookie salary standard in an uncapped year. That’s the last thing they would want. What’s the likelihood of a player holdout in that scenario? Or a potentially one-sided trade down to avoid the cash outlay?

The Glazers likely want to stay far away from the first three picks, unless their attitude toward spending money changes or they are trying to woo a big-name coach/general manager.

Yesterday, Joe watched Raheem the Dream’s press conference when he dropped the bomb that Byron Leftwich would be dropped from the starting lineup, all the way to third string.

Joe heard Raheem the Dream say a number of times the horrid loss to the Giants was not all Leftwich’s fault. Oddly enough just minutes after the loss Sunday, Raheem the Dream said if changes were to be made it would not start with Leftwich.

Monday in the early evening, Joe was running errands when again he heard Raheem the Dream on his weekly radio show, locally broadcast on WDAE-AM 620, talk almost non-stop that Leftwich cannot be blamed for the loss: that Leftwich was not the man who missed countless blocks; was not the man who missed countless tackles; was not the man who dropped too many passes to count.

So if Raheem the Dream was so adamant that Leftwich was not the culprit with the Bucs nightmarish defeat at the hands of the Giants, why exactly was he benching him? It’s not as if Leftwich wasn’t productive prior to Sunday (look at the numbers the Bucs offense put up in the first two games — nasty losses each).

So Leftwich has one bad game (he was hardly alone Sunday) and he gets all but booted out of One Buc Palace?

Hearing Raheem the Dream absolve Leftwich so often, it’s not unlike when Joe experiences a salesman trying too hard to sell. Joe’s antennae immediately spring to action.

Slightly over a month ago Raheem the Dream delayed naming Leftwich the starting quarterback because certain factions within the Bucs front office (that allegedly went all the way to the top) wanted Luke McCown to start.

Hearing Raheem the Dream lay it on thick yesterday, sparing Leftwich of any guilt for the loss (yet demoting him not just to backup but to third string), Joe couldn’t help but think someone with significant influence was more than mildly suggesting to Raheem the Dream to put Leftwich’s posterior on the pine.

Though he’s a Maoist, Yahoo! Sports NFL columnist Michael Silver is generally a nice guy. But he does speak his mind from time to time.

After researching the Bucs horrid loss Sunday, Silver was anything but nice to the Pewter Pirates.

The most pathetic team in Florida? Ladies and gentlemen, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In a 24-0 home defeat to the New York Giants that was more lopsided than the score indicated, the Bucs didn’t get a first down until five minutes remained in the third quarter. They finished with just five overall (to the Giants’ 28), gained just 86 total yards (to New York’s 397) and gave hope to fans in St. Louis and Cleveland that their respective teams aren’t the league’s most pathetic. Rookie coach Raheem Morris, who walked into this mess (the Bucs reportedly have twice as much cap space as the next lowest-spending franchise in ’09), said it best: “We were beat by a grown-man team, a team like we want to be one day. They came in here and took it to us. … It wasn’t even close.”

Joe will have a bit more about this later but something smells at One Buc Palace, and it isn’t the locker room (or the men’s room).

In his weekly Monday press conference, Raheem the Dream, despite demoting Byron Leftwich to No. 3, praised his defense for keeping the game from totally getting out of hand.

Like it wasn’t out of hand?

“It could have gotten ugly, it didn’t,” Raheem the Dream said. “But don’t take that the wrong way.

“It was not all Leftwich’s fault. But that’s the guy who gets the sword.”

Raheem the Dream all but promised new starters in addition to Josh Johnson but after being asked by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune what those changes were, Raheem the Dream punted and dodged the question.

Raheem the Dream also called out the offensive line. Personally, Joe has a difficult time believing one player (Jeff Faine’s injury) results in the entire offensive line crumbling. Raheem the Dream also said Faine may return sooner than expected but gave no timetable.

As far as Johnson, Raheem the Dream claims his quote about Johnson being “a career backup” was taken out of context.