Superstar cornerback Darrelle Revis says a loss of “intensity” is a big part of what’s been dooming the Bucs in the second halves of games.

Revis made this revelation on WDAE-AM 620 last night. No. 24 was very clear that there’s been an unexplained dropoff after halftime, and it’s helping prevent the Bucs from closing out games.

Joe’s not sure how this happens repeatedly in professional football on a team that can’t find a win, with a coach, one would think, who would give his right arm for a W and obsesses about details. Intensity is one heck of a detail!

Hearing this also troubled Joe about the leadership on the football team. The voted captains and/or the new quarterback need to find away to deliver 60 minutes at maximum intensity. That won’t necessarily equal wins, but it’s got to happen.

This reminds Joe of the Bucs’ regular first-half funks during the Raheem regime. They inexplicably happened over and over and over again, much like the second-half swoons of the 2013 Bucs.

Several Bucs talked the past two days at One Buc Palace about the upcoming Monday Night Football showdown with the Dolphins. Naturally, Joe’s good friends at WDAE-AM 620 were there to get all sorts of audio.

Among those talking were linebacker Mason Foster, defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, offensive tackle Demar Dotson, running back Mike James, guard Davin Joseph, safety Dashon Goldson, quarterback Mike Glennon, cornerback Johnthan Banks, running back Doug Martin, offensive tackle Donald Penn, defensive tackle Akeem Spence, linebacker Jonathan Casillas and defensive lineman Steven Means.

Also, press conferences from offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan, defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan and Bucs commander Greg Schiano.

As always, audio courtesy of Joe’s good friends at WDAE-AM 620.

Everyone knows Bucs former Pro Bowl guard Davin Joseph is returning from massive knee surgery (Cadillac Williams’ style and worse) about 15 months ago, plus a staph infection earlier this year.

He hasn’t been very good, but Joseph was improved along with his linemates on Sunday. Asked today about how he’s playing, Joseph gave himself a modest grade.

“Performance-wise, probably about 80 percent,” Joseph said. ” I still feel like I’m messing up on little things, little things that can really help us be a better team. You just gotta do better.”

Joseph went on to attribute his grade to part technique/part rust from a full season off.

Frankly, Joe hopes that’s the case with Joseph. If he’s largely healthy but rusty and off on some fine points, then that’s all correctable. That means he should have a strong second half and be ready for 2014. If Joseph’s just getting old, he turns 30 this month, then there’s no legal fix for that.

Enjoy today’s full interview of Joseph below via 620wdae.com.

It all started yesterday when former Bucs wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson claimed on an obscure San Francisco sports radio show that Bucs icon Warren Sapp was a precursor to Richie Incognito, calling Sapp a Bucs bully who did his best to humiliate and belittle Bucs defensive lineman Chidi Ahanotu.

Suddenly Ahanotu, who probably hasn’t spoken 40 words to media members about football the past four years, was on more radio shows than Dan Tullis and Joel Clark, recounting his battles, both physical and mental, with Sapp.

Now Joe has no way to verify what happened because the alleged Sapp backing down to a challenge from Ahanotu incident happened behind closed doors. But Booger McFarland, former Bucs defensive tackle, now of WHFS-FM 98.7, has had enough and claims Keyshawn and Ahanotu are conning Bucs fans, as documented by Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, otherwise known as “The Commish.”

“Chidi Ahanotu is a bold face liar and Keyshawn Johnson is a bold face liar,” former Buccaneer Booger McFarland said on the Booger and Rich Show Thursday afternoon on 98.7 The Fan.

McFarland said that the Bucs drafted him out of college in the 1st round to replace Warren Sapp. If Sapp was going to bully anyone in that locker room, it had to be the player who was supposed to replace him. Booger said that Sapp “embraced him with open arms. Because Chidi Ahanotu had an axe to grind, he called Warren Sapp a bully.”

Again, all this happened behind closed doors. What Joe does know is that Keyshawn and Sapp are avowed enemies. This is nothing new.

Joe has heard from reliable sources that at least one time, Ahanotu and Sapp threw down in the locker room, but there is no way Joe can verify this. The two were cat and dog and never got along.

It saddens Joe that all of this talk may cloud Sapp’s shining moment Monday night, when his number is retired.

The leader of the New Schiano Order issued strong praise for his leaders on the roster and the coaching staff for keeping the Bucs focused and battling hard when the whistle blows.

Speaking at One Buc Palace today, Schiano said he’s got no “woe is me” attitude in him, and that he might even have to be more upbeat in the face of adversity. Schiano had plenty of other positives to share about his receiving corps and the future of his offense. Yes, the Bucs are still 0-8.

You can hear all Schiano’s words via the 620wdae.com audio below:

Bucs Hall of Famer Warren Sapp and Bucs commander Greg Schiano had a sitdown yesterday. Sapp lobbied for a different scheme to help Gerald McCoy get to the quarterback more often.

Yesterday when Warren Sapp (with Dwight Smith tagging along) showed up at One Buc Palace to break bread with Bucs commander Greg Schiano, part of Sapp’s mission was to convince Schiano to use Bucs stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy differently in order to get better results.

Though he didn’t discuss much of the details of the sitdown, Schiano did confirm it happened and he thoroughly enjoyed his time spent with Sapp. Schiano explained in his daily press briefing this afternoon.

“It is fun. We had lunch with him; it is like turning on a TV show,” Schiano said. “You laugh your you-know-whats off. We covered a lot of subjects. Football, not that much to be honest with you. It was a lot about other stuff. It is fun to have him in the building. And the guys — you have to remember, they grew up watching Warren Sapp. Right now they play for the organization where he built his Hall of Fame career. It was really good to have him here. I said to him it will be really need Monday night] to have him honored, we may throw him a set of pads and he and Gerald can like up together and do some good stuff, you know? Let’s bring it.

“There are different ways to use guys. We match Gerald up all game long. Sometimes I hear we are not — we move him all over. Look, all you have to do is turn the TV on. He lines up on the left. He lines up on the right. He lines up over the center. We are moving him all over to get the matchup.”

Well, that is part of Sapp’s anger. Sapp, yesterday, was disgusted if not outraged by how he believes Schiano (Bill Sheridan) misuses GMC. At one point, Sapp hollered, “He just beat his man twice in a row inside and then on third down you move him outside? Hello?”

Sapp is a huge believer in the quickest route to a quarterback is a straight line and it gives him indigestion watching the Bucs run stunt after stunt.

Trust Joe, after 13 losses in 14 NFL weeks, Sapp isn’t the only person that eats Tums on a Sunday night like M&Ms.

Yesterday, Greg Schiano told the Miami media that he’s committed to his coaching methods and core beliefs and his Bucs will “stay the course” and perfect their craft, not panic.

The “stay the course” line brought back memories for Joe.

When Raheem Morris was unveiled as head coach he repeatedly preached “stay the course” at his opening day news conference. It was baffling to Joe at the time for two reasons: the Bucs just choked away a playoff berth with four straight losses, and if the team wanted to “stay the course,” then it could have just, you know, kept its Super Bowl winning coach who had three years left on his contract.

Of course, it turned out the Bucs had no plan to “stay the course,” cutting Derrick Brooks and other veterans, and then fattening up defensive linemen to play a brand new two-gap scheme on defense (which was scrapped halfway through the season.)

“We have a process that we go through every week. And we try to outprepare ourselves every week. We have a strong belief in preparation. And that’s kind of where we are right now,” Schiano said yesterday. “The results have not been what we wanted, which that is the struggle, right? to stay the course. We’ve played some good football, just not winning football, not enough to win.”

Joe gets Schiano’s commitment to his processes, but perhaps he needs to be more open to changes — quickly. The course has to be questioned when you lose 13 out of 14.

They are different and more radical scenarios, but Joe looks at what Raheem did when he fired Jim Bates and changed the defense midseason, or how John Fox overhauled his Denver offense to get to the playoffs with Tim Tebow.

Perhaps Schiano needs to change and adjust more than he wants to. The Bucs are playing extremely hard for him but not winning.

NBC Sports Network NFL analyst and former Bucs quarterback Shaun King said he went very deep into coach’s film (aka the all-22) from the Bucs-Seahawks game Sunday and came away flummoxed.

Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 today with Ron Diaz and Ian Beckles, King, one of three QBs to lead Tampa Bay to the NFC Championship game, said he waves the white flag when it comes to figuring out what the Bucs did on defense in the final 30 minutes.

“If you can tell me what they’re playing on defense half the plays in the second half, you’re smarter than me. Because I have no idea what they’re doing,” King said.

Anyone care to enlighten King in Joe’s comments section below? Perhaps it’s a good thing if the New Schiano Order defense is so complex and undecipherable?

You can catch King’s full interview below. For a great and laugh-inducing take on the Dolphins’ hazing scandal, fast-forward to 4:10 of the audio.

Yesterday, former Bucs wider receiver Keyshawn Johnson rocked Bucs fans with an allegation that Bucs icon Warren Sapp wasn’t much different than Dolphins outcast Richie Incognito. Johnson, in an explosive radio interview, claimed Sapp was a bully and recounted an episode where he hounded former Bucs defensive lineman Chidi Ahanotu so mercilessly that Ahanotu challenged Sapp to a throw-down in the middle of the locker room in front of the entire Bucs’ roster, and Sapp just sat down.

Calling the same radio show, something called “Bucher and Towny” on KGMZ-FM 95.7 in San Francisco, Ahanotu told of his experiences with Sapp from his point of view.

“Sapp likes to target certain people,” Ahanotu said. “And he was really bullying everybody in that facility, actually. That’s what he turned into. . . . I think fame and money kind of changes people, and he’s a prime example of that. . . . Six years of dealing with that, and finally he said the wrong thing . . . talking about my dad, and that’s when I said, ‘OK, that’s it, man.’ I grabbed my helmet and I was about to beat his head in.

“I am from Oakland. I don’t take that kind of stuff. We went toe-to-toe every day. It wasn’t like I was bullied. Bullying is when someone picks on a weaker guy and that was not the case with me.”

As it turned out, Ahanotu shortly thereafter as the incident happened in December, Ahanotu was no longer with the Bucs, and went to the Rams as a free agent.

As Joe stated yesterday, there is really no way to confirm these incidents but Joe does know Ahanotu and Sapp were about as close to enemies as teammates who play on the defensive line could be. Joe has heard eyebrow-raising stories about the two having run-ins both in the locker room, and away from One Buc Palace when their paths crossed in the Tampa night.

It’s sad that these stories are popping up just hours before Sapp is to receiver the ultimate honor of playing for the Bucs: having his number retired at halftime of a Monday Night Football game.

Per Chidi Ahonotu, Warren Sapp bullied him in 1997 because he didn’t like Ahonotu challenging his on-field stardom. Ahonotu had 10 sacks in 1997.

The hazing/bullying spotlight in Miami continues to revive stories of the known Chidi Ahanotu/Warren Sapp fueds back in the glory days of the Bucs.

“Sapp bullied a lot of people, man,” Ahanutu said on the Ron and Ian show today on WDAE-AM 620. “But I mean let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t have a problem with Sapp bullying me. … This isn’t Disney World, bro. You gotta know what somebody’s made of. …I didn’t have a problem with Sapp coming at me the way he was, because I was going to come right back at him. And that’s what I did.”

Ahanutu tells the story of his locker room fight with Warren Sapp, after former Bucs defensive linemen Tyoka Jackson and Steve White made him approach Sapp without using his helmet as a weapon. Ahanotu also explains that Sapp targeted him, in part, because he challenged him for top dog on the Bucs’ defensive line in the late 1990s. Enjoy the full interview below!

Did Chucky beg Keyshawn to return?

In a wild interview with something called “Bucher and Towny” on KGMZ-FM 95.7 in San Francisco, former Bucs wide receiver and current ESPN NFL analyst Keyshawn Johnson came out firing like a cannon, all wound up about Dolphins punk Richie Incognito.

Keyshawn became so enraged during the interview, he claimed Bucs icon and Keyshawn’s known mortal enemy, Warren Sapp, was no better than Incognito. Keyshawn recounted an episode where defensive lineman Chidi Ahanotu, fed up with what he claimed was Sapp hounding him, challenged Sapp to a throw-down in the middle of the Bucs locker room.

“Chidi Ahanotu played with me in Tampa Bay, and I used to watch Warren Sapp do some similar things to Chidi Ahanotu,” Johnson said. “Now I’m saying this on the record. I used to watch him try to bully Chidi Ahanotu, OK? Because he felt he was more superior than Chidi. So one day, you know what Ahanotu did? He got up and he told him, ‘Get your you-know-what in the middle of the floor right now. I’m tired of it.’

“And at that point guess what Sapp did? He sat down. And everybody else in the locker room, me, the Derrick Brookses, the Brian Kellys, we all said, ‘Good for you, man.’ [Sapp] didn’t want no part of it. And until you stand up for yourself and don’t allow these chumps to do that sort of stuff to you, they’ll keep doing it. That’s the way bullies are.”

Now, of course, Joe has no way to confirm this story. But Joe does know Ahanotu and Sapp were like cat and dog. The two did not get along at all. Joe has heard stunning stories about the two having run-ins both in the locker room, and away from One Buc Palace when their paths crossed in the Tampa night.

Also, Keyshawn dropped a bomb between his tirade against Incognito and Sapp. Keyshawn was thrown off the Bucs midseason in 2003 because he and then-coach Chucky had a poisonous relationship that grew so vile neither could tolerate each other any longer.

Johnson claimed that a year later, Chucky called Keyshawn and tried to talk him in to rejoining the Bucs for what Chucky said was a run for the playoffs.

Playoffs? Remember what those were like?

Keyshawn also had choice words for Dolphins center Mike Pouncey.

“Are you kiddin’ me? My asparagus last night was thicker and stronger than this Glennon kid. But don’t let that fool you, he’s got a rifle and he’s got the smarts of a Peyton Manning. They say he’s a statue? I say he moved better in Seattle than anything Brian Greezy did in eight years. And Greezy knew how to win a damn ball game.”

That fancy ESPN special with Jon Gruden sitting down with potential NFL quarterbacks before the NFL Draft? Well, Mike Glennon told Joe yesterday that it was five hours of study time with Chucky condensed into 20 minutes of TV fun.

Joe asked Glennon about that experience and meeting again with Chucky this weekend, as is typical for all quarterbacks starting on the Monday Night Football stage.

No. 8 is looking forward to it.

“It will be interesting to meet with him again to hear what he has to say because he’s, obviously, an extremely smart football guy and has been around the game for a while and has coached some good quarterbacks. So it’ll be nice to see him again,” Glennon said.

Glennon said there were nuances Chucky showed him that “caught my attention.”

“When you see that notebook out there, we really are taking notes and stuff. It’s not just for show. I still have that notebook,” Glennon said.

It’ll be interesting to hear how Chucky gushes over Glennon on Monday night. It’s likely than he’ll heap on even more love than he did six weeks ago, when he compared Glennon and Brett Favre.

“When I worked with Glennon, I told him there are some things he did better than anyone else in college football last year,’’ Gruden said. “Specifically, he can flat-out drive the football. The guy can absolutely hum it. Glennon can throw the ball to the wide side of the field effortlessly. In college, with the wider hashmarks, when you throw the ball to the wide side of the field, it’s a big-time throw. In fact, there are some programs that don’t even attempt it — they don’t even bother asking a QB to attempt a wide-side throw down the field. That’s not the case with Glennon.

“This guy can make some really difficult down-the-field throws. If you watch the camp session with Glennon, you’ll see we went through a “Fox Two XY Hook.” I coached that pattern for 18 years. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a QB at any level throw it with the ease Glennon can. Brett Favre threw a certain second-reaction post, by my count, about four times in his career. I saw Glennon throw it four times last season.”

Bucs icon Warren Sapp dropped by One Buc Palace yesterday and held court with the local pen and mic club, regaling all who would listen with stories about the Hall of Fame, having his jersey retired Monday night, how Richie Incognito dropped the N-word on him in a game, how offensive linemen are cattle and just as important, the 2013 Bucs.

Sapp went on a fiery sermon about how he thinks in some ways, current defensive tackle Gerald McCoy is better than he is, and how he had a sitdown with Bucs commander Greg Schiano, hoping to convince Schiano to change his defense in order to allow GMC to get to the quarterback better.

“I’m not going to turn a blind eye,” Sapp said of his recent harsh comments about how the current coaching staff uses cornerback Darrelle Revis and GMC. “It’s nothing personal. I’ve always called a spade a spade. That’s why I have the job I have.”

Sapp went on to say how much he loves the Bucs and the Bucs will forever have his heart noting that the better the Bucs play, the more his legacy with the franchise lives on.

This is vintage Sapp. Emotional, passionate, loud, opinionated, over-the-top, speaking from the heart, no holds barred. It why he does such a wonderful job working for the NFL Network.

Hear Sapp preach for 13 full minutes by clicking the orange button below.

It was explosive tonight as Joe went toe to toe with the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, on the hot Bucs topics of the day. Hopefully, Joe will be invited back for next week’s Wednesday JoeBucsFan hour. Enjoy.

Warren Sapp let Greg Schiano know what’s wrong with his defense today. Exhibit A, Sapp said, is mis-using a true superstar in Gerald McCoy.

Warren Sapp held court late this afternoon with media at One Buc Palace and continued raving about Gerald McCoy and being critical of the New Schiano Order defense.

“A bowling ball of butcher knives,” is how Sapp described McCoy’s dominance.

Sapp went on to say — again — that McCoy may be better than him and is just being used incorrectly by the New Schiano Order.

Joe asked Sapp whether he’s uncomfortable at all at One Buc Palace given how critical he’s been of Greg Schiano’s defense on NFL Network.

Sapp said, “No. It’s not personal.”

In fact, Sapp said he met with Schiano this afternoon and told him he’s getting it wrong by not using Darrelle Revis as a lockdown cornerback and not using McCoy properly on the defensive line.

Sapp, seemingly in disbelief of the Bucs defense, also detailed how McCoy is a more effective rusher than Ndamukong Suh because Suh is too one-dimensional as a bull rusher.

Joe will have the fantastic audio of Sapp later this evening. Awesome stuff.

It just so happens the next Bucs opponent is embroiled in a controversy that makes anything that went on at One Buc Palace this season — including sleepy, leaky Josh Freeman’s antics — pale by comparison.

If reports are true, Dolphins coaches ordered a Code Red on left tackle Jonathan Martin and rookie rituals against him went from sophomoric stunts to hazing to financial shakedowns and threatened assaults against his family.

Joe spoke to a couple of Bucs players today about rookie rituals. Rookie defensive lineman Steven Means said he had to do some things but he thought they were all innocent.

“Every rookie had to do little stuff like bring in the pads, go get donuts, little stuff like that,” Means said. Team leaders, “they took care of us for the most part, guys on the team.”

When asked who was watching after him to make sure things didn’t get out of hand, Means quickly said, “Gerald.”

As in Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

Jonathan Casillas was a rookie with the Saints five years ago and went through hazing, but he admitted it wasn’t anything remotely close to what Martin had to go through with the Dolphins.

“I was a rookie five years ago, I had a little hazing but I wouldn’t call it bullying,” Casillas said. “It was more like a rite of passage. That is what I felt and I think that is what i have been a part of here.

“You know, sing your college fight song. Make sure the linebacker room — we had a fridge in the linebacker room — make sure it is packed with juice and water and go get food, donuts, stuff like that. Nothing crazy.

“Every once in a while if you revolt or get out of line, you got taped up. It wasn’t nothing serious.”

Look, having to haul in pads, go get donuts, go get pizzas, having to buy a dinner (within reason) is nothing. Texting dudes you are going to do a No. 2 in their mouth and claiming you are going to cap their parents, that’s way beyond hazing. That’s abuse at best and criminal at worst.

Good to see the Bucs had guys like GMC and Casillas around to make sure things didn’t spin out of control.

Joe watched Doug Martin tentatively put a t-shirt on over his head and wounded shoulder today in the Bucs’ locker room. Perhaps Martin didn’t want to get hair gel on the threads? Joe’s not sure.

But for Joe, that scene further reinforced that Martin should just shut it down and save his body for a season that isn’t lost.

But Joe’s no doctor. Greg Schiano said today that Bucs physicians are working closely with Martin to evaluate him and rehabilitate him before inevitable surgery. The injury is believed to be a torn labrum, though that hasn’t been confirmed by the Bucs.

Martin said, “it’s a feel thing,” when asked about his say in a possible 2013 comeback. “I feel like it will be my decision. Right now we’re still in a time of just seeing how it is and that’s it,” Martin said.

Treatment, “motion stuff” and stability work are all part of Martin’s daily routine, he said. And he acknowledged he’s little nervous about what awaits him.

“It will be my first surgery,” Martin said. “There will be some butterflies in there at first, but you know that’s what I need to continue my career.”

Again, Joe hopes Martin gets shut down. Mike James looks strong. Brian Leonard has value. Martin’s got three more seasons on his rookie contract. Fix him up now and don’t risk anything.

At the rate Glennon is progressing, many Bucs fans might wonder whether drafting a QB is the right call after the season.

Spending time around the Bucs locker room and One Buc Palace today, Joe gets the distinct feeling there’s a lot of confidence building in Mike Glennon, from coaches to players to Glennon himself.

Glennon carries himself more like he’s “the man.”

Donald Penn said Glennon has become such a leader that it’s freed up team captains to focus on other areas.

“Oh, Mike’s playing his butt off. I’m really proud of Mike, man. You know, Mike’s really shown the football world he’s a sleeper. And he’s coming out and doing very good things. You know one thing you guys don’t know, he’s leading us. He’s leading us,” Penn said. “He’s pumping us up. I think in between almost every series he comes down and is chatting with the offensive line. You know, getting us going. His drive and his determination to want to win, I mean you can see it in him, you know, while we’re playing. And I think that really rubs off on us. I think he’s doing a great job of commanding the offense. And my hat’s really to him.”

On Glennon’s leadership, Penn said it’s a huge bonus from a rookie.

“This is all extra. This is great. You know, I think something we needed,” Penn said. “Now I can step back and focus on my game because Mike’s taking some of the leadership role on the offense. I think Vincent can step back. I think Davin. We can all step back and start focusing on our game more because Mike’s doing what a quarterback is supposed to be doing. He’s taking that leadership and I think it’s helping us.”

What do the Bucs really have in Glennon? Bucs fans surely will find out through the second half of the season. But there are good reviews for No. 8. Before Glennon’s solid performance in Seattle, Ron Jaworski rated him the 22nd best QB in the NFL.

With Mike James exploding and the offensive line gelling, Glennon’s got a shot to make a lot of Bucs fans wonder whether drafting a QB next season is the right move.