A lot of Bucs fans are hoping that, if manbeast Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy cannot fall in the Bucs’ laps at No. 3, that the Bucs pick up Tennessee safety Eric Berry.

After learning the Bucs have scheduled a Tampa visit for Berry, Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM, was able to land an interview with Berry on Friday.

Berry talked about how he would be a perfect fit for the Bucs, how he melded with former Tennessee and Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and about the interest the Bucs have shown in him thus far.

Just click on this link and in the left-hand margin is the podcast of Berry’s interview.

Enjoy.

It’s a slow Friday. But this got Joe, um, well, perked up.

When the Rays made it to the World Series two years ago, Joe learned that Rays slugger Evan Longoria was hooking up with the lovely Bucs cheerleader Jaime Hanna.

Seems as though Ms. Hanna has moved down the dugout for another Rays player.

Hyped Rays minor league outfielder Matt Joyce seems to be scoring major league talent. Though Joyce may be on the disabled list, he has found a way to comfort his ailing arm. If burgeoning Internet rumors are accurate, Hanna can be found on Joyce’s (sore?) arm.

Per the Twitter feed of Joe’s good friend Cork Gaines, he of the must-read Rays blog RaysIndex.com, Hanna and Joyce are an item.

@RaysIndex: Rumor that EvanLongoria’s ex-BucsCheerleaderHookup JaimeHanna has been seen w/ MattJoyce. SloppySeconds or clubhouse comraderie?

Now, if Joe was really a cheap writer, he’d have all sorts of double entendres about wood and balls, but Joe’s not going to go there.

Joe reached out to Cork for further juicy details. Cork replied that he is putting out “feelers” for Jaime to confirm if the rumors are accurate. He cannot confirm but, Cork said he’s heard this rumor from too many sources to believe on face value they are false rumors.

The fact Jaime may have lost to Rachel Watson in the Eyecandy Region final of Buccaneers Madness certainly hasn’t crushed her.

Or was result the opening that Joyce needed in Jaime’s time of need?

Sigh.

When it comes to Bucs cheerleaders sacking up with local athletes, Joe doesn’t mind rumormongering. Besides, it gives Joe a chance to post a photo of a lovely Bucs cheerleader which always brightens up a page.

Raheem The Dream thinks he has pressure?

The New York Jets are moving into a new stadium with scores of screw-loose fans taking out second mortgages just to buy seat licenses and tickets.

Why the stress might drive second-year coach Rex Ryan back to gorging himself, if the team doesn’t win and score big in the NFL Draft.

Today, as part of the subscription NFL Draft coverage on JoeBucsFan.com, NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM 620, breaks down all things Jets in this installment of the Draft Countdown, a daily look at the needs and strategies of every NFL team heading into the draft. … Those who subscribe today, March 26, will be mailed a $10 or $25 gift certificate to Mugs Grill & Bar in Clearwater, home of truly awesome food. What a deal!

Of course, Pawlowski keeps his eye focused on how the Jets’ moves might affect the Bucs.

Also, keep your eye out for Pawlowski’s linebackers breakdown, yet another draft-lovers dream. Enjoy. {+++}

[audio:jetsdraft.mp3]

Last season the Bucs offensive line sadly regressed when it seemed it was on the verge of being a dominant unit.

First, there was changing the blocking techniques, which may have been the biggest culprit.

Then there was the boneheaded plays of Dunderhead Trueblood.

Not to be overlooked was when Arron Sears decided to play hide-and-seek.

Since, other than the Bucs bringing his name up, Sears is like the NFL version of Sasquatch: Sometimes talked about; rumored to be walking amid the public but never seen.

This espionage by the Bucs in regards to Sears continued this week when Bucs general manager Mark Dominik and coach Raheem the Dream brought Sears’ name up in conversations with Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times.

To say the two were guarded in their comments is an understatement.

Asked about Sears’ ability to contribute this fall, both Morris and Dominik were cautious in their answers, though it’s clear they haven’t ruled out the possibility of him playing a role.

“Arron’s working and we’ll have to see what Arron is when he comes back and we start our offseason,” Morris said. “But the situation was a private situation and we tried to keep it that way. . . I look forward and I’m hopeful to see where he is and to see how he’s going to react when he has an opportunity.”

Private? No one has been more private since D.B. Cooper. There have been more sightings of Osama bin Laden than this Sears. The way the Bucs are hiding Sears, he must be in possession of Obama’s birth certificate or has access to Russian nuclear armaments.

If the Bucs have to protect him this much, how on earth do they expect him to handle the overflowing crowds of 40,000 at the CITS this fall?

Joel Glazer

For weeks if not months, many in the local Fourth Estate have grumbled and kvetched about why no one from Team Glazer would come from behind their shroud of secrecy all season, other than to shoot down wild and outrageous financial allegations by a morning radio host who at best has a long track record of shaky credibility.

So what happens when Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer appears for his annual (mandatory) press briefing at the spring NFL meetings this past week?

He gets hammered again.

Not so much by the Fourth Estate, but by fans, so notes Tampa Tribune columnist Joe Henderson.

These days, Joel Glazer could say “good morning” and ask how your wife and kids are doing and he’d get ripped for it. That’s a fact of life when your football team just finished 3-13 and many of its fans perceive you care more about an English soccer club than you do about them.

So no one can be surprised at the overwhelmingly negative reaction fans had when the co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warned Wednesday of impending home blackouts in the upcoming season.

And when Glazer defended himself against the wide-spread perception that he’s cheap, he basically got ridiculed.

This was almost predictable. Many Bucs fans foam at the mouth at the mere mention of Raheem the Dream. They are highly suspicious of Mark Dominik. So when Glazer noted how the Bucs were staying the course and building through the draft and, oh by the way, don’t ignore the possibility of blackouts, it seemed only natural how the fans would react.

Short of Glazer saying he was going to outspend the entire NFC East on player salaries and basically hand Dominik a blank check for players, the fans were going to seeth.

No matter how sound or logical Glazer’s information may (or may not) have been, fans want their owner to be George Steinbrenner, or worse, Dan Snyder.

One only needs to listen to sports radio the way Rays fans whine about Stu Sternberg not spending any money despite the fact the Rays have one of baseball’s best teams. Yet many of  these same fans won’t even drive 20 minutes across a bridge to see the team play.

Fans wanted to hear Glazer say that his checkbook is bottomless for salaries since there is no salary cap.

Was the backlash on Glazer fair? No. 

Was the backlash on Glazer predictable? Yes.

NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM 620, is reporting that super stud safety prospect Eric Berry does, in fact, have a scheduled visit with the Bucs in Tampa.

JoeBucsFan.com is partners with WDAE-AM, so Joe’s not going to reveal any more information about Berry’s visit here. Joe wants you to check out their draft page at 620WDAE.com for the details.

And, if you’re a draft junkie, it’s good idea for you to go there every day.

And if you’re truly a draft lover, Joe knows you’ll love the subscription draft coverage on JoeBucsFan.com. Go see what you’re missing. Pawlowski’s linebackers breakdown is coming this week, along with his latest double mock draft, and the daily countdown that breaks down every NFL team’s draft needs one by one.

Former Bucs DE Steve White

By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era (1996-2001) playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Recently, White even contributed “Insider” NFL Draft content to ESPN.com.

Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defense with a focus on the defensive line. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan. 

With the 2009 season over, White has broken down every Bucs defensive lineman and is now sharing his views on offseason preparation.

Today he reveals his personal approach to offseason film study.

One of the things I liked to do in the offseason was watch film. But the term “watching film” means different things to different people, so I figured I would illustrate how I tended to watch film in the offseason and the thinking behind it.

The film I watched most in the offseason was film of me during the previous season. Call it self-scouting or whatever moniker you want to give it, I thought and still feel that you can learn more in the offseason by watching yourself than you can in watching film on your opponents for the upcoming season.

The key, of course, is to be your own worst critic and focus more on your bad plays than your good ones.

I always wanted to see how many plays I potentially left out on the field and what I could do to make sure that that didn’t happen again.

Look For Tipping Off Opponent

That approach allows you to work on your mindset in the offseason when you aren’t working on the physical aspects of the game. You never want to go through a season and make mistakes and never learn from them. The key to a long NFL career is not to be perfect, but instead to never make the same mistake twice.

It’s also a good idea to pay attention to whether, as a defensive lineman, you tip off your responsibilities and/or become predictable in your movements.

Does it appear that the offensive lineman knows where you are going before the snap? Was the guy set up for a counter move that you never made? Is there anything about your stance that changes from play to play enough for them to pick up on?

These are the questions you want to be asking yourself so that you maximize your potential to make plays.

I would only start watching my upcoming opponents AFTER taking a long hard look at myself. But obviously at a certain point it’s time to start looking forward.

While watching film in the offseason, obviously you know who your opponents will be for the upcoming season but you may not know the exact order of the games. And, of course, with personnel moves and injuries the guy who you are watching on film from the previous season may not be the guy who lines up across from you on gameday months later. So, in my opinion, you should only focus on your division opponents since you are going to have to face them twice regardless.

The rule of thumb with offseason scouting is to not get too caught up on the details when it comes to your opponent. You don’t want to start trying to figure out blocking schemes or the pattern of play calling. Instead, you want to focus on the guys who will potentially be blocking you and how they handled other defensive linemen the previous seasons. For me, I wanted to focus primarily on third-and-long plays for the purposes of watching their pass sets. Other folks may want to watch it all, however.

There are several different sets that offensive linemen can take, and with each different set you have to rush them differently. Some guys like to get you right on the line and they are called short-setters. They try to punch you right away to halt your momentum and throw you off rhythm. In that situation you will need to be quick with your hands to knock their’s down and quick enough to burn the edge and make them catch up to you.

Other offensive linemen may get depth but try to keep their shoulders parallel with the line of scrimmage as long as possible. The natural inclination is to try to bull rush this set, but that’s exactly what they want you to do, so instead you should either try to burn the corner with a wide rush or do the bull rush but quickly rip off inside before they sit down.

Then you have some that get depth AND turn their shoulders perpendicular to the line of scrimmage or close to it. These are generally the worst offensive linemen but not always.

But with that set they are basically begging you to either run right up the middle of their numbers with a bull rush or to go upfield and then back up under with a spin move, or some other quick change of direction. If you find an offensive lineman with this set, then you kind of start to lick your chops and also focus on the fact that you have to maximize your production when you go against them because sacks and other stats are hard to come by.

Young O-Linemen Have Quirks

I would end up watching some straight game film also though but not much. Generally, what I liked to look for is any tells an offensive lineman might have.

One thing you find is that offensive lineman, especially the young ones, tend to have little quirks before the snap. Whether it’s a change in the width or depth of their stance from passing plays to running plays, or its a guy who twists his foot in the ground whenever there’s a running play called (yes that actually happened). If you look hard enough and long enough, you may just find the little tip off that helps you make a big play months later.

Well, that’s how I watched film in the offseason. Hopefully it was insightful if not entertaining.

I will say that the most important thing isn’t just watching film, it’s WHAT you’re watching and HOW you’re watching it.

It saddens Joe to read sloppy reporting — not opinion, or a simple error or typo — marked by lame-effort research that leads to big errors or horrifically misleads readers.

Joe can honestly say he’s never published such ugly slop in his journalism career.

Enter the Mad Twitterer, aka Rick Stroud of the St. Pete Times, who today tries to educate Bucs fans as to the finances of Manchester United.

Stroud wants to give Bucs fans “a little math lesson” to show that the Glazers’ soccer team, Manchster United, makes gobs of profit even with their massive debt. So Stroud wants Bucs fans to be wary of thinking the soccer team influences the Glazers’ operations in Tampa with the Bucs.

The only problem is that Stroud’s numbers are fuzzy and he doesn’t offer up any sources for his figures.

And Stroud seems oblivious to the fact that the Glazers’ soccer financials were exposed in full detail for a bond issue they sought to refinance the team’s massive debt earlier this year.

Stroud misleads Bucs fans by telling them the Glazers’ soccer team brings them “an annual profit, after principle and interest on that $1-billion debt, of $75-million.”

Bloomberg and many other news outlets reported the following earlier this year about Manchester United.

Net income for its holding company Red Football Ltd. was 25.6 million pounds for the year ending June 30, 2009, compared with a loss of 26.3 million pounds the previous year. Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid for 80 million pounds last June.

Look at the previous [2006 & 2007] seasons, and Team Glazer took massive annual losses in England. 

Stroud’s own newspaper, in a report titled, “Blimey! That’s A Bloddy Lot Of Debt,” printed that Manchester United lost $113.4 millon (U.S. dollars) in 2007. 

And one can turn to various reports out of England, such as this from the Daily Mail,  quoting Red Football’s released financials that show the operation posted another huge loss in 2006, .

However, that was a substantial improvement on the £135.3m loss the company recorded in [2006].

“Dr. Stroud” should be ashamed by trying to lead Bucs fans to believe the Glazers are “annually” making a near nine-figure profit in England.

Joe will keep his math very simple.

The Glazers many hundreds of millions in debt on Manchester United require gargantuan interest payments each year. In 2009, the soccer team’s revenue paid the bill. In past years, it hasn’t. Hence, the losses.

While the value of Manchester United keeps growing and growing (about doubling in the past five years), the Glazers clearly aren’t swimming in tens of millons of available cash.

One is free to believe that may or may not affect the Buccaneers operation. Just don’t take your math lessons from the Mad Twitterer.

"Hey Bryan, get Ari Fleischer on the phone. Raheem's talking again."

How involved or hands on will the Glazers be in the draft?
“The Glazers have been very supportive. They’re always going to be in there because it’s part of their business and they want to know what’s going on. They’ve been very supportive. They will definitely evaluate because they have their own evaluation deals and they have an opinion for us and they’re smart people. We’ll be in the draft and make the decisions because it’s our job. Mark Dominik is right – this is a critical draft.” — Raheem Morris

Those Web-only Pewter Report fellows, who torpedoed their colorful print magazine last year, took the time to transcribe Raheem The Dream’s long roundtable chat with scribes at the NFL owners meetings yesterday. The above quote comes from there.

Hmmm. Who new the Glazers “have their own evaluation deals” for the NFL draft? Thanks for the enlightenment, Coach Rah.

Perhaps these evaluators, whoever they may be, might want to help guide the Bucs before the draft rather than after. Unless, of course, the “evaluation deals” are the Glazer’s secret pre-draft study, the results of which get handed to Mark Dominik in a security envelope prior to draft day.

Raheem the Dream is happy with Quincy Black and the rest of the Bucs starting linebackers.

Yesterday Raheem the Dream had a friendly, enjoyable breakfast with reporters (quite the contrast to University of Florida tyrant/NFL quarterback guru Urban Meyer’s dealing with the fourth estate).

Raheem the Dream was worked up as usual, with his normal high-on-life attitude. Good guy Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger, sometimes referred to as “Backwards Hat” for his stylish lids and threads, caught Raheem the Dream bragging up his linebackers between gulps of orange juice.

“It’s never a set deal but there’s a certain comfort level with those guys because those guys have played well, especially in those last games when we were able to finish strong and win a couple of games,” Morris said. “Geno Hayes, I believe, led the team in tackles for loss (14). Quincy Black became a real factor on the edge and some of those things we asked him to do — off the edge rushing and some of those things in that stacked position. All the things we asked him to do along with Barrett in the middle, also a young guy controlling our defense and really doing some great things from that perspective.”

Joe really believes the Bucs have a gem in Geno Hayes. Quincy Black too often turned into a milk carton but there’s some promise there.

Barrett Ruud? Joe understands he didn’t exactly have Warren Sapp and Booger McFarland playing in front of him, but as Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM 620, has often said about Ruud, “Shed a block once in a while.”

A developing Jimmy Clausen freefall could get the Vikings' attention

Bucs fans don’t like the Vikings. 

And that dislike might get stronger during the 2010 NFL Draft.

Why?

NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski explains in this breakdown of all things Vikings and the draft. It’s part of the daily draft countdown subscribers to the JoeBucsFan.com draft coverage. Those who subscribe today, March 25, will be mailed a $10 or $25 gift certificate to Mugs Grill & Bar in Clearwater, home of truly awesome food.

Enjoy the look at the Vikings. Tomorrow — the Jets. {+++}

[audio:vikingsdraft.mp3]

The third round of Buccaneers Madness ends today. A reminder: Buccaneers Madness is run in conjunction with the NCAA basketball tournament (Joe cannot remember a better one in years), largely influenced by his good friend Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com and his annual Culture Tournament.

When Joel Glazer came out yesterday and cautioned that there would likely be blackouts unless the unexpected happened and the Bucs sell 20,000+ more tickets a game, not everyone was feeling sorry for Bucs fans.

Vacation Man of Stalinist BSPN.com believes Bucs fans are spoiled.

The real surprise here is that it didn’t happen last year. The Bucs sold out all their home games during a 3-13 season, but there often were lots of empty seats, leading to speculation that the team bought up many unsold tickets to avoid blackouts.

Tampa Bay fans have been a bit spoiled in recent times because the team has been a winner through much of the Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden eras. But blackouts aren’t anything new in Tampa Bay. During some miserable seasons in the old Tampa Stadium, it wasn’t uncommon for the Buccaneers to draw only 30,000 to 40,000 fans.

Before you start lobbing grenades at Vacation Man, he speaks from experience. He was a Bucs beat writer during the Bucco Bruce Creamsicle days. Vacation Man also noted that Team Glazer doesn’t want blackouts any more than fans do, and that Team Glazer has a way of stopping the bleeding.

Win games.

The third round of Buccaneers Madness finishes today. A reminder: Buccaneers Madness is run in conjuction with the NCAA basketball tournament (Joe cannot remember a better one in years), largely influenced by his good friend Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com and his annual Culture Tournament.

Joe has read the various comments from Joel Glazer, who sat down today for his typical annual chat with select local beat writers at the NFL owners meetings.

Joe inhaled Glazer’s words, and now Joe must exhale some questions.

First, Glazer reiterated his stance that the Bucs are building through the draft and he eloquently and admirably detailed to the St. Pete Times how he’s willing to take media and public relations lumps to develop players and build a champion, versus jerking around with 9-7 and 8-8 finishes. Here’s an excerpt:

“Number two, go back to the beginning of last year. There was a reason we made some changes. We made some changes because we recognized we had aging core group of individuals that was not sustainable. We were headed off a cliff here. That cliff did come, but we said we’d better be proactive to this than reactive in dealing with this. When I say proactive, it meant a plan. Number one, we have to start bringing in some young talent on this team. It’s time for some of the older people to move on so some of the younger people get an opportunity to come in, grow, develop and become part of the team. And that has been the plan, that we’ve got to start building the base with young talent.

“If you look at the teams that have had sustained success, it’s the teams that have done it and got it right.

“With that being the plan, letting older veterans go, a void of draft picks from previous years, making a conscious decision to go that route, the way the NFL has been is there are some years your spending is up and a series of years your spending is down. Then hopefully, you go back up. We are in that period right now.

“There are unique opportunities when they do come up, we’ll take advantage of them. Kellen Winslow is an example. That’s a guy who fit the profile. Younger, talented. You make a trade for a second-round pick. I think that would’ve cost us a million dollars last year and we turn it into a guy we’re paying $7-million to.”

Glazer said the team made a conscious decision not to be big players in free agency, which consisted of mostly older players.

“Yes, we could go out and sign a couple of 29- and 30-year-old free agents. But I don’t know what that does for us long-term,” Glazer said. “That could get us back in that mediocrity of 7-9, 8-8, 9-7 and that cycle we’re really not interested in. That’s not going to win us a championship. It may feel a little better. I’ll go through a lot less criticism, no question about that. But that’s fool’s gold. We’re not in the business of fool’s gold. We’re in the business of winning championships.”

Of course, Joe understands his logic. And Glazer went on to tell Woody Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune, that money is no object in building the Bucs into a winner.

But here’s what doesn’t jibe for Joe: If it’s now all about rebuilding this team through the 2010 draft, then where is the huge investment into the staff that actually scouts and drafts the players. Where is the money?

Surely, Team Glazer could have gone out and hired big time personnel gurus to come and work under Mark Dominik for this draft. They could have built the most impressive draft team and war room in the history of the NFL draft.

That didn’t happen.

Dennis Hickey is the college scouting director back for yet another season of subpar service. Mr. Glazer, is that the guy you are going all-in with to rebuild your club? He was in on the annual draft whiffs you spoke of. Is he the best money can buy?

Mark Dominik? That was quite a leap of faith to rebuild your money-is-no-object franchise with a rookie GM last year, who also was part of some the ugly drafts you spoke of. You like Dominik? Great. Give him the checkbook to buy the best draft team in the business. But you didn’t do that.

Joe repects that Glazer had the balls to pull the plug on Chucky, gut the team and try to build another near-dynasty.

But if that’s the plan, and money is no object, then you invest in the best personnel people in the industry.

Perhaps lost amid Bucs president Joel Glazer’s chat with the Bucs pen and mic club — for some strange reason the Lakeland Ledger’s Rick Brown was not allowed access — was that Glazer gave Bucs head coach Raheem the Dream and general manager Mark Dominik votes of confidence.

In short, unless the team implodes, Dominik and Raheem the Dream are safe for the time being, so reports The Mad Twitterer of the St. Petersburg Times.

Despite going 3-13, both could be safe for at least a few more seasons as long as they remain committed and execute a rebuilding plan formulated by the Glazer family.

“They know our thinking,” Glazer said. “We’ve had long talks about this. And really, the general message is: You think long-term, we think long-term. It’s plain and simple. You start thinking short-term, we start thinking short term.

“Everyone buys into this plan. I always ask, “Does everyone have the stomach for this because there’s a lot you’ve got to endure early on.”

Well, now that that’s out of the way, we can all concentrate on the draft, can’t we?

Last Joe checked, the 1997 Buccaneers (year 2 of the Father Dungy era) won 10 games with seven Pro Bowlers, and two of those were All-Pro, Hardy Nickerson and Mike Alstott.

Yet here comes Raheem The Dream again comparing his looming second year with that of the Dungy era, trying to tell the fan base that the Bucs of now are on the same path of the incredible Bucs of days past.

Joe had hoped Raheem The Dream had learned that his incessant comparisons of himself to the Dungy era early last season were foolish and misguided.

No such luck.

Raheem The Dream is at it again, per his comments this morning chronicled by Woody Cummings, Bucs beat writer for The Tampa Tribune.

“Sometimes a team will just decide that they’re going to compete and be better than everybody else one year, and it would be no different if these guys did that tomorrow,” Morris said of his players.

“But I’ve been comparing (our situation) to the one we had when Coach (Tony) Dungy first came here where you talk about building (through the draft) and being patient and waiting for the youth to (develop) and get better.”

Morris’ comments echoed a common refrain. After a year in which Bucs officials hesitated to admit they were rebuilding the franchise, they have made it clear this week they are in the midst of a massive reconstruction project.

That may not sit well with fans who were hoping to see the Bucs make a run for the playoffs in 2010, but Morris has a message for disgruntled fans who may be hesitant to lend their support.

“I would say to them, you’ve got a chance to come and watch it all develop,” Morris said. “You’ve got a chance to watch (second-year quarterback) Josh Freeman and these young guys around him turn into what they’re going to be.

“You’ve got a chance to watch a team grow and develop, just like we did from 1996-2002, and eventually become that dominant powerhouse that you hopefully get to be.”

Just stop it, Rah. Stop it.

You will lose comparing your regime to Dungy’s. It’s senseless. And it doesn’t fit.

You don’t have the talent around you. And the game plan is different.

The only thing that’s comparable is that ’97 team didn’t have wide receivers, either.

Bucs fans have been near full throat at Team Glazer for not spending money on players.

Some point to Team Glazer’s English kickball team and its massive red ink as the root cause.

Others point to the legions of empty seats at the CITS on game days.

Joe points to the looming player lockout by NFL owners.

Bucs team president Joel Glazer said this morning that the perception that Team Glazer doesn’t have money to spend on payroll can’t be further from the truth, so reports eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

Glazer also refuted speculation the club is being run on the cheap and declared money will never be an issue in the operation of the team.

“Our football people have never been told no because of money,” Glazer said. “Money will never be an issue when it comes to building this team the way we think it should be built.

“Looking at our history, when it was necessary to spend to keep people or get someone to put us over the top, we didn’t think twice about it. And we won’t think twice about it, ever. Money is not an issue and that perception is false. Sometimes, I feel that charge (cheapness) is a scapegoat. It’s the one easy, tangible thing people can grab onto.

“But I grab onto not drafting well for many years. That’s like a slow cancer that builds and grows and eventually takes over. That is a major source of our problems and that’s the problem that has to be corrected. You correct that problem and you start writing a lot of big checks. And you’re happy to do it because that’s a good problem to have.”

Joe understands where Glazer is coming from, best as a Caybrew-soaked blogger who lives in a modest condo and considers his big screen TV broadcasting the NFL Network to be his significant other.

Joe does seem to remember when the Bucs had holes to fill to make a good team great, Team Glazer went out and bought players.

But the way Team Glazer is barely sniffing the legs of low-rung free agents suggests to Joe that general manager Mark Dominik is placing a whole lot of weight and hope, if not his career, on next month’s draft.

Let’s not forget, Dominik says this is the strongest draft in years. Former NFL executive Charley Casserly said this is the deepest draft since 1983. That may all be true but so is the fact that 31 other teams are also picking players out of the same deep pool.

Let’s  hope Dominik puts together a better batting average this April that Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer combined.

Believe it or not, there is actually a Bucs fan out there who sees the wisdom of Mark Dominik’s ways and thinks Team Glazer is being trashed unfairly.

Lodging a question in a Bucs question-and-answer format on TBO.com, a Bucs fan has had it with all the nitpicking lodged at Dominik and the men who cut his paychecks.

Q: I read a lot of the recent questions and disagree with all the ragging of the owners and coaches. I remember the three games we won last year and how good our Bucs looked doing it. It was a first-year coach and general manager and as soon as Raheem took over defense I think that side of the ball improved greatly. I say quit jumping off the bandwagon and have some faith. If they go 9-7 this year or even 8-8 that will be great. Reggie brown will be fine and I’m hoping for a Dez Bryant in the draft?

Kevin, Tampa

A: You are one of the few patient fans we’ve heard from. You’re also one of the few who seems to understand exactly what’s going on at One Buc. The Bucs haven’t given up on winning and they’ve haven’t gone cheap. They’re just tearing down an old team and rebuilding it. That takes time. Everyone wants instant success, but that’s hard to find. The Bucs are trying to build a team that will be in the running for a Super Bowl – not just the playoffs – every year for the next 10-12 years. It takes time to build all the pieces. As you say, they won’t get there this year, but if they win 6-8 games it will be a sign they’re on the right track. Bottom line: sometimes you have to take a step backward to take two steps forward.

— Woody Cummings

Joe has said it before and will say it again: NFL teams are building a war chest as they prepare to go to the mattresses next season when there likely will be a lockout. Joe firmly believes this is the elephant in the room many, many others, for reasons unknown, seem to ignore.