The good state of Florida has decided that its charge of misdemeanor domestic battery against former Bucs great Warren Sapp was worthless.

Accused of smacking around a woman in his Miami-area hotel room before the Super Bowl, Sapp is now in the clear seven weeks later, BSPN is reporting today.

After his arrest, Sapp was yanked from his analyst gigs on NFL Network and Showtime. Joe sure hopes he gets reinstated immediately.

From Joe’s experience, the cops must have had a pretty miserable case against Sapp to start with. It will be interesting to see if the young lady allegedly struck by Sapp hits him with a lawsuit, or if Sapp files against her. Or perhaps they’ve shared a hot tub and some Caybrew recently and worked everything out.

Joe really will enjoy watching Sapp, if he returns to the media, put heat from afar on the Bucs’ brass in regards to which defensive tackle they should pick in the draft. So far, Sapp has praised Gerald McCoy’s feet over Ndamukong Suh’s strength.

Joe senses Sapp wants to make sure Mark Dominik picks the right guy.

Update: 11:40 a.m – Per Profootballtalk.com, the NFL Network has issued a statement: “In light of charges not being filed against Warren, we will sit down with him and review his status.”

Whenever one of the members of Team Glazer peeks from behind their normal cloak of secrecy, it’s news.

So it was both interesting and troubling that Bucs president Joel Glazer told eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune that Bucs fans may want to brace themselves for blackouts if they are not going to cough up cash for tickets.

Last year there were no sellouts. Oh sure, technically all home games were sellouts, largely due to the generosity of Team Glazer who likely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure  games were sold out, thereby allowing them to be broadcast locally.

The Buccaneers have not suffered a home blackout since Raymond James Stadium opened in 1998. Every game was televised in the local market last season, despite Tampa Bay’s 3-13 record and thousands of empty seats at most home games.

“I’d say this is the first year in many years that we expect we could very well have blackouts, based on where we’re at,” Glazer said during a lengthy interview on the final day of the NFL owners meetings.

“We hope that’s not the case, but where we sit today, we don’t want people to be necessarily surprised because we haven’t had this in 15 years, but we’re staring at the possibility for the first time in a decade and a half of having games blacked out in our local market. It’s not what we want and we are working very hard to try and see that it doesn’t happen, but it is a real possibility.”

Joe has written this before and will write it again: One of the reasons — not the sole reason — for the Bucs (and Bolts and Rays) not selling tickets is this locally economy is in the dumps. The unemployment rate has pushed into the mid-teens. Many who do have jobs are stuck working weekends.

People are hurting. They are fighting to save their houses. They are fighting to pay their mortgages. They are working two if not three jobs, provided they can find jobs.

Dropping (at best) $40 to go to a Bucs game, no matter how much you want to and no matter how much fun you may have, when you don’t know if you can pay the mortgage, well, that decision is a no-brainer.

Oh, and consider that the Rays have yet to sell 30,000 tickets to their season opener, that’s all one needs to know how rotten the local economy is.

People just don’t have the cash to go to games. It’s that simple.

The region finals of Buccaneers Madness continues with the Dewey Selmon Region final. A reminder: Buccaneers Madness is run in conjuction with the NCAA basketball tournament (Joe cannot remember a better one in years than this March), largely influenced by his good friend Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com and his annual Culture Tournament.

Unless Raheem The Dream’s comments today are part of an elaborate smoke screen, it seems Earnest Graham is back to being a running back who doesn’t carry the ball rather than the fullback role he filled admirably for much of last year.

Raheem The Dream held court with local scribes at a coaches’ breakfast this morning at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando. And per the Tweetings of Lakeland Ledger beat writer Rick Brown, aka Backwards Hat, Raheem The Dream said car accident victim and former starter B.J. Askew and Chris Pressley will battle at the fullback position.

So where does that leave Graham?

Apparently, the Bucs will return to their three-headed monster backfield that looked more like a three-legged donkey for much of 2009.

And considering, per Rick Brown, that Raheem The Dream spoke today of getting Derrick Ward more involved, it sure seems like Graham is the odd man out.

Again, Joe acknowledges any or all of these comments could be part of some elaborate scheme to convince teams the Bucs aren’t eyeballing a running back in the draft, or to drive up Derrick Ward’s trade value, or something else.

Joe just hopes Greg Olson is crafty enough to use all his weapons this season, and Graham qualifies as a weapon.

Update: 2:44 p.m. – Joe jumped the gun on this one. Raheem The Dream’s comments this morning at the NFL owners meetings were fully transcribed by those colorful Web-only publishers at PewterReport.com. Raheem The Dream did, in fact, say Graham is the No. 1 fullback, and Askew and Pressley will compete behind him.

Bill Polian is not a happy owner these days

Who cares about the Colts, you say?

Well, Indianapolis is going to be selecting just a handful of slots ahead of the Bucs for much of the 2010 NFL Draft. So maybe you should care.

Joe’s draft countdown continues, with NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM, dazzling subscribers to the JoeBucsFan.com draft coverage with his in-depth looks at every NFL team.

Pawlowski is serving up a daily breakdown of all 32 NFL teams’ draft needs, options and possibilities. And each look includes a sharp focus on how a team’s particular moves could affect the Bucs.

Of course, Pawlowski’s position breakdowns will continue and his latest double mock draft comes out this week, among other draft goodies. … (For those still considering the draft subscription, Joe is sure you will be especially satisfied if you go for it. You can find all the draft coverage archived here.)

Today’s look? Yep, it’s the Colts. Enjoy. {+++}

[audio:coltsdraft.mp3]

It seems Raheem the Dream's confidence in the blocking icon Michael Clayton is soaring.

This morning at the NFL owners meetings in Mouseland, all NFC coaches were required to sit at a table at 7 a.m. and have breakfast with the many media scribes attending.

Raheem the Dream, of course, was there.

Maybe since they are used to mid-20th century technology, scant news is filtering out concerning Raheem the Dream.

However, all-around good guy “Backwards Hat,” the stylish Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger, is not afraid of his Blackberry. He has been Twittering some tidbits of what Raheem the Dream had to say. Joe assumes Brown is paraphrasing.

One nugget is that Raheem the Dream hasn’t given up on blocking icon Michael Clayton.

@rickbrown91: I have a lot of confidence in Michael (Clayton).

Joe is assuming Brown is paraphrasing, because other Twitterings Brown used quotation marks for Raheem the Dream. Also, the 140 character limit puts a squeeze on what one can Twitter.

Now Joe understands a coach isn’t going to blow up a player, especially in a relaxed setting like the NFL owners meetings at the crack of dawn. Now Joe isn’t here to crucify the blocking icon. By all accounts he seems like a really good guy. That written, Clayton has run out of excuses long ago.

Last Joe checked, Chucky is long gone so he can’t use Chucky’s tactics as a cop out any longer. Clayton had a helluva game to start the 2009 season against Dallass then reverted to his old ways for the rest of the season.

Joe does know Clayton was battling injuries, but what NFL player doesn’t?

Maybe the time to be big brother to the blocking icon has passed? Maybe it’s time to be like, say, Tuna, and make it clear the blocking icon has to produce or he might be working the produce stand at Publix in the near future.

You know, something other than throwing a block?

Bucs general manager Mark Dominik once again had to defend himself from the Tampa Bay media wolves yesterday.

Yesterday, Bucs general manager Mark Dominik decided to entertain the Bucs press corps hanging out in Mouseland for the NFL owners meetings. Naturally, Dominik was peppered with the same questions fans have peppered Joe with over the past few months.

Among many issues, Dominik claimed the current course of the Bucs is his alone, with the blessing of Team Glazer, of course. 

Dominik had to go on the defensive and singled out his trade and signing last year of tight end Kellen Winslow as a controversial move that actually panned out, so reports Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Dominik said the Bucs hope to re-sign defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson and linebacker Angelo Crowell, and argued that even their recent history suggests they have often been big spenders.

“The same team last year used a second-round pick to trade for Kellen Winslow, and we gave Kellen a (six-year, $36.1 million) contract that made him the highest-paid tight end in the history of the league,” Dominik said.

“A lot of people questioned that, and I understand that, but then he goes out and catches 77 balls, which sets a franchise record for tight ends, and so I’m glad we did that deal.”

That’s a very valid point by Dominik but Joe believes those numbers are inflated, if not masking a hideous hole on the Bucs.

If the Bucs’ troika of quarterbacks last season had any decent wide receivers to throw to, would Winslow have had 77 catches? As Joe documented just last weekend, Winslow’s catches were over twice as many as anyone currently on the Bucs roster (rookie Sammie Stroughter had 32).

Just the fact that a tight end, any tight end, had more than double the number of catches of any wide receiver currently on the roster is frightening.

If Antonio Bryant had been healthy would Winslow have had 77 catches?

If blocking icon Michael Clayton could catch a ball — and had not been dinged with injuries —  would Winslow have had 77 catches?

If Mo Stovall was more than a stud special teams player would Winslow have had 77 catches?

If Sammie Stroughter wasn’t a rookie and injured late in the season would Winslow have had 77 catches?

Of course not.

And there’s nothing to suggest the Bucs receiving corps will be any better this season than last, but of course Joe can always hope.

Speaking of hope, if Joe can be so bold as to offer Dominik — who Joe believes he has been fair with — a small tidbit of advice:

Hey Mark, do yourself a favor: Would ya’ forget Angelo Crowell, huh?

Today begins the region finals of Buccaneers Madness. Naturally, what better way to begig the region finals than with the Eyecandy Region.

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.

Thus far in this region, it’s all chalk. In Joe’s eyes, that’s not a bad thing. 🙂

Rachel Watson

Jaime Hanna

If Vacation Man of the Trotsky-like BSPN.com has a correct pulse on Mark Dominik the main reason the Bucs have not (yet) made a play for Denver wide receiver Brandon Marshall is his baggage.

That’s essentially what Vacation Man told an e-mailer in a recent NFC South mailbag.

Kareem in San Antonio, Texas, writes: Why don’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers make a strong play for Brandon Marshall? Marshall is at a nice peak of his career and I believe he will get better. He played college football at Central Florida and would be a huge asset to a team committed to staying young. Brandon Marshall would help Josh Freeman, not only develop his game but also maximize his potential. It makes sense, and a couple of draft picks is a small price to pay for such a huge reward.

Vacation Man: Your points make sense and there could be huge rewards with Marshall. But there also are risks that come with him. He’s had some issues and isn’t exactly known as a team player. Yes, Marshall has big-time talent. But the Bucs are trying to build with a young team and I think they also consider things like team chemistry and how a guy might fit into their locker room when they think about moves like this.

Granted, Marshall has a lot of baggage. The guy always seems to find trouble in the offseason. Will that get better if he is back at home in Florida? Joe wonders.

That’s enough for Joe to think twice about pulling the trigger on a move for Marshall. That written, the Bucs cannot go into this season with the worst group of receivers in the NFL and expect anything from Josh Freeman.

One of Joe’s more painful moments of the 2009 season was watching cornerback Derrick Roberson covering Roddy White as White caught the winning score in the 20-17 loss at Atlanta.

Sure, White is a Pro Bowl-caliber receiver who made a play (wish we had one). But Roberson covering him at that critical moment was just a bad reality check on how far the Bucs must go to rebuild their team. With Roberson still pretty fresh off the practice squad against Atlanta, the odds were way in the Falcons’ favor with the game on the line.

So what’s the Bucs’ situation at cornerback now? Here’s the depth chart, per an interesting pre-draft look at cornerbacks on Buccaneers.com:

Brandon Anderson
Ronde Barber
E.J. Biggers
Elbert Mack
Derrick Roberson
Aqib Talib
Stoney Woodson

Hardly inspiring.

And downright scary when you consider Barber’s age and Talib still possibly facing a suspension for allegedly slugging a cab driver. His case is still pending with a new hearing scheduled for April 19.

While Raheem The Dream surely has high hopes for Biggers, last year’s seventh round pick who lost the season on injured reserve, cornerback is clearly an area of serious need.

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson called upgrading cornerback “the highest priority” in his latest QB Blast column on JoeBucsFan.com.

A glance at the depth chart makes that claim difficult to argue against.

The third round of Buccaneers Madness continues. 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.

Former Bucs defensive backs coach and current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is tight with Raheem the Dream. The two talk often.

Possibly sensing how the embattled Bucs head coach is getting hammered by fans worse than roofing nails, Tomlin, at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando, came out swinging for his friend, so reports Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Tomlin believes if Bucs fans can be patient, Raheem the Dream will turn things around.

“It’s like it is with a second-year player,’’ Tomlin said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings. “You’ve had a lap around the track, and so there’s no element of the journey that you’re not familiar with. I think prior to the first year you have a vision of the journey, a vision of your plan. And after your first year you’ve got tangible evidence of why it works and maybe why it doesn’t. That’s information that can be quality information for you if you’re sharp, and Raheem is sharp. So I imagine he’ll be better in 2010.’’

That may be true, but let’s be honest: Joe has a difficult time believing that Vince Lombardi and Bill Walsh could win many games when your top returning receiver was tied for No. 130 in the league in catches, your starting safety is Sabby the Goat and the returning defense was ranked last in the league in against the run.

While you read this post, Josh Freeman is probably a little sore from a morning workout and pouring over game film deep in the bowels of One Buc Palace.

Taking a break from his new TV career, good guy St. Pete Times columnist Gary Shelton returned to his day job to spend a typical March day with Freeman. Shelton didn’t find a typical skirt-chasing 22-year-old with seven figures in the bank. What he found was a quarterback working full-time to improve.

After starting the final nine games, however, Freeman showed he has a little fire to him. His rookie season had enough moments to make you wonder just how good he might be.

For the record, Freeman wonders, too. That’s what gets him out of bed when he could sleep in. It’s what pushes him toward the film room. When a man works when he doesn’t have to, it usually means he’s driven toward something better.

“I’m not here to collect a paycheck,” Freeman says. “I’m not here to say I played in the NFL. I want to leave the NFL as one of the best quarterbacks who played the game.

“The thing that all great quarterbacks have is their work ethic. You only have a short life span in the NFL. I don’t want to be the guy who is sitting back in 30 years saying, ‘Man, if I had only worked a little harder, studied a little more film, done a few more offseason workouts, I would have been better prepared.’ I want to be the guy who says, ‘I laid it all on the line. I gave it all I had.’ Then I’ll be able to sleep at night.”

Joe recommends you read Shelton’s entire column. It will surely get you fired up to see what Freeman has to offer in his second season.

The kid is clearly confident, hard working, talented and improving. Joe only hopes he gets a pair of quality NFL receivers to throw to.

Yesterday, NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell made ominous comments about horny Steelers Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Seems as though the (alleged) felonious fornicator is on the verge of being called to the principal’s office and given a detention of some sort, perhaps a suspension, because he (allegedly) gets way too handsy with women.

How is this important to the Bucs? Because the Steelers may want one of the Bucs quarterbacks.

Joe has speculated before here and here that the Steelers may want back Bucs backup Byron Leftwich. In 2008, in their march to the Super Bowl in Tampa, Leftwich, then a Steelers backup, came off the bench to win a key game on the road at Washington.

Now people with better contacts than Joe are also throwing Leftwich’s name out there for a potential replacement for randy Roethlisberger. Chris Mortensen, of the American sports version of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, BSPN, Twittered that the Steelers could bring back Leftwich.

@mortreport Steelers are prepared to go with Dixon, if necessary; not ready to jettison Ben even though their concerns are real; Maybe Leftwich.  

If the Steelers are truly interested in bring back Leftwich, Joe suggests that Bucs general manager Mark Dominik walk over to Mike Tomlin at the NFL meetings currently held in Orlando this week and whisper in his ear, “Limas Sweed.”

It still stings Joe to remember the day he learned the Bucs threw future Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks to the curb like a used plastic beer cup.

Despite not playing last year, Brooks hasn’t quite called it quits yet. In a recent interview he did for Lee Gordon of Warchant.com, Brooks suggested that a higher power will tell him when to retire.

Q: You didn’t play in 2009, does that mean you are officially retired or is there a window of opportunity still out there for you to return to the field?

Brooks: Who knows. It’s not about my window, it’s God’s window. If he opens it, I’ll go through it. If not, I’ll close that window and move in a different direction. I’ve been blessed to continue working with football at ESPN and doing stuff with Sirius radio. Now I talk about it.

Q: Do you ever find yourself wanting to jump out of the booth and onto the field when you see something you don’t like?

Brooks: For me, being an analyst-I hated bad defense and watching the games, if I see a guy in the wrong position, that got to me. But at the end of the day, I did my best in trying to educate fans from an inside-out perspective on the field. But of course, I always want the defense to win.

Joe knows part of the reason Brooks didn’t play last year was his contract demands and that he wouldn’t play special teams. Given the fact Brooks hasn’t played in over a year, Joe cannot see him playing again.

Besides, Brooks has bigger fish to fry than just one more season of football wearing some cheesy non-Bucs uniform, like those of Texas or Cincinnati.

Might Donald Penn and company have to contend with this guy twice a year in the NFC South?

Tick tock. Tick tock. Joe is really starting to smell the start of the NFL Draft, on Thursday, April 22.

And Joe’s draft countdown continues, with NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski dazzling subscribers to the JoeBucsFan.com draft coverage with his in-depth look at every NFL team.

Pawlowski is serving up a daily breakdown of all 32 NFL teams’ draft needs, options and possibilities. And each look includes a sharp focus on how a team’s particular moves could affect the Bucs.

Of course, Pawlowski’s position breakdowns will continue and his latest double mock draft comes out this week, among other draft goodies. … (For those still considering the draft subscription, Joe is sure you will be especially satisfied if you go for it. You can find all the draft coverage archived here.)

Today’s look — the division rival and Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. Enjoy. {+++}

[audio:saintsdraft.mp3]

The third round of Buccaneers Madness continues. 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.

No misprint in the headline.

Former Bucs quarterback and JoeBucsFan.com analyst Jeff Carlson is offering up a cool million on his Web site.

Call it the Tim Tebow challenge. Carlson, a private quarterbacks coach in the Tampa Bay area after leaving the NFL in the 1990s, is in near disbelief at the way Tebow is being coached by his various handlers and advisors.

Click on the football to read the story on Carlson’s blog and see of you can score the million.

Pat Kirwan, of NFL Radio, believes some teams are so enamoured with offensive tackle Russell Okung, that the Bucs could pull off a massive trade.

In recent weeks, Sirius NFL Radio’s Pat Kirwan stated how the Bucs were in perfect position to peddle their first round draft pick, No. 3 overall.

The way Kirwan spoke Monday, he’s leaning toward the Bucs perhaps trading their pick, even if manbeast Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy is on the board.

Kirwan had made the argument recently that if Suh or McCoy are not available for the Bucs to draft, several teams would be willing to trade with the Bucs in order to obtain quarterback Sam Bradford.

However, Kirwan, a former NFL front office executive, citing his numerous contacts throughout the league, stated that offensive tackle Russell Okung has shot up so many teams’ draft boards that a number of additional teams may be after the Bucs’ pick at No. 3.

Speaking Monday afternoon on his show, “Movin’ the Chains” with co-host Tim Ryan, broadcasting live from the NFL owners meeting is Orlando, Kirwan discussed the Bucs’ draft options.

“I think a team like Tampa, which is doing nothing in free agency, would love to get extra picks,” Kirwan said. “That will be big for them.”

If somehow both Bradford and Okung are still on the board when the Bucs pick at No. 3, Kirwan believes the Bucs just might be able to pull off a massive trade, loading up on picks.