For Bucs fans outside the Tampa Bay area who were pained watching Bucs home games last year — it has to be those outside the Tampa Bay area since all of last season’s Bucs games were blacked out in the Tampa Bay and Orlando TV markets — many began pointing fingers at the proletariat in the region for not coughing up cash to go to games, irresponsibly dismissing how the area is hurting so terribly financially.

But cool cat Bob Papa has a different take: the rich are too soft.

This morning with his co-host Ross Tucker on “The Opening Drive,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, the subject of Bucs home games on TV came up.

Tucker was waxing poetic about how its a jewel watching NFL games on HD at home except the Bucs, which he claimed had the feel of high school football from The CITS.

“It’s great to watch NFL games on the couch, relax, fire up the HD, and then you turn on a Bucs game with all the empty seats, it’s like you are watching a Class C state championship.”

Papa had an interesting take: The empty seats in the background are, in part, people with money are too soft.

“Stadiums are so nice that you get a hint of bad weather [Papa whistles], people are gone,’ Papa said. “Why are you going to the seats? The stadiums are so nice, people are staying in the club section [lounge] where they have microbrews and the air conditioning and the instant replays.”

Joe thinks Papa hit an absolute nail on the head. When watching football games on TV from The CITS, the background is rarely if ever the upper deck, it’s the club seats, the most expensive seats. If it’s hot outside, soft money people are more inclined to retreat to the air conditioned club lounge where they sip cocktails and talk about stock dividends and the flowers the servants planted in the backyard while watching the game on HD screens the size of a Sam’s Club.

Shoot, two years ago Joe and one of Joe’s best friends had club seats for the Outback Bowl when Auburn and Northwestern played a classic, offensive shootout that went into overtime. It was horrible weather. Cold, rainy. Joe would much rather roast in the sun in the 90s than be cold much less cold and wet. So as great of a game that Outback Bowl was, Joe and his friend retreated to the club lounge and watched the game on TV.

So when Bucs fans (outside the area) gripe about the sterile viewing atmosphere a Bucs game may have on TV if a game is not sold out, don’t mock the blue collar Bucs fan. Mock the rich!

Hey Rays fans in Tampa, take advantage of the the $9.95 roundtrip luxury bus to Tropicana Field all through July!

Wake the heck up! Gas is nearly $4.00 a gallon. Parking is expensive. This is a stunning freaking deal!

It’s the No Excuses Tour to Tropicana Field, which takes Rays fans via luxury bus from Lee Roy Selmon’s restaurants in New Tampa and South Tampa to home Rays games. And you can bring your own food and beer, and travel in style courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation.

It’s only $9.95 per person, and the chauffeured bus is sticking around for select postgame concerts.

Visit NoExcusesTour.com to get ALL the details and buy tickets.
And don’t forget to watch the No Excuses Tour video below:

Rather than sign off on the $15 million or $20 million of guaranteed money (much more non-guranteed) it might cost to re-sign Barrett Ruud, one Bucs beat writer says the Bucs will strongly consider slapping the franchise tag on Ruud at the end of the lockout.

That would put a roughly $10 million, one-year 2011 windfall the middle linebacker’s pocket and make him a free agent in 2012.

Speaking on 1040 AM yesterday, Stephen Holder of the St. Pete Times says franchising Ruud could be a best-of-both-worlds scenario for the Bucs.

“This is going to be a consideration. Because if you think about it, if they are in fact convinced they need Barrett Ruud on their football team, but maybe they’re not convinced they’re willing to give him a contract of five years and X millions of dollars.  Maybe they’re not convinced of that but they want him on the football team. Well the way you do it is you tag him with the franchise tag,” Holder said. “It’s a guaranteed contract for [just] this year for him. He may not like it, but it’s certainly a big boost [financially] from where he was. So it kind of gives you the best of both worlds.

“So that’s one scenario where I could see the Bucs doing it. … Linebacker is a franchise [player contract] number is pretty manageable number. … You’re not talking about crazy, crazy money. And so I just think something like that could appeal to the Bucs. And you franchise tag Barrett Ruud, you keep him on your team, and that way you don’t have to worry about the guys you have waiting in the wings can fill his shoes. Regardless of how people feel about him, he is valuable to the team.” 

Joe’s not buying the franchise tag for Ruud. After six seasons, Joe thinks the Bucs are completely sure of what they want to do with Ruud and know what kind of long term deal they want to put in front of him — or whether they’re prepared to let him walk.

The guy doesn’t miss games. There’s a ton of film on him. And the Bucs know he’s in his prime — good or bad depending on your perspective. Joe’s confident Mark Dominik has a number, and if Ruud doesn’t like it the door will hit him in the ass.

There was a lot to like last year with the Bucs turning around a woeful three-win season and beating the reigning Super Bowl champs on their home turr and then scoreboard watching, hoping to make the playoffs via a tiebreaker.

One thing Joe liked so much was the play of wide receiver Arrelious Benn. Soon after running back LeGarrette Blount began to rumble through opposing defenses, Benn began to shine.

It sickened Joe when Benn went down with a knee injury against Seattle in Week 16.

By all accounts, it seems Benn’s knee is fine and he’s ready to roll this season — if there is a season.

Greg Gabriel of NationalFootballPost.com seems to be high on Benn as well. He has a list of breakout second-year players this season and lists Benn among those.

Arrelious Benn – Tampa Bay

Benn was drafted to be the big-play wide receiver that the Bucs desperately needed. Tampa Bay got big production from a rookie receiver, but it wasn’t Benn — it was fourth- round pick Mike Williams. Benn has great physical tools with both size and speed but was raw and undisciplined coming out of college. Having had a year to learn the offense, he should be more comfortable in the Tampa scheme. If he plays to his potential this year, Tampa is going to have one of the better receiver combos in the NFC South.

Joe totally agrees. Benn was on the verge of blowing up as it was last season. So this all makes sense.

The key element is if Benn’s knee can hold up.

When Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber’s twin, former Giants running back and NBC broadcaster Tiki Barber, recently announced he was returning to football, many pundits pointed to the Bucs as a landing spot as he would be reunited with Ronde Barber.

That nearly happened four years ago.

Barber left the Giants after much hyped tryouts to be a big shot reporter for FOX News and NBC, with NBC winning the tryouts. Barber was handed a plum gig with NBC but apparently didn’t succeed as his face time continued to diminish until his contract was not renewed.

Interestingly, his media career, short-lived as it may have been, nearly never got off the ground.

In a contentious interview today with WFAN-AM personality Mike Francesa, Tiki Barber’s agent, Mark Lepselter, who sat in on Barber’s interview with Francesa, let it slip that “in October of 2007,” he and Tiki Barber sat in a meeting with Chucky and Bruce Almighty where the Bucs dynamic duo tried to convince Tiki to ditch his gig working for the peacock network and instead play for the Bucs.

How much different today would the Bucs have been had Barber been lured to Tampa Bay? Would he still be on the Bucs roster? Would Cadillac Williams be on the roster… or LeGarrette Blount?

In a way, this doesn’t surprise Joe at all. Chucky and Bruce Almighty never met a retired NFL player they didn’t fall in love with whether it was Tiki Barber or Jake Plummer.

Joe wonders if those two characters ever tried to sign Jim Brown?

The lovely and talented Sarah Tyson returns to the infamous JoeBucsFan TV studio to interview a very large draft guru who makes a strong case against Barrett Ruud getting a fat contract from the Bucs.

Must-watch television!

Yearning for uplifiting news about the possible demise of the asinine lockout, Joe was glued to The Steve Duemig Show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, as “The Big Dog” interviewed Mike Florio, the curator and creator of ProFootballTalk.com and arguably the nation’s premier lockout guru/reporter.

Florio stood behind his prediction that lockout would be history by June 30. But, more interestingly, Florio spoke passionately about how he believes that regardless of how much cash the Bucs would be required to spend under a sparkling new salary cap, the Bucs won’t spend the bulk of it during the upcoming (hopefully) free agency period.

Florio made a case that Team Glazer hasn’t shown interest in doling out signing bonuses in recent years, only guaranteed salary, and Florio doesn’t expect that to change during a potential July free agency period.

Instead, Florio said he sees a scenario in which Team Glazer watches its emerging young stars, such as Mike Williams and Josh Freeman, play half of the 2011 season and then make a call on extending/restructuring the contracts of various young players in order to meet the team’s required cash outlay.

Of course, Joe knows so much will come down to whether the Bucs are able to retain their current free agents.

If Bucs like Davin Joseph, Barrett Ruud, Quincy Black and Cadillac Williams are wearing new jerseys, for example, it’s going to be hard to not pay market prices to replace one or more of those guys.

Joe so hungers for this asinine lockout to be over that even Rachel Watson has taken a back seat in Joe’s lust. Joe’s trying his best not to get excited — remember when Judge Nelson’s decision was supposed to be bulletproof? — as anything can happen.

As a result, the Soviets of sports are actually having to produce some probing, intelligent work for a change rather than slurping Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, the Cowboys, the Patriots, Rex Ryan and the grossly overrated NFC East.

The four-letter has come out with a “rising assistants” list and has Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson at No. 7.

Secret weapon: In two years, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have developed quarterback Josh Freeman into one of the better starters in the league. The man largely responsible is offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who navigated a disastrous 2009 preseason — coach Raheem Morris promoted him in the middle of training camp after firing Jeff Jagodzinski — and NFL teams often seek out coaches with success developing young quarterbacks.

“I think Olson deserves a ton of credit for developing Freeman so quickly,” said NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas. “Freeman threw for 25 touchdowns and six interceptions in his first full season as a starter and carried an incredibly young team to a 10-6 record. I also think people need to look at what Olson did last year with rookie running back LeGarrette Blount and rookie receiver Mike Williams. He helped make them into instant stars.”

While Joe isn’t about to knock Olson for the solid job he has done, let’s be honest, he’s getting the kudos not so much for Mike Williams or LeGarrette Blount but for Josh Freeman.

And aside from Freeman exploding in his second year in the NFL and first full season as a starter, what else was different with Freeman in his second year from his first? He had a quarterback coach.

Joe remembers interviewing Peter King at the Super Bowl Media Day at Miami a year ago and King raved about Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s hire of Alex Van Pelt as the Bucs quarterback coach.

Joe honestly doesn’t know if Van Pelt should get credit for Freeman’s advances or Olson or a combination of the two.

What Joe is getting at is that if the Bucs offense has another solid season and if the Bucs make any kind of a playoff run, it’s a good bet Olson just may be a head coach somewhere else in 2012.

Provided Van Pelt stays with the Bucs, it would temper the loss of Olson leaving.

All this buzz of the lockout’s potential demise has Joe cracking a cold beer a little early today. Sure, nothing is close to a done deal, but Joe doesn’t need much to draw him to a frosty beverage.

As Joe touched on earlier, the end of the lockout means free agency is imminent, with apparently four-year vets and older players getting into the free-agency game.

That got Joe thinking of departed Bucs special teams coach Rich Bisaccia’s words to eye-RAH Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune back in January, when Bisaccia parted ways with the Bucs to head to San Diego. He mentioned three current Bucs — all soon-to-be free agents — by name.

“I’m proud of our body of work in Tampa over the years,” Bisaccia said. “I will definitely miss the players, guys like Maurice Stovall, Adam Hayward and Micheal Spurlock. To me, coaching is based on relationships and I’m proud of the relationships we built in Tampa Bay. Looking back, I’ve been touched by a lot of people in Tampa and the fans here have been great.”

Now the Chargers heinous special teams cost them a Super Bowl run last year. Bisaccia was brought in to fix that, and it’s safe to assume the team will give him some latitude to bring in at least a player or two he thinks will get the job done.

So who does he want from the Bucs?

Joe sure hopes it’s Stovall, who the Bucs have little use for anyway and whose special teams screwup all but cost the Bucs the December home game against Atlanta.

Spurlock, as Joe has written previously, would be a tough loss for the Bucs. He’s one of the better kick returner in the league and has shown a knack for catching huge passes.

Spurlock ranked seventh in the NFL among kickoff returners with more than 20 opportunities, and he was one of 16 guys in the NFL to return a kick for a touchdown. He also caught 17 balls (14.7 yards per catch) and two touchdowns.

If Bisaccia quickly snags Hayward, perhaps that makes Barrett Ruud more desirable to the Bucs?

Oh, the excitement of free agency. Joe can’t wait.

Joe is bracing with all his will not to get excited. But the word from multiple sources out of Chicago where NFL owners are meeting suggest the free world may be on the verge of ending this asinine NFL lockout.

Without going into the boring details only an accountant would love, Don Banks of SI.com Twittered there was “no significant dissent” upon owners to proceed on the latest proposal to the NFLPA.

Adam Schefter also Twittered that under the new proposal, all players with at least four years service in the NFL whose contract has expired would become unrestricted free agents.

That, my friends, would include both Bucs offensive tackle Davin Joseph and Bucs middle linebacker Barrett Ruud.

In other words, both players would be free to go wherever they so wish.

So if this deal goes through (if there is a God), we will soon learn if Ruud truly is as PO’ed at Bucs management as some believe he is for not reupping his contract previously.

Update: Per Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times, he Twittered that if this deal goes through, the Bucs would have 11 unrestricted free agents including Quincy Black, Jeremy Trueblood, Stylez White and Cadillac Williams.

When Team Glazer jettisoned Chucky and Bruce Almighty after the 2008 collapse, when the season went from looking like a division title lock to watching the playoffs at home, one of casualties was defensive end Kevin Carter.

One of the smartest, most eloquent guys on an NFL roster, Carter had a pretty good year with the Bucs. But the overhaul of the Bucs roster by not-yet rock star general manager Mark Dominik ended Carter’s career in Tampa.

Recently, Carter sat down with ProFootballFocus for an interview and discussed why he decided to retire after the Bucs didn’t pick up his contract after the 2008 season.

I know it was some time ago, but I want to try and take you back. From your last season in the NFL, we have stats from back in 2008 on your individual games. That season with the Bucs, we ranked you as the 13th best 4-3 DE in the NFL at +15.3. With such a solid season in’08, why hang up the cleats?

You know what? There are so many reasons why I decided to walk away from the game. You never want to leave the game, but anybody will tell you if you have to leave the game … you want to do it on your own terms. Every time you walk back into that locker room, there’s a chance you take that you will NOT leave the game on your own terms.

People leave the game for many different reasons. Some times no one wants your services. Some times you just don’t have it any more. Some times you want to play on a certain team and they don’t want you and maybe you have to go somewhere else to play and it’s just not worth your time, or you can’t make the money you want to make.

For me personally, when I took a look at it I had a couple of offers from some really good teams. I could have gone to Carolina. I took a trip up to the Patriots and sat down with Coach Belichick. That was a situation that was a match made in heaven. It was a dream come true for me. I had always wanted to play for Belichick and this opportunity lay right in front of me. I really wanted it, but I always told myself that if I don’t have the same fire walking back into the locker room after the season then that’s my indication that I don’t need to play anymore.

I was in a situation where the Bucs decided to go younger, so I couldn’t play there anymore. I had to take my show on the road. I had opportunities on the road at different places, but it wasn’t worth it to me anymore. I didn’t have the same fire and I didn’t want to go after it the same way. If you don’t have the same fire going into the locker room, that’s when you get hurt. For 14 years, I felt the same way. The one time I felt differently, I walked away.

I left the game on my own terms. I left the game healthy, wealthy, and blessed. Should I have played a couple more years? My agent thinks so. He thinks I probably should have played a little more, but I’m satisfied and thankful.

Carter was one of Joe’s favorite NFL players because the guy was so smart and such a good guy. If you think about it, what Carter did takes stones. Tiki Barber is now realizing (other than the fact he’s broke) that he retired too early.

Once you are out of the game, chances are you will never be able to return. You live one life. It’s understandable why many NFLers hang on because when Father Time says you are done, you are done.

Josh Freeman has the ultimate work ethic. He’s the Bucs’ standout, unquestioned leader at 23 years old. But internally, is he riddled with anger?

NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas engaged in an intimate chat last week with his local Disney comrades on 1040 AM. Yasinskas explained that in talking to Freeman’s longtime private quarterback coach he learned Freeman is a man driven to humble those who doubted him in 2009.

“He carries a chip on his shoulder about not being the No. 1 quarterback drafted, about being talked about as a third-round guy initially and a lot of people saying when he did get drafted that he wasn’t going to be any good,” Yaskinskas said. “All that stuff motivates Josh more than I even realized … .” 

Now Joe heard this and immediately starting thinking about the Bucs taking on the Lions and quarterback Matthew Stafford — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft — on opening day at the C.I.T.S. Assuming Stafford isn’t hurt again, one would have to believe Freeman is salivating at the chance to annhilate the Lions and Stafford.

Freeman didn’t get that chance when the Bucs lost to Detroit in December. It was Drew Stanton, an injured Stanton no less, who carved up the Bucs while the incomparable Maurice Morris torched them on the ground.

Joe hopes that damn loss was as painful for the Bucs as it was for Joe.

There’s a lot to like about the Bucs as currently assembled. Of course, there’s Josh Freeman, the second-year wideouts, and there’s LeGarrette Blount. Defensively, there’s the young talent of the front four and in the secondary there’s ageless Ronde Barber.

But popular sports radio personality Adam Schein believes there is another Buccaneer that deserves props. That would be tight end Kellen Winslow. In a column on FoxSports.com, Schein describes NFL players that “sizzle” and “fizzle.”

Schein has Winslow listed under sizzle.

Because of the motorcycle accident, the rants playing at the “U” and his rips on everything pertaining to Cleveland, you don’t necessarily think of Winslow as a leader. It’s time he gets proper credit.

In our talk with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman, he described a tight end who wanted nothing more than to be present and active in getting teammates involved for offseason work. Winslow has two homes, one in Tampa and one in California. Freeman says that Winslow rearranged schedules to be involved with Freeman’s workouts. I love it. That’s the perfect attitude.

Indeed. Joe was stunned to learn that Winslow, who usually works out in his home in San Diego during the offseason, flew cross-country to be with Freeman.

That’s not just a leader but a solid, dedicated teammate. Joe’s impressed.

Joe has been riddled with annoyance — still to this day — ever since reading the slanted people-are-outraged takes from the St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune regarding local government footing the $18.7 million bill for improvements to the Community Investment Tax Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway, aka Raymond James Stadium.

Is Joe the only media type that realizes the Bucs’ stadium came pretty darn cheap ($168 million) and these latest improvements are peanuts when considering they’re necessary to keep the Super Bowl coming to Tampa?

Sorry to the Super Bowl naysayers, but Joe likes Super Bowls and thinks they’re great for the locals. Plus it’s pretty darn cool to live in a Super Bowl town. And who could argue with a mass influx of strippers invading the region to satisfy demand?

The Dolphins are begging local governments for $225 million to renovate whatever the hell they call their stadium these days and keep the Super Bowl coming.

In San Diego, NFL hatchetman Roger Goodell told San Diego recently that they’re off the Super Bowl list until they build a new stadium. Their $78 million upgrade in 1997 is old news.

The Bucs and the Bay area are trying to nail down another Super Bowl for 2015, and most of the $18.7 million improvement job is coming from tourist-specific taxes and going toward replacing the ancient TV sets in the end zones with fancy HD jobs, plus suite and media-area improvements that are keys to a Super Bowl bid.

It’s a freakin’ no-brainer. But Stephen Holder of the Times wrote, “This sort of thing isn’t going to go over well,” referring to taxes paying to upgrade the stadium as voters approved. Yeah, Joe’s still holding his breath for an angry mob to emerge, or even one dude holding a sign.

Sitting in the C.I.T.S. last week watching his country get embarassed by a sissy-diving Panamanian soccer team, Joe looked closely at the grainy replay screens and was motivated to do some digging. Nearly two-thirds of NFL teams have HD screens in their stadiums, but the Bucs are trying to lure fans with 1998 TVs. Heck, Joe doesn’t have a fancy TV, but it’s a lot newer than that.

Also, Joe found that the C.I.T.S. appears to be second least expensive NFL stadium built in the last 29 years. So it’s not like the taxpayers got screwed in the value of the thing.

Joe just had to get all this off his chest.

Having tourists pay a mere pittance to keep the C.I.T.S. Super Bowl-ready and not let an eyesore develop is something worth celebrating. Good luck Miami and San Diego. You’ll need it. 

Regular readers of Joe know he would rather swallow a six-pack of warm Old Style beer (which if you are fortunate enough to never have sampled this product, it is so miserable Joe has to think it is akin to deer urine) than give up his hard-earned cash to the vile four-letter network.

But Joe can cobble together a post here despite the bulk of information coming from behind a BSPN paywall.

BSPN recently conducted a survey of the best teams for fans in all the four major sports. The rankings were based on several factors including ownership, coaching, players, fan relations, affordability, stadium experience and “bang for the buck.”

Local sports fans have likely heard that the Lightning were ranked No. 2 overall in all sports, second only to the Packers.

The Bucs were ranked No. 59 overall and No. 11 in the NFL. The following is the overall rankings in each criteria used to determine the Bucs’ final score.

Title Track: 27
Ownership: 77
Coaching: 39
Players: 54
Fan Relations: 104
Affordability: 76
Stadium Experience: 40
Bang for the Buck: 57

The Bucs were ranked just below the Philadelphia Eagles and just ahead of the Seattle Seahawks.

As for as the area’s third team, the Rays, BSPN rated the Rays at No. 25 for the best team in America for fans.

Do smarts matter?

Bucs fans will find out, in part, when the lockout ends and Mark Dominik decides whether to open the company checkbook for Barrett Ruud, “the quarterback” of the defense, so Raheem Morris calls him.

Yes, Dale Mabry could become a riot scene if Ruud is granted more years to patrol the middle of the Bucs defense. But there might be celebrations inside One Buc Palace.

Ruud is a leader and the defense stands behind him, says Roy Miller. Speaking on Internet radio last week with Old School of WhattheBuc.net, Miller also said — twice — that Ruud has standout intellect.

Miller was asked to name the leaders on defense.

“I would say Ronde and Ruud,” Miller said. “I would say those two guys. Everbody has a lot of respect for them. Of course, Ronde, he’s been in the league forever and he’s been playing at the same level ever since he got in. We all got every bit of respect for those two guys. You know, Ruud is such a smart guy and just plays well. Those guys, he’s so smart too, as well, I mean Ruud. Those guys, you know, have been our big leaders this year and we stand behind those guys.” 

Like it or not, Ruud’s leadership is just more fodder for the Yes column when it comes to deciding on his future in Tampa.

Chris McKendry, Marcellus Wiley and Herm Edwards discuss who was the best quarterback drafted in 2009 in this BSPN video.

"Did we remember to mail Dan Snyder that cheesecake?"

In a move that could bring a swift end to The Blackout Tour, it’s been reported in Jacksonville that NFL owners will vote tomorrow on whether to allow teams to decrease the total number of seats that must be sold in order to avoid a blackout by 15 percent.

Joe’s going to assume the owners of Team Blackout will be flashing thumbs-ups and toothy grins to their constituents when the agenda reaches that topic.

So what does this mean? Essentially, the Bucs’ home at the C.I.T.S. seats roughly 65,000, and about 53,000 of those seats are NOT club seats. All non-premium seats must be sold to avoid a blackout under current rules.

Take the Bucs’ December home games in 2010 and assume for a moment the Bucs sold half of their club seats for those games. That means the Bucs would have had to sell roughly 53,000 regular-guy seats plus the 6,000 club seats to get the games on TV.

Here’s the official attendance for those games:

53,955 vs. Atlanta
47,692 vs. Detroit
46,576 vs. Seattle

Unfortunately, if the new blackout rule takes effect, the Bucs would still have to increase attendance by some huge percentages to get all games televised.

Joe wonders whether Team Glazer is lining up corporations now to gobble up remaining tickets if the Bucs find themselves, say, 2,000 shy of a “sellout” under the proposed new blackout rules.