Depending on whose version of events you believe, Bucs tackle Jeremy Trueblood either acted like a dick, or was grabbed near his during overtime of the Bears 27-24 loss on Sunday.

Trueblood was visibly atop Bears defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, throwing elbows to his head, immediately after a third-down play turned up unsuccessful for the Bucs midway through OT.

The obvious infraction went uncalled, but led to a skirmish that resulted in a shoving match between Charles Tillman and Bucs wide receiver Michael Clayton. Tillman was subsenquently, and unfairly, called for unecessary roughness, giving the Bucs new life and eventually the game. (more…)

The Chicago Bears shipped Brian Griese to Tampa Bay this offseason essentially for rookie cornerback Zack Bowman. Now, the squinty-eyed quarterback would like nothing more than to get revenge on his former team as the starting quarterback of his new…er…former team.

The Buccaneers feature a strong running attack with Earnest Graham and Warrick Dunn averaging a combined 165 yards per game thus far. The talented trio of rookie Matt Forte, Kevin Jones, and Garrett Wolfe are responsible for 149 yards per game themselves.

Thus, don’t expect either Griese or Bears quarterback Kyle Orton to throw much. Considering the Bucs’ No. 1 receiver, Joey Galloway, is out with injury and the Bears don’t really have a No. 1, the winner of this game will be the team that exhibits the best run defense. (more…)

Well, okay. No, not really. As a matter of fact, in Tuesday’s Sun-Times, recently resigned columnist Jay Mariotti writes of a note Bears general manager Jerry Angelo left for him divulging quite the opposite.

Mariotti says the note emphasizes Angelo is not one of his biggest fans, but isn’t clear if the note actually said that. It most likely did, though. In Chicago, you can buy pre-addressed notes to Jay Mariotti that read “I’m not one of your biggest fans. From (blank)” at just about any cornerstore or 7-eleven.

The unfriendly gesture by Angelo leaves me to wonder why everybody hates Mariotti. So what if he looks like the 17th president of a shitty country you’ve never heard of. The man put in some odd amount of years at a well-established newspaper playing the role of the adorable Mr. GrumpyPants. Doesn’t that count for something?

Angelo would do well to make up with Mariotti, anyhow. When his tenure as GM is over, “Jay & Jerry” is going to make one hell of a buddy sitcom.

Jay exits stage left.