The Buccaneers say that guard Davin Joseph never had MRSA, but the Bucs haven’t acknowledged whether, as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported on Thursday, Joseph had a non-MRSA staph infection.
Joseph himself denies that he had MRSA, but admits that he had a staph infection.
“I have never had MRSA, nor do I currently have MRSA,” Joseph told PewterReport.com. “I just am ready to focus on football right now. I have had a staph infection in the past but it is nothing I am dealing with today.”
It’s a distinction without much of a difference, but the difference is an important one. MRSA is a staph infection that doesn’t respond well to standard antibiotics.
But MRSA has a far worse stigma than a non-MRSA staph infection. So it’s far important for the Bucs that Joseph had staph and not MRSA.
So if you’re keeping scores, that’s four known staph infections for the Bucs, three of which were of the MRSA variety.