The Tampa Bay Buccaneers continue to strive to show how tough they are and how hard they play in all the wrong ways.
In addition to the continued insistence to play defense aggressively when within one score while a team in the victory formation, the Buccaneers coaching staff also apparently doesn’t like acts of sportsmanship toward opposing teams.
Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said during a radio appearance Wednesday on the team’s flagship station, 620 WDAE-AM, that the team’s defensive line coaches (Randy Melvin and Bryan Cox) expressed anger toward McCoy for helping opposing players off the ground in games.
Despite their anger, McCoy isn’t listening on this subject.
“I had my D-line coaches get on to me the other day,” McCoy said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Well, not get on to me, try to get on to me. There’s no way they’re going to get on to me for this. They got upset with me because I helped somebody up [in the game.] So what! I don’t care. Kiss my butt. Listen, if I want to help somebody, I’m going help somebody up. Because right on the next play I’m going to knock him down again. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.”
“That doesn’t change how hard I play. As long as in between the whistles I’m not helping anybody up, it doesn’t matter. So what if I help them off the ground? ‘Good job; we’re out here competing. But as soon as they snap the ball, I’m going to kill you again.’
“There’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody’s not like that. If you don’t want to be like that, keep it to yourself. I don’t care. I don’t go tell them, ‘Hey, you’re not doing this. You’re not doing that.’ I don’t care. Everybody does what they do. If I help somebody up, get over it. Get over it.”
McCoy believes the vitriol being shown toward head coach Greg Schiano for the team’s 0-7 start to the season is a bit overboard. However, the backlash from the coaches about helping opponents up could be another instance of the coaching staff not seeing the forest through the trees.