After seven years in Tampa Bay, Donald Penn left with some bitterness.
Penn says that he would have liked to have an honest, man-to-man conversation with new Bucs G.M. Jason Licht or coach Lovie Smith. But Penn says they weren’t straight with him before they released him. Now a member of the Raiders, Penn says he’d love to be able to play against the Bucs.
“The way Tampa did me kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I kind of wish they were on the schedule, but they’re not” Penn told Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I still appreciate what I did there in my eight years, appreciate the owners and everybody that gave me my opportunity. I built a great relationship there. But the way they did it at the end, it wasn’t right in my book. I’m a grown man and they could have treated me like a grown man.”
Penn said the new coaching staff misled him, giving him the impression that he was in the team’s future plans.
“I talked to Lovie twice,” Penn said. “Everything was great, we talked good, they told me they were looking forward to working with me. Then I started seeing all these reports.”
It was only through media reports that Penn learned that the Bucs were going to send him packing.
“I guess that’s the way the new regime is going to do things,” Penn said.
Penn, who was set to make $6.5 million from the Bucs this year, instead had to settle for “only” $4.8 million a year on a two-year deal in Oakland.