Chris Godwin’s wife accused Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles of “blatantly lying” about the receiver’s injury status and playing time against the Panthers on Sunday.
Mariah Godwin went off on Bowles in a series of posts on her Instagram Story on Wednesday after Bowles claimed they subbed Godwin out against Carolina due to injury.
“I’m not sure why we are just blatantly lying here,” Mariah wrote on Instagram. “Regardless of how banged up Chris is, he continues to work his ass off and hasn’t missed a game. Continues to run great routes and get open.
“I don’t know why things are the way they are, this isn’t my team to coach. But this lying on Chris and implying negativity on his work ethic is infuriating. Let’s not act like he had to be subbed out so much more than usual when in fact he’s been playing just the same.”
Mariah included a list of her husband’s snap counts for each game this season, which were mostly in the mid-to-upper 50s.
Godwin had a crucial touchdown on a reverse in Sunday’s 21-18 win and played 52 snaps, which is 84 percent of the total offensive snaps.
Godwin did not catch a pass in the game, though.
Bowles said in a press conference Monday that Godwin wasn’t 100 percent.
“We were subbing him out a lot,” Bowles said when asked if it was “surprising” that Godwin didn’t have any catches.
“Obviously, he’s a little nicked up so he’s not totally 100 percent — nobody is, but he’s probably banged up more than most.”
Godwin previously said “it definitely was a game-time decision” to play against the Panthers on Sunday due to a neck injury.
In a separate post Wednesday, Mariah called the situation “infuriating” and shared an article which said Godwin played 84 percent of the offensive snaps in the game.
“Stop lying on Chris,” Mariah wrote. “Stop using the injuries (that he plays through!!) as an excuse for whatever you have going on coaching wise.”
She doubled down on her comments in another post that featured more of Godwin’s stats and a message that read: “They were not subbing him out a lot.”
Mariah added: “No you weren’t. Stop lying on Chris.”
Godwin and Bowles have yet to publicly address Mariah’s comments.
In 12 games this season, Godwin has 85 targets, 53 catches, 606 yards and one receiving touchdown.
The Buccaneers (5-7) visit the Atlanta Falcons (6-6) on Dec.10.
