Refuted Report Of Former Bucs Regime Ordering Players To Hurt Falcons
July 7th, 2024
Former Bucs head coach Greg Schiano.
Division rivalries can be highly charged.
Sometimes, rules get ignored. See various Saints-Bucs games over the past 15 years, especially those in 2022.
The Saints, of course, were dealt historic punishment in 2012 for the famous BountyGate scandal that featured a team-sanctioned system to pay players that knocked opponents out of games.
Fast-forward to last week and former Falcons superstar edge rusher John Abraham was on The Water Boyz Show reminiscing about his 15-year career. The conversation moved to 2012, when the Falcons were dominant and eventually lost to the 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
Abraham was injured that season in Week 17 against the Bucs, a controversial game because the Falcons, with a 13-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the NFC locked up, went all out to beat the 6-9 Bucs led by head coach Greg Schiano.
Abraham explained that he got significantly hurt in the game colliding with a teammate but a greater threat came via a warning from then-Bucs left tackle Donald Penn.
“Me and Donald Penn was cool,” Abraham said, describing Penn as a friend. “We went against each other, but we was cool. We hung out, you know, in offseasons.”
Per Abraham, Penn gave him a warning on that January day.
“[Penn] was like, ‘Hey man, be careful out here. The coaches told us to hurt you all,'” Abraham said. “I was like, ‘Stop playing.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, they told us to hurt y’all. So we’re going to be going extra. After the whistle, we’re going to be doing everything to try to mess with y’all.'”
What an explosive accusation from Abraham, a three-time All-Pro many consider a future Hall of Fame player (133.5 sacks)! So Joe had to reach out to Penn, who spent seven seasons as the Bucs’ ironman left tackle.
Penn acknolwedged he’s a friend of Abraham but said Abraham’s comments about an order from Bucs coaches to hurt players are completely ridiculous and dirty play was never even implied in Bucs’ player meetings with coaches.
Penn added that if Bucs coaches had ordered players to hurt Falcons players, his teammates wouldn’t have gone along with it and certainly he never would have told Abraham about it.
However, Penn noted that the Bucs’ punishing offensive line of those days — Doug Martin ran for 1,454 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2012 — always tried to physically maul opponents and the film is there for anyone to see.
Joe 100 percent believes Penn, in part because Joe knows Penn, but also Abraham spoke on the podcast about how he drank excessively during his playing days and suffered several concusssions plus a bleeding brain late in his career.
July 7th, 2024 at 9:38 pm
Those Bucs teams were so bad, if they were cheating it obviously wasn’t working.
July 7th, 2024 at 11:23 pm
Can’t let go of the spotlight.
July 7th, 2024 at 11:47 pm
That’s too bad, I like when coaches are mean and say to hurt other players. If other players don’t like it, they can take it out on the coaches, like when the Bucs broke Sean Payton’s leg.
Anywho, I’ll take telling players to go out there and hurt someone over a garbage like Dirk getting punked and embarrassed by Payton at the end of a game, only for Dirk to respond by wishing him good luck in the playoffs. Talk about having no balls. Dirk would have moved way up the list had he just said, ‘good luck, break a leg’ – that would have great, but he had no balls and just wimped out.
July 8th, 2024 at 5:27 am
Whoa! Also believe Penn 100%. No way were the Bucs involved ever. If it was to be true, I guess Schiano would have been in the hot seat. The NFL did an investigation and did find other coaches/teams involved with the Saints being Bounty-gate at the time. This taint will stain forever.
July 8th, 2024 at 6:07 am
I THINK IT’S INAPPROPRIATE TO EVEN BE TALKING ABOUT THIS CRAP FROM OUR NEGATIVE PAST..SCITZANO WAS A LOUSY COACH WHO DOESN’T DESERVE TO BE REMEMBERED…
July 8th, 2024 at 6:13 am
He is another ex player trying desparately to be back in some sort of media spotlight. We got some ex Bucs who qualify for that. Sad
Although Schiano rushing guys on kneel downs was a bit of a no class move.
Go Bucs
July 8th, 2024 at 6:43 am
If Abraham is a HOF’er then so is Simeon Rice with his 122 sacks in about 30 games less then Abraham
July 8th, 2024 at 7:28 am
Remember when they showed Donald Penn’s member on the News, I can’t think of her name but I will always remember the look on the News lady’s face when they went back to the studio feed. Hilarious.
July 8th, 2024 at 8:28 am
Did you Order the Code Red?
July 8th, 2024 at 11:20 am
Code red no. Code Pewter maybe.
July 8th, 2024 at 2:34 pm
I would sue him for defamation.
July 8th, 2024 at 3:20 pm
Schiano’s strategy was to be behind in every game so the team could show their physical toughness on kneel-downs
July 8th, 2024 at 4:44 pm
Schiano was a piece of Jersey trash who ruined the career of Josh Freeman – but the fact people get triggered because a coach wants his guys to play all 60-minutes in a one-score game is beyond limp wristed.
July 8th, 2024 at 5:28 pm
A live ball with time on the clock in a one score game……………BLOW IT UP!!!
July 9th, 2024 at 2:20 am
Something was going on between those teams back then. The birds and da Bucs certainly looked to me like they had a huge bug against one another then as plays often extended well beyond the whistle whenever they played each other. always wondered what that was all about, ah but those were different times with different coaches. Appropriate or inappropriate it was what it was. Today is a new day. Once upon a time inappropriate was a term used only by sissies, certainly not anymore…heck, these days it seems hurting someone’s feelings is much worse than breaking someone’s leg on the football field.idk.perhaps it’s all that sensitivity training…
July 13th, 2024 at 8:17 pm
This is when the Bucs were no good and the only win they could have was creating hurt players to the other team. All the teams in that division hate the Bucs it’s like the Bucs have a rivalry with all the team in the NFC South…
July 13th, 2024 at 8:21 pm
This is when the Bucs were no good and the only win they could have was creating hurt players to the other team. All the teams in that division hate the Bucs it’s like the Bucs have a rivalry with all the teams in the NFC South… As a Bucs fan I’m happy we’ve had 3 years of a great team and the future looks bright. Let the cannons pop off 🎉 we bleed the red, white and pewter!