According to a report on ProFootballTalk.com, the ways of the former Rutgers head coach are already wearing thin on the Tampa Bay locker room. Prior to the team's season-opener against the Jets, the Buccaneers players held a players-only meeting to air grievances about Schiano's iron-fisted grip of the team, one of the main topics? The legitimacy of the team vote which resulted in starting quarterback Josh Freeman losing the captain "C" from his jersey. Freeman had been an offensive team captain for the last three last seasons, including last year which was Schiano's first in the NFL after leaving the Scarlet Knights program. Replacing Freeman on the offense as a captain was wide receiver Vincent Jackson, in his second year with the team, players reportedly didn't trust that their votes were accurately counted and that the votes were tallied by Schiano. When asked about that allegation on Wednesday, Schiano flatly denied it, "It's 100 percent false," he told reporters. "If there was such a thing as 102 percent, this would be it." Then, in the wake of that report was another sign of fracture: Freeman missed the annual team photo last week. When asked to comment about that absence, Freeman responded to the Tampa Tribune, "You know I can't do Buc non-sanctioned interviews." Source: nj.com
this isn't college bro. can't take away scholarships. got to be a player's coach nowadays more or less. they hold his future in their hands. lose too many games and he is fired. Coughlin tried that and he had to back off some.
well, if this is actually happening, i can't say it's surprising. i said when he got hired that his best chance of success would be in his first year and then it would go downhill. we will have to see how it plays out though.
It's going way down hill and fast. Freeman skips the team photo?!? Possible tampering with the teams votes on captains? What happens if they find out that Schiano did indeed "tamper" with the teams votes?
I would think they'd have no choice but to fire him. I think at that point he would have lost all the respect of the players.
I liked this story a lot better when I read it as Schiano was literally losing parts of the locker room. "God damnit, I SWEAR that bench was here not ten minutes ago! Didn't we have more lights in here the other day, guys? WHO TOOK ALL THE ANTIBIOTIC CLEANERS OUT OF THIS CLOSET?!?!"
