REAR ENTRIES: Clearinghouse Time

November 20, 2009 at 10:20am by Scott   •  2 Comments »

RAHEEM FINED FOR OUTBURST: This is a couple days old, but I never reported it, so as far as I’m concerned it didn’t happen until right this second. Raheem Morris was fined $20,000 for chewing out an official regarding the Michael Clayton non-catch against the Dolphins.

“I learned my lesson,” Morris said. “It was my fault. I made a mistake. No doubt about it.”

I don’t ever remember Jon Gruden getting fined for his tirades against officials, a couple of which made it through the broadcast before they shut the mics down, so either the ref for the Dolphins game was extra-sensitive or Morris said significantly more offensive stuff than Gruden ever did. And if that’s the case, wow. That’s some quality swearing right there.

FREEMAN GETTING BUZZ: Josh Freeman is starting to make NFL analysts talk with his play and his almost mundanely-calm interviews. Here’s just one of the several complimentary pieces I’ve read over the last couple days.

Freeman seems to really understand pass route combinations, coverage beaters, calling plays, and using his “alerts” at the line of scrimmage to change plays. Freeman should have Bucs fans very excited about the future.

That’s all the hardest stuff right there. Now if he can just master the easy stuff like, say, THE CENTER EXCHANGE, he’ll be all set.

I normally don’t repost other analysts’ opinions here, but Pat Kirwan is pretty highly-regarded because of his actual scouting and player administration experience (some of which came with Tampa Bay back in the 80s).

MAURICE EVANS ON IR: How does a practice squad player land on injured reserve?