On Sunday, Josh Freeman was banned from watching the Arizona Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from the sidelines, watched with his family from a suite and then forced by Bucs security to leave the suite and watch with teammates in another suite. That may seem like a headache, but it describes the Bucs current melodrama. It was reported that the reason for Freeman's banishment was a result of him missing multiple team meetings during the week. Freeman's sudden transformation into Vince Young Jr. has been surprising. One week ago, he was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback. Nine days later his career is circling the drain.
While he didn't go as far as to call out Greg Schiano in front of the team, it almost seems like Freeman is borrowing his strategy from the Vince Young experiment in Tennessee. Young basically secured his release by walking out of the locker room after a game towards the end of his fifth season. Freeman didn't make it quite that long. Four games into his fifth season, Freeman has let it be known in an exclusive ESPN interview that he wants out of Tampa Bay. However, his trade value has plummeted as teams have become wary about his attitude and the revelation that he is in stage one of the NFL's Drug Problem. It doesn't matter that it was an accidental positive for Ritalin that was the result of his voluntary entrant into the program.
Clearly, this leak was no accident given the timing.
Bucs general manager Mark Domenik has called every team in the league, but interest has been lukewarm. Rather than wait around until the trade deadline, Freeman would like to be released immediately.