Todd Bowles: “It’s Not About Effort”
December 23rd, 2025
Joe is confused.
Twelve days ago Todd Bowles went on a real and very raw rant to media about his team.
In case you forgot, here’s what Bowles said about his message to players after blowing a lead to Atlanta on Thursday Night Football.
“Inexcusable. You don’t make excuses. You gotta fuc*’n care enough where the sh*t hurts,” Bowles said. “You gotta fuc*’n care enough where the sh*t hurts. Gotta fuc*’n mean something to you. It’s more than a job; it’s your fuc*’n livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can’t sugarcoat that sh*t. It was in-a-fuc*’n-excusable. And there’s no fuc*’n answer for it. No excuse for it. That’s what you tell them in the locker room. Look in the fuc*’n mirror.”
Did that sound like Bowles was referring to a Bucs team giving maximum effort? Mental and physical? It didn’t sound that way at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters.
Today on the Buccaneers Radio Network, Bowles emphasized his message to the team after losing Sunday at Carolina. He noted he’s good with their effort.
“Just always be pissed off but always be determined,” Bowles said. “You know, we gotta come back and we gotta correct the little things. It’s not about effort. It’s not about our emotions, it’s about our execution at critical times — before the half and at the end the ball game. If we can fix the critical things, we can take care of ourselves.”
In Joe’s world, mental effort drives the physical. Are you locked in or not? Are you willing to play with your hair on fire to the whistle on every snap?
It’s been a long time since a Bucs game ended and Joe walked away feeling, ‘Damn, we’re the hungriest and most physical team on the field.’