Not afraid to unload on a player.
Joe only wishes fans got to see the side of Bucs coach Todd Bowles that Joe sometimes sees.
On TV and in press conferences, especially during the regular season, Bowles looks and comes across as stoic, almost detached from the game. In some ways, Joe thinks that’s good. Bowles keeps his head about him when all around him could be chaos.
But that stoic demeanor is often an image that infuriates fans. They want a coach to be like Chucky, emotionally into each and every play. Fans want a coach who appears to want the Bucs to win as much as they do.
“Appears” is the keyword there.
Behind the scenes, Joe sees Bowles as almost gregarious. That shocks a lot of fans. But Bowles almost always wears a smile and is quick with a hearty laugh.
But when Bowles knows the klieglights of the TV cameras and photographers are around, he usually quickly tightens up. It’s almost like he learned from someone that he shouldn’t show emotion. That emotion is unprofessional.
So while Joe often sees Bowles with a smile and a quick laugh, Joe hasn’t seen him tear into a player. In an appearance with Tom Krasniqi of WDAE-AM 620 this week, Bowles confessed he will tear into a player when needed, but never out in public.
“You show up to work and you put in the work,” Bowles began. “It’s our job and my job as a coach that if you are not doing your job, you expect to hear about it.
“Sometimes it is calm and sometimes it is not. … Sometimes you have to put your foot in their ass.”
Bowles rattled off three or four players’ names who he never has to get on their backsides. You can probably guess which ones.
So which players does Bowles have to use his foot on? He wouldn’t say.
Krasniqi guessed Jamel Dean but Bowles said it’s not his veteran cornerback.
The closest Joe has seen to Bowles tearing into anyone, Joe didn’t hear it or see Bowles hollering, but Joe did see what happened and the immediate aftermath. It was one of the final preseason practices earlier this month. There were no fans as it was a closed practice, open only to media. During practices, players are chattering all the time, often having something to do with the next play.
Joe doesn’t know what happened but Bowles had the entire team huddle up. Joe couldn’t see Bowles amid all the players but when the, um, discussion was over, all the players sure got very quiet.
That told Joe someone did some arse chewing. Afterwards, Bowles admitted he had to lay the law down on his team because they were not practicing sharply and looked like their heads were elsewhere.