{"id":392594,"date":"2026-01-05T23:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/392594\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:22:20","slug":"ive-earned-the-chance-to-keep-my-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/392594\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’ve earned the chance’ to keep my job"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers locker room was filled with the sound of players packing up their lockers on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is always a tough day,\u201d left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. \u201cYou see all the bags, guys cleaning out their lockers. There is nothing set in stone right now. You know its coming. It\u2019s going to be a different room next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch report from Kyle Burger<\/p>\n

Todd Bowles: ‘I’ve earned the chance’ to keep my job<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad. It\u2019s definitely a low vibe,\u201d wide receiver Jalen McMillan added. \u201cWe appreciate all our relationships with each other. At the end of the day, it\u2019s not going to be the same locker room. It\u2019s a little heavy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Tampa Bay beat the Panthers 16-14 in Week 18, Carolina won the division based on a three-way tiebreaker when the Falcons beat the Saints on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sh***y,\u201d McMillan said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a good feeling. Definitely something I don\u2019t want to experience again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough leaving it in someone else\u2019s hands, but we did our job,\u201d Wirfs said. \u201cWe got the win. Coming in here after something like that felt better than if we just lost straight up. I guess you can\u2019t leave it up to the Saints.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery disappointing,\u201d head coach Todd Bowles said. \u201cFirst time in five years you get used to it. We did it to ourselves. We have to take a deep evaluation starting with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bucs\u2019 four-season reign as NFC South champions is over, something that seemed hard to believe two months ago when the Bucs were 6-2.<\/p>\n

Then came the historic collapse, with seven of their last nine games lost, raising questions about Bowles’s job security.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can do is coach and be myself,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cI\u2019ve earned the chance. I\u2019ve won three straight division titles. That says a lot as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Coach Bowles,\u201d Wirfs added. \u201cI see all the talk on Twitter. I don\u2019t care about it, people sitting at home talking about it. We know what we have in this building. If something happens, something happens. If something doesn\u2019t, something doesn\u2019t. The season is coming regardless. We\u2019ll all be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowles plans to meet with the Glazer family ownership group later this week.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Kyle Burger

For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.
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<\/p>\n

Widow wins $1.1M lawsuit against Florida sheriff’s office but may wait years to collect money<\/p>\n

A Hillsborough County widow who won more than $1.1 million in a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office over a deputy-involved crash that killed her husband potentially faces years of battles to collect the money due to Florida’s sovereign immunity law.<\/p>\n

Widow wins $1.1M lawsuit against Florida sheriff’s office but may wait years to collect money<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers locker room was filled with the sound of players packing up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[7136,7137,5,189,4,540,92,7138,5168,5167,7139,7140],"class_list":{"0":"post-392594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-abc-action-news","9":"tag-abc-action-news-sports","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-lightning","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","15":"tag-tampa-bay-sports","16":"tag-tampabay","17":"tag-tampabaylightning","18":"tag-wfts","19":"tag-wfts-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115845067697593112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}