Is Morris guilty of coddling his chosen few?

Going into the 2010 offseason, there are some glaring needs for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Several positions need to be addressed, assistant coaches need to be replaced, and an offensive playbook needs to be created, for starters.

Perhaps more important, It’s time for some accountability for the privileged few.  No I’m not talking about the Quarterbacks, and neither about the vested veterans. I’m talking about the men in the secondary, who seem to belong to a club where "no" is a word seldom spoken. I speculate of course, but lets take a look at the actions of the past year from the position previously manned by our head Coach.

As we just learned, Jermaine Philips was arrested the other day for strangling his wife after she asked him about strange phone numbers on his cell phone.  Battery on a woman is no laughing matter, but neither is the apparent disregard for common sense behavior from grown men.

Last season, Aqib Talib struck a Taxi Cab driver while the vehicle was in service for him and a few other Bucs players. Aqib has since settled out of court for the matter, and the crime was only a misdemeanor unlike Philips, which is a felony.

Then there is the matter of letting down the team like Tanard Jackson did when he failed to show up for a mandatory drug testing, and was suspended for the first 4 games of the season.

All together, that is two safeties and one cornerback, all of which played for Raheem Morris when he coached up the secondary year before last that have disobeyed rules or caused some kind of trouble for the team. Talib even so much as had an alleged altercation with the Coach while in England over a team curfew when the players were out enjoying their ‘after game’ time. Morris has stood up for Talib saying he has never disrespected him.  But numerous reports say the contrary. Was Morris standing up for him? Or making excuses for his player?

Why is this trend happening; Or Is it even a trend at all? So far, we have seen no real proof Morris is soft on anyone much less any particular group of personnel from the Bucs. But is it just coincidence then that the players that are getting in trouble are all from the defensive backs position; the area once coached by Raheem Morris?  There is no way to tell, we can only speculate. A lot is riding on what happens next year in Buc land. But if its true, Raheem Morris needs to learn how and when to drop the hammer, because if he cant, eventually the Glazers will.

And so it would seem, do his players.