Brawl Breaks Out at Tampa Bay Buccaneers OTAs
By Josh Hill
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are coming off of an embarrassing season that saw them start with promise but nose dive into a top-15 draft pick. However, the year was an improvement on the season they had in 2011 which means Tampa Bay seems to be on the rise and could fight hard this season. But while the regular season is still months away, the Buccaneers are getting a head start on the fighting and are just brawling with each other.
On the first snap of the Bucs OTAs, a fight broke out between rookie defensive tackle Akeem Spence and offensive lineman Jeremy Zuttah. According to Spence, the fight resulted from how hard he came off the snap as he was unaware of how the first snap of OTAs should go. Despite not knowing the rules, Zuttah took exception to a rookie showing him up and gave him a piece of his mind.
“Hopefully [Zuttah] respects me for that because I want to be a part of the team,” Spence said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “It’s just me not knowing the speed. … Now I know I need to throttle it down a little bit but at the same time get my work.”
While Spence didn’t appear to be gloating about fighting his player, as no one wants teammates to be at odds, but the rookie didn’t really apologize for coming so hard off the snap or participating in the resulting scrum.
“I’m not going to back down from nobody so I mean I had to let that be known here on the first day here,” Spence said. “So, hey, there it is.”
At the end of the day, Zuttah and Spence will get over their scuffle and become teammates who like one another. But what the scrum shows is that the Buccaneers apparently have a rookie tackle ready to fight anyone and play hard straight out of the gate which is something the defense needs after the season is had last year.