Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive lineman Greg McCoy got into some hot water with his coaches this week. The heart of it was the fact that he helped an opponent up off the ground during a game.
“I had my D-line coaches get on to me the other day,” McCoy said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Well, not get on to me, try to get on to me. There’s no way they’re going to get on to me for this. They got upset with me because I helped somebody up [in the game.] So what! I don’t care. Kiss my butt. Listen, if I want to help somebody, I’m going help somebody up. Because right on the next play I’m going to knock him down again. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.”
That has the Buccaneers coaching staff backpedaling and trying explain their position.
“I don’t dislike if a guy helps him up, nor am I a proponent of helping a guy up,” head coach Greg Schiano said, via the Tampa Tribune. “I worked for coach Paterno for six years and what I learned is, you help a guy up, you look him in the eye and say, ‘I’m coming back to get you again.’ That’s just my personal belief.”
McCoy isn’t backing off his comments, but feels it wasn’t as big of a deal as it was made out to be.
“They felt one way and I felt a different way. That’s all it was. You don’t always feel the same way someone else feels. It’s personal preference. But we didn’t have an argument,” McCoy said.