I saw Back to School and Jeremy Trueblood is no Rodney Dangerfield. However it’s easy to see why he can’t get no respect. You know it’s bad when the refs treat you like like your name is Stan.

An interesting sidenote from the Bucs-Vikings game this past weekend. While protesting a penalty call, Trueblood got a little more than he expected from the ref.

RT Jeremy Trueblood thought he was justified in leveling LB Chad Greenway during a scrape in the first quarter, even though Trueblood was called for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. “They hadn’t blown the whistle yet, and they were stripping the ball away from (Warrick Dunn),” Trueblood said. “So, I go knock the guy down. I asked the (official), ‘How do I know that if the ball flies out, you’re not going to call a fumble because there was no whistle.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I know I was a little late on the whistle. I’m working on it.’ I told him, ‘I hope you know you just killed our drive.’ He told me to, ‘Shut the (expletive) up.’ Are (officials) allowed to talk to players like that?”

They’re allowed to do way more than that. Ask a Steelers fan. What’s come over NFL referees this season? Robbing teams of wins. Telling players to shut the fuck up. The zebras are getting a bit gangsta. If Trueblood isn’t careful, he may end up with a game check fine for questioning the integrity of referees and a horse head in his bed.

“The Bucs were thought to be the favorites in the Favre sweepstakes. In fact, a group of their coaches went to a watering hole Wednesday night near the team’s training facility at Disney World, thinking they were going to land Favre – until they saw the TV news flash around 1 a.m. that he was headed to the Jets.”

For some reason, the Devil Rays (yeah I know) have decided to stick with the ship theme for their new ballpark. ‘Duk has posted a rendering of the new stadium along with links to other pics here.

As one commenter pointed out, wind and rain can go sideways. Just another example of the D-Rays cutting corners.

Expect the Bucs stadium to rape Scott Kazmir and pillage the D-Rays stadium shortly after it opens.

Jon Gruden better keep his feelings to himself. T.O.’s gonna start talking about Jeff Garcia again. Then again why hide true love? Coach Gruden loves him some Jeff Garcia.

“I love Garcia,” Gruden said recently. “I like what he’s doing a lot. I just think he’s got some traits we haven’t had around here – his mobility, his experience.”

“I just like good quarterbacks, like everybody else in this league. Guys that can make plays a number of ways, whether it be through experience, seeing a look, not running the ball into a corner blitz, making a change at the line of scrimmage. A guy who can create with his legs. I like a guy that works the pocket and can throw the ball in congested areas and be accurate. A leader. A consistent performer.”

Men and women always say that men don’t know what they want out of a relationship. If this isn’t specific enough, there’s no hope and assclown hacks like Dr. Phil are going be in business for a long time.

Put on some Luther, fellas. Fat Luther if available. You’ve gone this long without finding true love. Take your time and cherish every moment. You’ve earned it.

Love may be in the air in the City of Tampa but alas, all is not well. While Garcia and Gruden stop to love (STOP!), spleen-less Chris Simms is a dead man walking. There’s no way he’s seeing the field again. He’s like the stiff who comes home early from work to find his wife fucking the guy in the clown suit. “Bitch, I gave you my spleen and this is how you fucking repay me??”

“Garcia is a guy we coveted. We made no secret about that the last few years. He’s in great shape, he’s doing a good job and I don’t want to jinx him. He still has a long way to go, but we do like his progress, and we think he’s got a nice future here.”

Wonder if Gruden or anyone else in the Amish administration told Chris Simms about the collective hard-on for Garcia.

Jebediah Glazer: Malcolm, someone should tell the boy we no longer want to churn butter in his backside. A boy without a spleen is no longer suitable for such customs.

Malcolm Glazer: Sigh. ‘Tis true, Jebediah. We must let him down lightly. We can only look forward now. I have sent for the ratboy they call Rio Ferdinand so that he may initiate the Rumspringa in the Garcia boy.

Somewhere Shawn King is laughing while jockeying cars in Adams Morgan and eating bags of pork rinds.