Raheem Morris: “There will be no love lost” – JoeBucsFan.com

A memorable moment in Joe’s career occurred during a heated parking exchange at the opening of a Lee Roy Selmon’s restaurant in 2011.

Joe was an invited guest and various Bucs luminaries were in attendance.

Joe was there primarily to talk to Raheem Morris, who was the head coach of the Bucs at the time and is now the head coach of the Falcons. Joe wanted to bring clarity to a difficult situation, old-school style. It happened in that parking lot and Raheem was desperate to get to the confrontation quickly.

The Buccaneers had just been subjected to costly disciplinary action by the NFL for communicating with players during the ongoing lockout, a league labor dispute following the 2010 season. And in a stunning display of nonsense, Raheem and others blamed JoeBucsFan.com.

Joe doesn’t want to waste fans’ time with the whole story, but the Bucs were busted because Morris admitted in a highly publicized radio interview that he had spoken to players, which was forbidden under the league’s lockout rules.

Neither Raheem nor Bucs Media Relations believed his public rant needed clarification or correction. And after the radio station archived the interview online – more than a day after Joe heard it live – Joe published a story about Raheem’s harmless non-football chatter with players. … But it was Joe’s fault that embarrassed the head coach and the team was later fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. Got it.

Anyway, that brings Joe to Raheem’s comments on SiriusXM NFL Radio yesterday, in which he said, “There will be no love on (Thursday) when the Falcons take on the Bucs.”

Raheem did not dispute host Pat Kirwan’s claim that “Southern hatred” will be a factor in the Bucs-Falcons game.

Raheem talked about appreciating his former Rams colleagues Liam Coen and Baker Mayfield as well as Lavonte David, so it was clear to Joe that Raheem was talking about his Falcons players not liking the Bucs.

The teams shared two close — and ugly — games last season, and the Bucs’ fourth-quarter comeback win in Atlanta broke the Falcons’ back in December. Atlanta was 6-6 at the time and finished 7-10.

Joe hopes the Bucs hate the Falcons as much as the Falcons apparently don’t like the Bucs. That should help keep the Bucs extra motivated and on track.