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Enough talk: Let the kid play

News Channel 8 photo by BOB HANSEN

Freeman was introduced Monday morning at One Buc Place by coach Raheem Morris and GM Mark Dominik.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 27, 2009

Updated: 04/28/2009 12:11 am

TAMPA - OK, time to shut up.

We've had our fun. Everyone in town knows how everyone else feels about new Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman. Well, there are a few who haven't weighed in. So I'm telling you, stay out of elevators.

Sports talk is mostly in good fun, except for the occasional need-adult-diaper imbeciles. There's nothing wrong with stating a case, but there's such a thing as overkill.

It's time to shut up.

Let the kid play.

I have no idea if Josh Freeman will be any good. I don't know if he'll be Tom Brady or Marcia Brady.

But could he be allowed to throw one NFL football at one NFL minicamp before we banish him to Shark Island?

It's fine to take a swipe or two at Bucs coach Raheem Morris and GM Mark Dominik for taking a chance. But don't make it personal, especially when it comes to the 21-year-old Freeman.

Let the kid play.

Freeman, a fairly friendly giant, met Tampa Bay media Monday. He was smooth, thoughtful and confident bordering on cocky, which is exactly the border I want my prospective franchise quarterbacks living along.

People threw red roses when Vinny Testaverde arrived (he thought they were white roses). Trent Dilfer was hailed as a deliverer, too. Freeman has mostly been kicked to the curb. And that's fine to a point. He seems like a tough kid. And all's fair with quarterbacks.

But let him play.

Like you, I'm already slightly tired of Morris' you-light-up-my-life smile at everything Josh, as if he found him in a manger. But give Josh a chance.

He's big and he's strong and word is he could throw a pot roast past Rush Limbaugh. Now let's see what else he has or doesn't have.

Stop talking about Luke McCown, Byron Leftwich, Brian Griese and Josh Johnson as if they're lost puppies. They can take care of themselves. Besides, a lot of you out there brutalized them until Freeman was drafted. What, now they're the Four Horsemen?

Most of all, stop making the new guy the villain.

Josh Freeman graduated early from high school and was voted team captain at Kansas State. He talks about character and leadership and hard work. What's wrong with that?

"When I'm done, I want to be regarded as one of the best to ever play the game," Freeman said after he was drafted.

What's wrong with dreaming big?

"I'm fired up," Freeman said. "I want to go out and win games, for the city of Tampa, for Raheem, for myself, for the Buccaneers."

How do you hate that?

"You have to take it in stride," Freeman said. "I anticipated this, being from Kansas State, not having the national exposure. It's like when Ben Roethlisberger was drafted, Roethlis-who? You know?"

He has heard all the labels.

"People get tags placed on them," Freeman said. "They said Freeman is either a boom or a bust kind of guy. When you look at all the first-round quarterbacks, you're either boom or bust."

"He won't flinch," Raheem Morris said.

I don't know if Josh Freeman is going to boom or bust, if he's going to be Josh Wow or Josh Who? Neither do you. Neither does he.

What do you say we all calm down and find out?

Go ahead, kid.

Throw a few.

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