Buccaneers Headed for Oblivion and Beyond?

Winless has a face.

Disrespect has a face.

This franchise in turmoil known as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has a poster child.

He is Aqib Talib.

You'd hope what WDAE's Steve Duemig reported late last week is not true, but there's no reason to doubt it.

Duemig values his credibility, and he wasn't about to throw out false claims days after the station suspended Dan Sileo for making false claims regarding the team's owners losing $400 to $450 million in the Bernie Madoff scandal.

Duemig reported that Talib broke curfew in London after the loss to the Patriots. Coach Raheem Morris was in the lobby and confronted Talib as he returned. With others looking on, Duemig reported that Talib hit Morris with a verbal blast of "F-bombs."

The Bucs have yet to deny the report.

If it is true, this goes beyond disturbing. It would be an indictment of this team, an indictment of Morris' leadership, or lack thereof. 

If it is true, it would be prime evidence that this is a ship without a rudder—a team without direction, without discipline, and without hope for the near future.

And this would be yet another incident involving Talib, who tested positive for marijuana in college, started a fight at the NFL rookie symposium, hit a teammate with his helmet last spring, and will be indicted next week for assaulting a local cab driver.

If it is true and Talib is not dealt with harshly by Morris, then where will the nonsense end?

This team has enough problems executing the game plan on Sundays; it doesn't need dissension; it doesn't need a major bad apple in the barrel at One Buccaneer Place.

Now the team has to prepare for the debut of rookie quarterback Josh Freeman. It has to prepare for a Green Bay Packers team that is angry about its home loss to the Vikings on Sunday.

This Packers team will no doubt want to vent some frustration, and the Buccaneers are made to order for that.

The sins of this franchise are numerous. There are sins of misjudgement, sins of wasted time in training camp and sins of disciplinary omission.

There are way too many sins.

Too many sins and no wins.

The clock turns back to 1976 on Sunday, when this team dons the orange jerseys of the Bucco Bruce era.

The only difference is that those 1976 Bucs had heart and discipline.