Tampa Bay Buccaneers Say Thanks but No Thanks to Those Hard Knocks

HBO will have to look elsewhere.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have politely, respectfully given the bum's rush to the HBO special Hard Knocks.

Came in a tweet, of all things, per the team's official Twitter account:

"We have respectfully declined this year's Hard Knocks invitation. Wonderful show but the team wants to keep focus on the field in 2011."

Thank goodness.

The last thing this young team needs is guy pimping for the camera. Right now they've got enough on their hands with this lockout nonsense and a bunch of young guys ready to go with no where to go.

They have Aqib Talib's case going before a Texas grand jury on Wednesday. They have Alex Magee arrested recently with hippie lettuce in his car.

You've got third round draft pick Mason Foster lamenting that not one defensive player on the Buccaneers has even bothered to ring him up, you know, hey Mason, welcome to the club. It's not like you'd expect Barrett Ruud to invite him to bunk in the guestroom while he works on taking his job, but you'd think someone, somewhere on the "D" might at least shout out, something, anything.

You've got Josh Freeman and his covert operations, supposedly practicing somewhere, in secret with other Bucs on hand. This just in, they weren't at the barbecue last Friday to hang out with USF coach Skip Holtz.

So while we look forward to more "court football" you can poo-poo the HBO stuff.

Word is they might look to the Saints or the Raiders.

Now there's an idea—the Raiders.

Perfect.