Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Welcome to Mini-Camp, Josh Freeman Style

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be in their 2011 summer mini-camp today had it not been for this dastardly lockout that some brain-dead rich guys are promoting in an attempt to kill The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg, also known as the National Football League.

But wait, there is a mini-camp today, tomorrow and Thursday. Kudos to Josh Freeman—at least he cares. He wants to be ready if and when it's time for a Raheem Morris camp. He's a natural-born leader and he wants the fellas around him—and there's about 40 to 44 of them who want to be around the Buccaneers' young signal-caller.

They're out there this morning and this afternoon at the IMG Academy down in Bradenton. Probably mostly skill players, don't look for too many linemen. Probably a lot of 7-on-7 type of things. Hopefully Ronde Barber is there with some defensive players.

It's a good thing.

No contact, no pads, hopefully everyone's agile enough not to break an ankle.

If nothing else, it gets a lot of the team together, gets them thinking about each other, the playbook, the season, if there is one.

What this three-day exercise does establish is the leadership of Freeman. He has far exceeded expectations, although Morris will tell you he knew all along that this guy would be good and he wants to be great and he wants his teammates to be great.

Great leaders lead by example. They show the way.

It would be nice to have some of the unsigned draft picks out there, maybe they can learn a little something through osmosis, if nothing else.

What they'd find out is that this team has great young talent and a ton of enthusiasm and a bunch of "want to."

Welcome to Camp Freeman.

It's the best we've got, for now.