Tampa Bay Buccaneers Create "Thumbgate" Lie with Coverup of Freeman's Injury

It wasn't Watergate that brought down President Richard Nixon back in the '70s. It was the coverup.

It's always about the coverup. Forget the crime; it's always the coverup.

So does it come as any surprise that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have come up with their own coverup this season?

By now, you all know about Josh Freeman and the Bum Thumb.

Doing their best CIA impersonation, the Bucs told us that Freeman sprained his thumb against the Chicago Bears in London.

Sounded reasonable enough, didn't it?

Reasonable until Wolf Heard (don't you love that name?) from the Buccaneers 101 blog busted Mark Dominic and Raheem Morris and basically blew the whistle on our boy Josh, Tampa Bay's version of Annie Oakley.

The local hacks, er, beat writers for the Bucs from the St. Pete Times and Tampa Tribune then ran with Heard's scoop.

Okay, Freeman will never be mistaken for a sharpshooter. Seems the King of Interceptions was blasting away at a Tampa indoor gun range with some sort of weapon called a Desert Eagle .50.

Now those Dirty Harrys out there will love this one; it's a bad mama-jamma. This is no toy for beginners—or for some NFL quarterback who's out for a good time.

The Desert Eagle .50 has pure magnum force, kicks like a mule, recoils like a sonofabitch.

So there was our boy, probably fantasizing about blowing up unsuspecting watermelons for targets. No doubt he had his hand a little too high, and that nasty recoil took off a nice piece of quarterbacking thumb.

Can you imagine the conversation when Freeman told Dominik about his Dirty Harry experience?

Freeman: "Uh, Mark, it's Josh."

Dominik:  "Hi Josh, what's up?"

Freeman:  "Uh, Mark, I just ripped open a part of my thumb."

Dominik: "You did WHAT?"

Freeman:  "It was an accident; I was shooting a gun."

Dominik: "You did WHAT? Have you told Raheem?"

Freeman: "Uh, no, sir. I was hoping you could tell him for me."

Dominik: "That's a good idea. We don't want him having a heart attack."

Freeman: "Sir, I appreciate that."

Dominik: "Listen, call the team doc, get this taken care of, and for God's sakes, don't tell ANYONE."

Freeman: "Done. I've already taken care of the guys here at the range. They're not talking; I gave 'em tickets to the rest of our home games."

Dominik: "Don't know if that's a great idea. Perhaps we should just pay 'em instead."

Freeman:  "I did that too."

Dominik: "Fine, now go home. Don't talk to anyone. If anyone asks, you sprained it in Chicago. I'll get with Grella (Jonathan), and we'll cover this."

Freeman:  "Thanks, sir."

And there you have it: Thumbgate.

This isn't the first time the Bucs have lied to us this season.

Morris lies to us every week when he makes excuse after excuse for a defense that can't tackle and an offense that can't execute without some sort of ridiculous penalty.

The sad fact is, the Buccaneers stink.

And no one over there can tell the truth.