Things are currently going well for the Buccaneers. They aren’t going as well for Buccaneers linebacker Devin White.
White was officially questionable for Sunday’s game at Green Bay. He did not play. After Friday’s designation was applied, he had not been downgraded to out.
With the explanation he provided on Monday, coach Todd Bowles might have walked right into an injury-reporting issue.
“Devin told me Friday he couldn’t play, or Saturday or Friday he couldn’t play,” Bowles said Monday, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “So K.J. [Britt] started.”
Amid reports that White’s absence wasn’t related to injury but to the fact that he wasn’t going to be starting, Bowles was pressed on the decision not to downgrade White to out.
“It didn’t have to be communicated because there was nothing to communicate,” Bowles said. “He practiced on Friday. He practiced on Thursday. And he said he couldn’t go Saturday morning. That’s the end of it.”
That’s actually just the beginning of it. Once the team knows a player won’t play due to injury, it has an obligation to promptly inform the league and the other team about the development.
It’s just the latest example of teams playing fast and loose with the injury-reporting rules. Until the league does something about it, it will continue. Eventually, teams will get more brazen about it.
In this case, it’s possible that the Bucs are using the injury excuse as cover for White tapping out. The problem is that the failure to downgrade White could get them in hot water with the league.
