Jeff Garcia spoke too soon on Wednesday when he called himself a "dead man walking" while passing by media members.
The Brett Favre media circus was in full swing, dominating all aspects of life from the Frozen Tundra of Green Bay to the sun-drenched shores of Tampa, and Garcia was trapped in the Favre fun house, which presumably was anything but fun.
But now that Favre is part of the New York Jets, rather than being traded to the Buccaneers as the Tampa Tribune proudly reported would occur within 24 hours - without citing any sources - there are certainly some fences in need of mending. By that I mean coach Jon Gruden and GM Bruce Allen have some making up to do with their signal-caller. The kind that involves their lips and the rear-end of the four-time Pro Bowl quarterback who led them out of the doldrums in 2006 to an NFC South division title last season.
Garcia is a consummate professional, so there's no doubt he'll play out his contract this season for $2 million. It's a nice chunk of change, albeit well below his value.
After that, though, Garcia should show himself the door. The way the Bucs have handled the whole Favre fiasco - Allen tried to say Thursday that the Bucs were never close to trading for Favre (um, liar) - has been more disrespectful than the usual bull Garcia has to put up with.
If Allen was telling the truth, then he should be fired for how poorly a PR job the Bucs did. Of course, we all know the truth.
And the truth is that the only thing dead is the chance of a relationship between Garcia and the Bucs after this season.
Josh Koehn is the sports editor of the Gilroy Dispatch. He can be reached at: jkoehn@svnewspapers.com
Josh Koehn Josh Koehn is a sports writer for South Valley Newspapers. He can be reached at jkoehn@svnewspapers.com.
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