Word of Mouth: Simeon Rice

“To be honest, the whole thing was just
about the money. That’s all it was.”

-Simeon Rice, after being released
by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bruce Allen, GM of the Buccaneers, confirmed this, saying that Rice would refused to take a pay cut. Rice was expected to make $7.25 million with the Bucs in his final year of the contract, but wouldn’t budge in order to better the team.

So the Bucs release Rice. But wait, there’s more. This release only came after the Bucs signed first-round draft pick, Gaines Adams, to a six year, $46 million dollar contract.

The issue here actually wasn’t money.

It was adding a baby and kicking the old man to the curb.

It will be interesting to see which team Rice signs with. If it’s a division rival or a team who plays the Bucs at least once in ’07, Rice will get the chance to personally punish the team that betrayed him after six hard years with the organization.