Buccaneers DT Gerald McCoy not happy with criticism: 'Don't you ever question me'
If new Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians meant to get defensive tackle Gerald McCoy fired up for the 2019 season, it seems to have worked.
McCoy wasn’t happy to hear whatever whispers there are about his passion for the game, because on Sunday he posted a video on Instagram in which he was clearly fired up.
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He took offense to anyone questioning whether he’s going to be ready or whether he loves football, and he might have been responding to something Arians said.
Gerald McCoy wasn’t partying on Cinco de Mayo
Here’s the video, posted by McCoy and shared by Zac Blobner of WDAE.
The original rant from Gerald McCoy’s Instagram... for those who heard the audio on @RonnieNTL & @TKras and wanted to hear it again #Bucs
🤷🏻♂️ Mans working hard, respect ✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/FGMddSLPDY— Zac Blobner (@ZacOnTheMic) May 6, 2019
“Cinco de Mayo, everybody out. Probably getting ready to go drink. Probably drinking right now. Don’t matter,” McCoy said in the video. “They want to question me? This is what I do on Cinco de Mayo. I work. I work.
“Oh, and, I’ve got my kids with me. How many people doing that? All-Pro on and off the field. Want to question me, the heck? ‘Is he going to be ready? Does he love football?’ What? Y’all crazy. Lost y’all mind. I work. Don’t you ever question me."
McCoy not happy with criticism
Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tried to tie it all together. He said McCoy was fed up with “some Bucs fans and perhaps coach Bruce Arians wondering if he still has his enthusiasm for football.”
The Arians part seems to go back to the league meetings in March, when Arians noted McCoy hasn’t been as disruptive as he was earlier in his career.
"It’s very hard because we can’t get in pads,” Arians said in March, according to Stroud. "You still see it. You still see his enthusiasm for the game. If he still has all that, I’m fine.”
Greg Auman of The Athletic also was reminded of an Arians quote from March:
Arians, asked in March if McCoy's roster status was up in the air: "Everybody's is. It's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. It's hard. It's cold. Yeah, that's it. What are you going to do for me now? Is the price, the productivity the same? We've got to find that out."
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) May 6, 2019
Last season McCoy didn’t make the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2011. He had six sacks for the second straight season. McCoy, one of the league’s dominant interior defenders for most of this decade, turned 31 in February.
Arians has a different style. He never minded criticizing his players, sometimes through the media, when he was with the Arizona Cardinals. Many of those players ended up playing very well for the two-time NFL coach of the year. Maybe McCoy will be the next one.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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