ESPN NFL

TAMPA, Fla. -- I just returned from a trip to One Buccaneer Place to pick up my credentials for Thursday night’s preseason game between Tampa Bay and New England.

I’ll be providing observations live from Raymond James Stadium and we’ll have observations from the preseason games of the other three teams when they play later in the week. Speaking of the Bucs, we’ll have their Camp Confidential profile up on Wednesday.

I’ll spend much of this afternoon and evening working on that, but will be bouncing in to provide analysis if there’s any breaking news around the NFC South.

Also, a couple of broadcast notes. I’m scheduled to join my friend Bobby Hebert on New Orleans’ WWL Radio at about 5:35 p.m. ET. Also, I’m scheduled to do a phone interview on ESPNEWS’ "SportsCenter" at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET.

Just got word from the folks at ESPNEWS that Thursday night’s NFC South Blogger’s Blitz has been canceled. They said they’re overbooked because of the Gilbert Arenas news.

Hopefully, we’ll resume it next Thursday if the Saints are playing in the NFC Championship Game.

Just a quick heads-up to let you know that the NFC South segment of Blogger's Blitz is scheduled to air at 9:10 p.m. ET Thursday on ESPNEWS. We've missed the last few weeks because of the holidays, but we'll be back tonight talking mostly about the Saints and Saturday's playoff game with the Cardinals.

Just wanted to give you a quick heads-up that the NFC South edition of Blogger's Blitz will air Thursday at approximately 8:40 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS. I'm pretty sure the names Drew Brees, Matt Moore, Michael Vick and Antonio Bryant will come up.

Just a quick heads-up to let you know that the NFC South edition of Blogger's Blitz on ESPNEWS is scheduled to air at approximately 8:10 p.m. Thursday.

The NFC South Blog will be quiet for much of the afternoon as I travel home to Tampa. I’ll check in this evening when I get home.

In the meantime, here’s a look at some of what we have planned for this week. Our weekly Stock Watch and power rankings will run Tuesday. We’ll do the weekly NFC South segment of Blogger’s Blitz on Thursday night on ESPNEWS.

The weekly NFC South chat will be held Friday at 1 p.m. ET. I’ll be covering Sunday’s game between the Saints and Buccaneers in Tampa.

Just a quick heads-up to let you know the NFC South segment of Blogger’s Blitz is scheduled for about 9:10 p.m. ET Thursday on ESPNEWS.

As always, I say “about’’ because television times are often a bit flexible. But we should be on within a few minutes of 9:10.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

Some programming notes for the coming days:

• We’ll be doing team-by-team midseason reports that will run Wednesday.
• I’m starting work on my all-NFC South midseason team. Not sure exactly which day that will run yet because I want to try to be nice and at least consider one member of the Buccaneers for inclusion. Might take some time to come up with a legitimate candidate.
• Our weekly Blogger’s Blitz segment on ESPNEWS will be Thursday night. Don’t have an exact time for you yet, but I’ll share it as soon as I get it.
• The NFC South chat will be in its usual space -- Friday at 1 p.m. ET.
• My Friday column will be on the Saints -- you’ve got to keep riding the hot hand. Can’t reveal too much about the topic just yet, but it might have a little something to do with how fans have suddenly come to expect the Saints to be perfect all the time.
• On Sunday, I’ll be in Charlotte for the game between Atlanta and Carolina.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

We have a policy of staying clear of rumors and speculation here and that’s why we stayed clear of things this morning when a Tampa radio broadcaster said the Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers, “could’’ be forced to sell the team because of money lost in investments with Bernie Madoff.

But policy changed once the Bucs responded by sending out a very strong statement saying the team is not for sale. Sorry I wasn’t able to post something on this when the Bucs sent out the press release this afternoon, but I had prior commitments to speak to a class at Saint Leo University and make an appearance on Blogger’s Blitz on ESPNEWS.

Now, I’ll bring you up to speed on the verbal battle in Tampa Bay. The Bucs issued the following statement, attributed to co-chairman Joel Glazer on Thursday afternoon:

“The report today by WDAE’s Dan Sileo about our family and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is 100 percent false. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are not, nor have they ever been for sale. In addition, our family or any of our related companies have never invested one penny with Bernie Madoff. The report is baseless, irresponsible and slanderous. This type of behavior by Mr. Sileo and his company Clear Channel will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.”

Wow, that’s pretty strong wording for a press release by an NFL team. I’ve seen several thousand through the years and have never seen anything this strong or confrontational out of the Bucs. They got personal in a way that usually is done only by the Raiders.

The St. Petersburg Times now reports that Sileo has been suspended by the station.

I’ll leave it up to you to form your own opinion on this one, but I’d be wrong if I didn’t point out there have been rumors about the Glazers selling the team for years. But there never have been any substantiated reports to go along with that.

One other thing, and I’m no expert on business, but why do some think the Glazers are looking to sell at this point? I’ve heard the basic principle in real estate that you can increase your marketability and price tag by sprucing up your property. The Bucs have been gutted by a rebuilding mode in the last few months. That sounds a lot like ruining your house before you try to sell it. Wouldn’t this franchise be a lot more attractive and be worth a lot more with Jon Gruden still coaching and Derrick Brooks still playing?

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

I just found out I’ll be talking about the Saints and Sunday’s huge game with the Giants on ESPNEWS of Friday at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET.

As always, television schedules often have to be a bit flexible. But we should be talking somewhere within a few minutes of 2:30. If there are any drastic changes to the schedule, I’ll let you know here.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

A quick heads-up that the weekly NFC South segment of Blogger's Blitz is scheduled for about 9:10 p.m. ET on Thursday on ESPNEWS.

As always, television schedules sometimes have to be flexible, but we should be on within a few minutes of 9:10 p.m. I'm sure we'll be talking mostly about Sunday's two big games -- Saints-Giants and Falcons-Bears. But we'll also check in on the Panthers-Bucs.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

Just a quick heads-up to let you know the weekly NFC South segment of Blogger’s Blitz is scheduled to air at about 8:45 p.m. ET on Thursday on ESPNEWS.

I always say “about’’ because television schedules are sometimes a bit flexible, but we should be going on somewhere close to 8:45. We’ll touch on the Saints’ defense, the Falcons’ running game and try to come up with some solutions for the winless Bucs and Panthers.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

The weekly NFC South edition of Blogger’s Blitz is scheduled to air at approximately 9:45 p.m. Thursday on ESPNEWS. I use the word “approximately’’ because the schedule always is subject to change with television, but we should be somewhere close to 9:45.

I’ve got a list of the topics and can assure you the main focus will be on this weekend’s battle of the undefeated Saints and Jets in New Orleans.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

TAMPA, Fla. -- I'm out at One Buccaneer Place as the Josh Johnson era is about to begin.

Johnson will hold his first news conference as Tampa Bay's starting quarterback in just a little bit and we'll bring you updates from that. I'll also be working on a Friday column while I'm out here.

The Blogger's Blitz NFC South segment on ESPNEWS is scheduled for 9:10 p.m. ET Thursday, and the NFC South chat is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday. I'll be heading to New Orleans this weekend to cover Sunday's game between the Jets and Saints.

Also, sometime in the next couple of days, I plan on doing analysis pieces on the Falcons and the Panthers in their bye weeks.

Posted by ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas

Just a quick alert that the NFC South weekly installment of Blogger's Blitz is scheduled to air Thursday at about 9:10 p.m. ET on ESPNEWS. We'll be touching base on all four NFC South teams. And we used the words "scheduled'' and "about'' because television operates on a somewhat flexible schedule. Depending on what else is happening in the world of sports, we could be pushed up or back a few minutes, but the scheduled time at the moment is 9:10 p.m.