You might have noticed that the Vikings vs. Bucs game on Sunday was a little, well, testy. Quite a few hard (and clean) hits. Quite a few late and cheap hits (um, we can’t even believe Ray Edwards tried to argue about the hit he put on Jeff Garcia near the goal line, or that Brad Childress defended it. He took three steps after the release and then hit him on the chin. It’s probably not worth more than a penalty and a fine, but could you imagine if all four of the Vikings’ starting D-linemen were suspended and/or injured next week?). Ah, but the cheapest and funniest exchange was saved for the Bucs’ end of things. Colleague Paul W. passes along this nugget from the St. Pete Times:

RT Jeremy Trueblood thought he was justified in leveling LB Chad Greenway during a scrape in the first quarter, even though Trueblood was called for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. “They hadn’t blown the whistle yet, and they were stripping the ball away from (Warrick Dunn),” Trueblood said. “So, I go knock the guy down. I asked the (official), ‘How do I know that if the ball flies out, you’re not going to call a fumble because there was no whistle.’ He looked at me and said, ‘I know I was a little late on the whistle. I’m working on it.’ I told him, ‘I hope you know you just killed our drive.’ He told me to, ‘Shut the (expletive) up.’ Are (officials) allowed to talk to players like that?” Well, Trueblood certainly was right about the call killing the drive. The Bucs would have been positioned for third and 2 at the Vikings 15, but the infraction — considered to be after the play and thus not allowing the down to be replayed — created third and 17 at the 30. The Bucs wound up kicking a 39-yard field goal.

Picture this: Five years from now, when even more barriers have been broken down, a channel exists on which games are televised and players are mic’ed up, uncensored. Think about it. Warren Sapp. Kevin Garnett. Chase Utley. The entire NHL. Swears and all. Sure, we have occasional snippets now and outtakes, but who wouldn’t watch this channel? Who would not pay a sweet premium to hear an NFL ref tell another player to “shut the [redacted] up. Leverage your mighty power, sports! (Um, and you too, hockey!) This needs to happen.

Fasola-link! The dumbest thing you will ever see?

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