Today in only-in-the-21st-century "news", a football coach apologized for someone else's potentially mean-spirited joke.
"I want to sure on behalf of the Bucs organization that I apologize for whatever that was supposed to be that went out on social media yesterday," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter told reporters Thursday, per the Tampa Bay Times' Greg Auman. "That's not what our organization is about and that was totally unprofessional and not smart on our part, whoever was responsible for that. Heck, we want to be playing in the Super Bowl and we were sitting on our butt while they were playing. So we've got no room to make fun of anyone in the Super Bowl whether they won or not."
The "whatever that was" in question was a tweet sent out by the Bucs' Twitter account replying to a Falcons tweet poking fun at Tampa Bay's fidget spinner promotion (again, 21st-century problems). The Bucs haymaker tweet referenced, via well-timed photo, the 28-3 lead the Falcons had in Super Bowl LI before their historic collapse.Â
But what started as a clever retort on an inconsequential social media engine turned into a organization-wide P.R. issue, causing the head coach to issue an apology for something that he didn't do and something that offended maybe four people.
Aside from taking something so insincere as a Twitter jab seriously, what Koetter is doing here is marginally respectable as a competitive strategy. The Bucs are earning daily offseason adulation for their offensive additions and are projected by many to contend for the NFC South title, a goal that, in the past two seasons, has preceded a fateful Super Bowl run. As a football coach, it's Koetter's job to pour freezing cold liquid on anything manufactured by the media, the team and even the organization's social media team that unnecessarily builds the mounting, distracting hype.
So through that lens, good on Koetter.
Through any other perspective, it's May. It is very May.
