NFL reviewing Bucs’ injury report on Devin White before Packers game
TAMPA — The Bucs’ injury report on linebacker Devin White before last Sunday’s game against the Packers is under review by the NFL, a league official confirmed Wednesday.
“We will review the matter with the club,” Brian McCarthy, the league’s vice president of communications said in a text message to the Tampa Bay Times.
White missed games Dec. 3 vs. Carolina and Dec. 10 at Atlanta with a foot injury. But he was a full participant in practice last Thursday and Friday and was listed as questionable for the game at Green Bay.
However, White said he informed head coach Todd Bowles Friday he didn’t feel he should play because his foot was hurting.
“I don’t know, shoot, I guess you could say Friday,” White said. “We had a practice last Friday, and I had a little bit more explosiveness than I did have. But I still felt little bit of discomfort, so I knew I wasn’t all the way there yet. I didn’t want to jeopardize all the work we put in when we sat the previous two weeks trying to get my foot right.”
The Bucs updated the injury status of defensive tackle Vita Vea, who was upgraded to questionable Saturday, and announced a few hours before kickoff that linebacker Josh Hayes would be out due to an illness.
Prior to the game, NFL Network reporter Stacey Dales reported that White would be inactive but said it was “not injury-related.”
The Tampa Bay Times reported that White’s benching was coach Todd Bowles’ decision and the linebacker decided not to play after learning the team planned to rotate him with linebacker K.J. Britt, who was starting the game.
Bowles tried to clarify the team’s injury-reporting procedure regarding White again on Wednesday.
“I’m going to say this one time,” Bowles said. “He was medically cleared to play. He then indicated that he didn’t feel right. He informed me that he couldn’t play, he couldn’t go. We had ongoing conversations until Sunday morning. I decided to deactivate him. When he got to the stadium, he found out he was inactive.”
What remains unclear is why the Bucs waited until 90 minutes before kickoff to update White’s status if he informed them he couldn’t play as early as Friday.
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