'Blatant Liars!' Did Chris Godwin's Wife Just Give Atlanta Falcons Edge in NFC South Playoff Race?
The Atlanta Falcons stand at 6-6 with a Sunday opportunity to slap down the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who are at 5-7 and in second place in the NFC South.
In the end, one of these teams might make the playoffs and be termed "contenders."
For the moment, one of these teams is experiencing some in-fighting and might be termed ...
"Blatant liars"?
Those are the accusatory words being fired by Bucs receiver Chris Godwin’s wife straight in the direction of Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles, who in explaining why her husband didn't have a catch last week in a win over the Panthers offered up the usual Coach-speak.
“We were subbing him out a lot,” Bowles said. “Obviously, he’s a little nicked up, so he’s not totally 100 percent Nobody is, but he is probably banged up more than most ..."
That offering set off Mariah Godwin, who typed up a rant in response on social media.
“I’m not sure why we are just blatantly lying here,” Mariah Godwin wrote on Instagram.
“Regardless of how banged up Chris is," she continued, "he continues to work his (butt) off and hasn’t missed a game. ... Continues to run great routes and get open....
"I don’t know why things are the way they are, this isn’t my team to coach. but this lying on Chris on implying negativity on his work ethic is infuriating. Let’s not act like he had to be subbed out so much more than usual when in fact he’s been playing just the same.”
Mariah is going to win the argument on the snap counts; he was in on 52 of the Bucs' 58 plays on Sunday; he averages 52.5 snaps per game.
But maybe unfortunately for the Bucs, Mariah is wrong in her approach. There is no benefit to the team, or even to her husband, by attacking her husband's coach - who again, wasn't "lying" as much as he was just responding to a question using tired jargon.
It's possible the squeaky wheel will get greased this weekend. Maybe Godwin - who has 53 catches for 606 yards but only one receiving touchdown this season - will be fed the ball as a result of the coach being called a "blatant liar."
But that can also take the Bucs out of their game plan. And this story can mushroom into a distraction in the locker room. Or even division in the locker room ... when all that really needed to happen is Godwin himself visiting with his own coaches, privately, if he harbors any unhappiness.
So as always, respectfully, this sort of well-meaning passion and headline-grabbing presence of a player's relative - any player's relative, a spouse, a parent, a sibling - gives the people "in the arena" no benefits.
Except maybe, this weekend, the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons.
