Todd Bowles: Chase McLaughlin “Probably Needs To Be Ill More Often”
October 6th, 2025
Fought through illness.
Breaking news comes in different ways.
Joe had sleep deprivation traveling from Tampa to Seattle and trying to settle in here.
The way a certain directional airlines is set up these days, unless you want to get gouged, you pretty much have to show up at the airport well before the crack of dawn to catch a flight.
Anyway, long story short, Joe sort of slept in Saturday morning in Seattle. Awakening just before 9 a.m., Joe had 55 (!) unread texts. What the hell is going on?
It was a media group text chain started by the Bucs advising that record-setting kicker Chase McLaughlin was being placed on the injury list for yesterday’s game with an “illness.”
The Bucs didn’t know if he could play. Turned out he had a nasty flu.
But McLaughlin answered the bell. He had three field goals, including the game-winner from 39 yards out. So Bucs coach Todd Bowles gave McLaughlin props for sucking it up and making the long trip to Seattle.
“Yeah, he probably needs to be ill more often,” Bowles joked. “It wasn’t quite the Michael Jordan flu game, but we’ll give Chase McLaughlin his flu game up here in Seattle. He did a heck of a job.”
Joe can only imagine how not having McLaughlin would have changed the Bucs’ gameplan. Would the Bucs have been more aggressive and not settle for field goals early on? Would the Bucs have been successful getting into the end zone?
Would Bowles and Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard have instructed Rachaad White not to slide and instead try to score late in the game? White looked like he had a real chance for the end zone but slid on purpose to eat clock on the final drive.
Yesterday was very uncertain for McLaughlin in a lot of ways. But his field goals were very much certain. Thankfully.