Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ official effort to secure compensation from BP as part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in a finding by the federal court system that the team engaged in creative accounting in an effort to get paid. Given the perception that the courts believe the Buccaneers basically tried to be true to their nickname by pillaging the billion-dollar settlement, it made sense to give the team a chance to set the record straight.
The team declined to comment.
“We have a long-established policy of refraining from publicly commenting on legal matters,” Bucs spokesman Nelson Luis told PFT via text message.
Although the Buccaneers are not the only Tampa-area business entity or sports team to seek compensation as a result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Buccaneers had their request flatly denied for attempting unsuccessfully to manipulate the process. If other Tampa-area entities engage in similar conduct, that won’t excuse any of it, but it will at least give the local football franchise a bit of company.
PFT has contacted the league for comment on the question of whether the Buccaneers were instructed to show that a significant lump-sum from NFL Venture was received in the months of May-July 2011, as the team claimed as it tried to justify what ultimately was a major increase in revenue for those three months, in comparison to three of the months covered by the oil spill and its aftermath. As of this posting, there has been no response.