According to a report by the Dallas Observer, Buccaneers’ cornerback Aqib Talib has lawyered up after an incident occurred on March 21 involving his sister Saran, his mother Okolo, his sister’s classy boyfriend Shannon Billings, two guns and at least five shots fired. Details are below.

According to the report and the sources, at 7:30 p.m. on March 21 Aqib Muttaqi Talib went to his sister’s home in the 900 block of Green Pond Drive in Garland (south of Bush Turnpike not far from Spring Creek Elementary and Hawaiian Falls Water Park). Saran, who was arguing with Billings, also called her mother for help. Police were directed to Saran’s home via a 911 call by neighbors, who reported a domestic dispute and three shots fired at a black male by a black female. According to the report, police arrived to find Billings standing in front of a nearby residence. While interviewing him, officers discovered Billings was a suspect in two pending, related, family-violence offenses involving Saran and arrested him.

When initially questioned, both Saran and Okolo Talib said they knew nothing of an earlier incident at the house. Billings, however, led police to a gun he said belonged to Aqib that Billings had thrown in a neighbor’s trash can after escaping his struggle with the player. After finding the weapon and calling forensic investigators to retrieve numerous spent shell casings in the street, officers took a statement from Billings.

According to the report, Billings said Aqib produced a handgun and “attempted to strike him in the face.” During the ensuing skirmish Talib dropped the gun and Billings picked it up and began runnning, prompting Okolo to produce a gun and fire three shots toward him. Billings told police that Talib then took Okolo’s gun, said “I’ll shoot him” and fired at least two shots before Billings safely ducked into nearby woods. Neighborhood witnesses corroborated Billings’ story.

It sounds like Talib was trying to defend his sister from her violent boyfriend, which is admirable. But if the above report is accurate, there didn’t seem to be the need for Talib to open fire on Billings (who was fleeing the scene). I get the idea of trying to protect your family but you still have to use your head. Pending an investigation, he could now be arrested and charged with anything from discharging a firearm within a municipality (class A misdemeanor) to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (second-degree felony). Furthermore, what if an innocent bystander got hit by one of Talib’s bullets? Obviously he doesn’t have the best aim, so he could have killed someone other than Billings. If he’s going to fire a gun (or his mother’s gun for that matter), he needs to be more responsible.

But hey, I wasn’t there. I’m just going off of what the report says. Maybe Talib felt provoked and fired the gun because he believed everyone’s life was in danger. Maybe he didn’t even fire the gun and Billings is lying. Talib does have the right to bear arms in this country and until more details come out, we (I) shouldn’t pass judgment.

That said, this isn’t the first time Talib has gotten into trouble since being drafted in 2008, so he’s forfeited the right to receive the benefit of the doubt in this situation. If he is charged with a crime, the NFL will surely suspend him, which will be yet another hit to his promising career. According to the Observer, he and his mother aren’t cooperating with investigators so things don’t presently look good for the corner (even if he is only a person of interest).

It’s a stretch to say that a team is finished when they lose their top cornerback for the season. But when it comes to Aqib Talib and the Bucs, it may be reality.

Talib tore a tendon off his hipbone (tore a tendon off his hipbone? I literally shuddered while writing that) in the Bucs’ 28-24 loss to the Falcons on Sunday and will miss the rest of the season. He’ll avoid surgery, but he won’t recover in time for the playoffs if Tampa earns its way into the postseason.

Which is going to be awfully difficult without Talib.

At 7-5, the Bucs are very much in the hunt in the NFC. But the Falcons swept the season series with Tampa and now have a two-game lead in the NFC South. The Saints are right behind the Falcons at 9-3, while the Eagles/Giants and Packers are vying for that sixth and final spot at 8-4.

A lot can happen over the last four weeks of the season, but the Bucs have an uphill climb ahead of them. From a production standpoint, Talib was the best corner in the league not named Darrelle Revis or Asante Samuel. Two weeks ago, he held Anquan Boldin to three catches for 27 yards and no touchdowns. Three weeks ago, he held Michael Crabtree to just one catch for 15 yards and five weeks ago he limited Roddy White (one of the best receivers in the NFL this season) to four catches and 49 yards.

Granted, the Bucs don’t exclusively play man-to-man under Raheem Morris but when they do, Talib locks onto the opposition’s No. 1 reciever. He leads the Bucs in interceptions (six), pass breakups (11) and has easily been the team’s best defender.

Fortunately for Tampa, it plays the Redskins, Lions, Seahawks and Saints over these next four weeks. But the Bucs could have used Talib for the likes of Santana Moss, Mike Williams (if he’s healthy) and especially Detroit’s Calvin Johnson. Ronde Barber is still a quality corner (even for his age), but the drop off from Talib to E.J. Biggers is enormous.

The Bucs are in trouble.

Cornerback Aqib Talib is one of the many bright young stars on the Buccaneers’ roster. His six interceptions tie him for second in the league behind the Eagles’ Asante Samuel (who has seven), and Talib continues to play at a Pro Bowl level this season.

But he can’t help the Bucs if he’s suspended, which may be the result of his actions following last Sunday’s game against the Ravens.

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the NFL is looking into a run-in that Talib had with a game official following Tampa’s 17-10 loss at Baltimore. Talib was furious with field judge Boris Cheek during the game about a pass-interference call on teammate Myron Lewis. Per the report, Talib lobbed a couple of expletives at Cheek as he left the field.

As the story goes, a member of the officiating crew told Talib, “You play like a (expletive).” To which Talib intelligently replied: “I’ll (hit) you in your (expletive) mouth.”

This isn’t the first time that the young corner has been in trouble. He’s already hit a teammate with a helmet in practice and he also punched a taxi driver in August of this year (which earned him a one-game suspension earlier this season). One more strike against him and it’s not unrealistic to think that he could be suspended for multiple games.

Of course, the league can’t have officials taunting and cursing at players. Talib was wrong to say what he did, but part of an official’s job is to keep the peace. How can a referee be trusted not to be biased if he’s verbally fighting with players after a game?

However the situation turns out, Bucs coach Raheem Morris would be wise to sit Talib down and express to him how much Tampa needs him on the field. I don’t see how this (below) helps Talib grasp the situation:

“He didn’t do anything wrong,” said Morris. “He was just in conversation, so I’m not going to sit here and act like Aqib did anything wrong toward the official because I’m not into that. That’s between those two men, and whatever happened happened.”

Morris has done a great job in his second year and who am I to tell him how to run his team? That said, I’ve seen coaches play the role of friend with players before and it never works out. Teams can fracture when it’s perceived that one player is getting special treatment, especially when he acts like an idiot.

The Bucs have a good young team and it would be unfortunate if things were to unravel for Morris, who has transformed the Bucs into a competitor in only his second year. He has to find a way to get through to Talib so that these types of issues don’t keep surfacing.

Only Derek Anderson would come in as a replacement, lead his team to a great comeback and stab them in the face with the opportunity for victory presented itself late in the game.

Let me explain.

Midway through the second quarter, Anderson replaced an ineffective Max Hall, who had just thrown a pick-6 to Aqib Talib to give Tampa a 21-14 lead. Anderson then took the Cardinals up the field on his first possession, but a pass attempt to Larry Fitzgerald fell incomplete on a 4th-and-2 from the Tampa Bay 3-yard line and the Bucs wound up kicking a field goal to take a 24-14 halftime lead.

After Tampa built a 31-14 lead midway through the third, Larod Stephens-Howling scored on a 30-yard touchdown run to cut the Bucs’ lead down to 31-21, then Arizona scored on a Gerald Hayes 21-yard fumble return to make the score 31-28. Early in the fourth, Anderson found Fitzgerald on a 5-yard touchdown pass to give the Cardinals a 35-31 lead, although Tampa scored to make it 38-35 with just over five minutes remaining.

After an Anderson interception (not his fault – the receiver had it bounce off his hands and straight into the loving arms of a defender) and a bone-headed decision by Bucs’ head coach Raheem Morris to try a long field goal attempt, Anderson marched the Cards up the field and into the red zone. With just over two minutes remaining, Anderson had the Cardinals knocking on the door of a touchdown or at the very least, a game-tying field goal.

But Derek Anderson, in all of his Derek Anderson glory, threw a pass into quadruple coverage trying to get the ball to Fitzgerald and was promptly picked off by Talib.

Game. Set. Match. Derek Anderson. Bucs win 38-35.

Cardinals need a freaking quarterback.

If Buccaneers’ cornerback Aqib Talib faces further punishment for attending Tampa Bay’s game against the Browns last Sunday, then the team needs to hold itself partly accountable.

Talib was suspended for violating the league’s personal conduct policy and apparently, the suspension prohibited him from participating in any team activities, which included attending Sunday’s game.

So imagine the NFL’s surprise when it found out that Talib watched the game not from the comforts of his own home, but from his personal suite at Raymond James Stadium. He now faces more punishment, although it’s unclear at this point what that’ll be.

Granted, Talib probably should have known that he couldn’t be at the stadium while he was suspended. But the Bucs are well aware that this kid isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, so I’m wondering why someone with the team didn’t tell him to quietly sneak out the back door when they saw him sitting there watching the game. There surely had to have been someone affiliated with the team that saw Talib and said, “Hey, what a minute…”

Again, Talib doesn’t escape criticism for what can only be described as another dumb decision among multiple dumb decisions that he’s made since arriving to the NFL. But this one is on the Bucs.