NFL: Keyshawn still talk of the town

As much as they tried, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn't hide the void left by the departure of wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. He was deactivated Tuesday for the remaining six games of the season.

One day after Bucs general manager Rich McKay and head coach Jon Gruden told Johnson his presence no longer was required at the practice facility, his teammates tried to look ahead to the next game. But even though Monday night's home contest with the New York Giants was only five days away, they couldn't escape Keyshawn's shadow.

Because he hasn't been released and can't be traded until after the season, Johnson's still on the payroll and still has a locker with his name above it.

"He's still a Buc but not a Buc," said wide receiver Kennan McCardell, who leads the team with 748 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches. "He's still getting paid by the organization so it's a little bit of both. It was a good divorce. It was a split that was well needed for both parties."

Some of the players expressed shock in the move, others indifference, and one a little relief.

That one was safety Dwight Smith, who didn't appear to be too torn up about the loss of one of the loudest wideouts in the NFL.

"It didn't come as any surprise. I mean, he got what he was asking for," Smith said. "He's just getting what he asked for.

He went to the front office and he went to everybody. It wasn't anything he hid."

McCardell shied away from confirming whether or not he now is the No. 1 receiver in Gruden's offense. He said everybody is going to get their stats and everybody is going to play, and made reference to the harmonious relationship he had with Jimmy Smith in Jacksonville as the ideal setup.

Gruden said McCardell will line up at flanker and Joe Jurevicius will move over to Johnson's spot at split end -- or the X in Gruden's alphabetized system. Jurevicius returned to the lineup last Sunday against Green Bay for the first time since tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right knee on Sept. 14 against Carolina.

"Honestly, I work out at every position on the field. I know every single position," said Jurevicius, who chose not to comment on what happened to Keyshawn.

"So to me it's no big deal to go from X to Z to Zebra to E. That's why they brought me in here and it gives us an opportunity to switch guys around, but I'm comfortable with playing Z or X, and this week it's X."

With Johnson permanently X'd, fourth-year receiver Charles Lee stands to benefit by seeing more playing time. Lee twice has been released by the Bucs this season and re-signed, and along with Reggie Barlow developed a friendship with the embattled former All-Pro.

Shortly after answering questions from the largest media contingent he'll likely ever face, Lee stood off in a corner opposite his locker and spoke passionately about a side of Keyshawn he thinks too many people don't believe exists.

"Key, he's a really caring guy, man," Lee said. "He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He's real passionate about things that mean a lot to him. Football means a lot to him. He's a funny guy, he likes to joke around, he likes to have fun.

"The unfortunate side is that everybody only sees him always talking about himself. I think too much is made out of that, and unfortunately those are things that happened earlier in his career, and I think he learned from that. But once you're labeled, it's hard to kind of get rid of the label."

Barlow, whose locker is right next to Lee's, seemed to be even more affected by Tuesday's move and said he did not want to talk about Keyshawn because he needed to separate business from friendship.

He avoided trying to decipher what kind of message the team sent by saying the guys up front get paid a lot of money to make decisions and the players live with it.

Gruden, for the most part, left what he said at Tuesday's press conference to stand for his comments on the decision.

He said he didn't spend a lot of time explaining the move to the players, but he said he did talk privately to a couple of the leaders.

"I'm not going to speak for the players publicly, ever. Privately it was addressed," Gruden said. "I let them know that we as an organization and the decisions we make are always going to be for the betterment of this football team. And Keyshawn's a good guy and a heckuva player and unfortunately, it is what it is right now."