Gerald McCoy extended a unique invitation to his haters on Monday.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle and his team drew plenty of scrutiny online following a 34-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, but McCoy would rather meet his critics in person.
"There's a bunch of people out there that say a lot of terrible things that I know they wouldn't say to our face," McCoy said, via ESPN.com. "These social media tough guys, I would love to meet them. Just being honest. I probably wouldn't have said this last year, but I'm saying it now: I would love to meet you. I work at One Buccaneer Place if you would like to talk to me. I'm not going to give you my home address, but I'll meet you up here anytime you want to talk about it."
However, it doesn't appear that McCoy's wish will be granted. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported that the Buccaneers will only grant requests to those that have "official business" with the team.
McCoy said he was confused why people would extend their criticism outside the lens of football and venture into personal attacks.
"I get so frustrated with it. It's not a threat to anybody. (But) the disrespect has to stop," he said. "If you're frustrated, that's fine, but disrespecting us, then you're crossing the line. It's no longer football. Now you're disrespecting us as men. If we disrespected them as a man, they wouldn't like it.
"You calling out my name over a football game? A football game? You serious? It's one game. One. We have 14 more! One game, and you're going to disrespect us like that?"
