Bad Mood in Green Bay

Was it only two weeks ago that safety LeRoy Butler of the Green Bay Packers ended his media boycott?

Now he won’t keep quiet.

After Sunday’s 29-10 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped the Packers below .500 and put them on the brink of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1992, Butler unloaded on his teammates.

“We’ve got too many [wimps] on our team,” he said. “It just showed today. We’re not tough. Tough teams go to the playoffs. . . . We don’t have any toughness. It’s something we always used to have. We just gave it to them on a silver platter. I thought we came out with great intensity, but it just died.

“It’s been like that the last couple of weeks. Teams have been more physical and tougher than we are. It’s nothing you can coach; guys have to develop it. If you don’t have it, you need to get . . . out of here. I ain’t going to settle for it. Ron [Wolf, the Packers’ general manager] won’t settle for it. The leaders on this team aren’t going to settle for it. . . .

“Our fans deserve better. We deserve better. . . . It disappoints you, it really does. How can you come into a game of this magnitude and act like you’re scared?”

Center Frank Winters was more succinct.

“We’re bad,” he said.