Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Dashon Goldson said he felt disrespected when New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees accused him of being a head hunter last season. Now, Goldson is doing something about it.

In this story by Anwar Richardson, Goldson said he’s going to work on his tackling technique with Bobby Hosea at Train 'Em Up Academy this offseason. That is a wise idea, because Goldson’s tackling created major problems last season.

He was fined nearly $500,000 and suspended for one game because of illegal hits.

"When we get together, we’re going to break it down," Hosea, who played football at UCLA, told Richardson. "We’re going to do film study on tackling, and we’re going to look at all these flags, and we’re going to break it down. Dashon was the best tackler you’ve ever seen in high school ... something happened in the last couple of years when he started dropping his hat. I haven’t seen all of them (illegal hits). I saw a couple.

"I know him. He’s like a son to me. He can control what he’s doing. He’s gotten away from it. I don’t know what (former Bucs coach) Greg Schiano was teaching or emphasizing, or if they were emphasizing anything at all. We’re going to get Dashon back on track, and keep his money in his pocket."

But this isn’t just about money. It’s about pride. Goldson has a lot of pride and it took a hit last year when Brees spoke out about his tackling tactics.

"I felt very disrespected," Goldson said. "This is coming from one player to another. We all love the game. We all play the game to win, and that’s all I ever wanted to do was win. People ask me why do you hit so hard? Why do you play so hard? I just explain to them that all I want to do is win. For him to come out and say something like that when that was never the case was shocking. I respected him as a football player, but with something being said like that, it was like he was trying to sabotage, pretty much hate on me, because I was known for being a ferocious hitter.

"He’s an icon guy in our league, and he’s talking about how I’m trying to take guy’s heads off and being a dirty player. I just felt very disrespected, and I didn’t think that was called for."

There’s only one way to stop the criticism. That is to play the game within the rules, and Goldson is working on that.